House of the Dragon

Superb second season, if the early episodes are any indication.

For fans of Westeros — its incestuous soap opera, lavish world-building, and theatrical tragedy — House of the Dragon Season 2 delivers everything you love and then some. It’s I, Claudius with movie monsters, medieval history sprinkled with magic. .... House of the Dragon Season 2 is spectacular to behold, even if what’s unfolding is absolutely terrible.

The first half of season 2 is masterfully handled, taking the time to reacquaint us with not only the key players, but those who will have greater importance going forward. It's slower-paced but never dull, action-packed yet in-depth, and violent yet beautiful.

House of the Dragon (at least, the four episodes of season two made available to critics) finally achieves takeoff, delivering on its promise of a blood-, tears-, and dragonfire-filled epic tragedy.

The new episodes, four of which were screened for critics in advance, contain much of what their predecessors lacked, from the development of key relationships to the dragon-on-dragon violence promised by the title.

I can't imagine that season 2 will win new "House of the Dragon" fans. .... But those who are invested in Westeros will find those same sublime pleasures front and center. If you like dragons and battles and shocking acts of brutality, you're in for a treat. And if you like quiet, whispered conversations in castle corridors, you're going to have a real good time. In short, "House of the Dragon" is a gift for "Game of Thrones" fans.

Even when it too closely resembles its legendary predecessor, Condal’s series is a gripping portrait of the eternal hunger for wealth, pleasure, power, and supremacy.

It’s a pretty stellar season premiere, quite frankly, with more than enough rich narrative, scheming families, dragons, and sumptuous costumes to quench the thirst of any Game Of Thrones fan. .... Oh sure, there’s times when this episode feels like a crib sheet, hellbent on reminding us exactly who everyone is and what their motives are, but it’s been a hot minute since the HOTD season-one finale, quite frankly, and we could all use the help.

Away from all the blond ambition, the tussle between Otto and the Richard III-alike Larys Strong (Matthew Needham’s thoroughgoing baddie with the walking stick) feels more promising, especially with Larys quietly killing suspected traitors and sneakily lobbying the king against his ageing rival. On another positive note, it looks magnificent.

In other ways, it’s better: not as tiresomely porny (here, the most full-on full frontal is male) and nastier, colder, more clawingly ruthless. Settle in for a wild, desolate ride.

This slow opener starts to build up the story with steady, elegant layers, allowing it to weave its melancholy magic. I still think it is strange that a show about dragons should be so bashful, but somehow, despite this stubborn tendency to talk everything through, House of the Dragon once more becomes unmissable and thrilling television. Eventually.

Many of the new season’s best moments consist of little more than sharply written dialogue and a few characters in a room. The story is only going to get bigger, but it’s the small things that make it work.

Showrunner Ryan Condal’s talky, character-driven approach has its downsides. There are still too many names and subplots. To let so much political and personal friction develop requires slowing the action to a pace that might frustrate anyone who’s mostly here to watch dragons brûlée people. (For those who might be wondering, the dragon riding still looks as goofy as ever.) But by de-emphasizing—and deglamorizing—combat, in favor of enriching central characters, closely tracking each side’s machinations, and questioning the very premise of a just war, the series harkens back to the early seasons of Game of Thrones.

The new season feels cleaner and more tightly focused, despite juggling existing players while adding a few key new ones.

While it takes a few episodes for House of the Dragon to crescendo into the sort of grand, violent spectacle that the series (and its predecessor) does better than pretty much anything else on TV, there are enough nuggets of incident in the opening couple of hours to satisfy viewers’ bloodlust.

If the show lacks something, it is an old-fashioned hero. Everyone is cruel and conniving – half have the classic Targaryen blonde look, too, which adds to the confusion – and the script cries out for a morally pure character in the mould of Thrones’s Ned Stark or Jon Snow. But these are mere quibbles. Summer is coming, and for those eager for an alternative to sunburn, football and queues at the airport, House of the Dragon has all you could require for a roaring good time.

Season 2 still keeps book readers on their toes by altering and rewriting aspects, elaborating on controversial events, and delving deeper into the psyche of our leads. The season is full of unexpected twists, including surprising schemes, character pairings, and appearances. It's undeniable that House of the Dragon Season 2 flourishes in a way Game of Thrones never could.

A confident and elegant improvement upon the first season, having settled into its cast, characters and era. It may still not be as much of an ‘adventure’ as Game Of Thrones, but the personal/political drama is as sharp as ever.

Season two proves narratively more cohesive, more entertaining and just plain better on all fronts.

Even when things slow to a crawl as one side or another plots, schemes, argues and/or tries to make alliances, the production values are never less than excellent, what with all the cavernous interiors and the abundance of candles and ooh, they have such great maps.

Visceral excess may be missed, but there’s ample gratification just spending time with thwarted claimant-to-the-Iron Throne Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), her sociopath uncle/husband Daemon (Matt Smith), and their late king’s widow, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke).

In Season 2, House of the Dragon feels like less of a major event than a new season of Game of Thrones has ever felt. But it doesn't feel like just another show, either. In its best moments, it's still the grandest TV available.

This quieter, slower, but just as bloody season allows the show’s characters to develop so that their inevitable deaths carry more weight.

The narrative may feel constrained by the work it’s adapting, but its characters are complex enough to make this tale more than just royalty-oriented reality TV.

Most of the show’s characters continue to lack the kind of depth that made so many in the Thrones ensemble irresistible to watch, even when they did the nastiest things. The Targaryens have thin, uniform motivations in Season 2—that is, to survive and win. Little character development occurs, and potent emotional arcs are rare.

The show’s second outing is both more cohesive and more disappointing, based on the four episodes I’ve seen—as if it’s either biding its time or preparing a launch pad for the back half of the season.

There are times where "House of the Dragon" feels like it's simply covering historical material rather than telling a story, but for the most part, we're able to buy into the plight of the characters, especially the ones that we've spent the most amount of time with. Between its political maneuvering, trademark set pieces, and engaging main characters, "House of the Dragon" continues to impress in its second season.

House of the Dragon is still beautifully made and performed in season 2’s opening pair of lengthy episodes, but these messy family dynamics can be frustrating rather than fascinating when there’s so much at stake and so little being done to actually address the problems or advance the cause of either side of this brewing war.

There’s a sense of diminishing returns here, especially after the nine previous seasons of dragon-based intrigue and bloody, sexy fantasy infighting. Granted, a showstopping dragon battle awaits us at the season’s halfway point, a lovely showcase for HBO’s castle-sized VFX budget that breaks up all the monologuing and politicking of the prior episodes. Let’s hope that’s a portent for the season’s latter half to pick up steam.

I’m having mixed feelings. .... The show remains highly watchable, and it mostly supports its status as a Sunday night ritual, where battles rage, dragons swoop and soar, white hair blows, and the palace drama stays at a solid boil. .... But the absence of Paddy Considine as King Viserys leaves a large hole, as he was one of only a few acting heavyweights in the mix. .... Matt Smith, who added so much sly ambiguity to the first season, is largely MIA, as his Daemon goes off on a side trip to a decaying castle.

Entertaining though it can be, the Game of Thrones prequel still struggles with the balance of epic scope and human-scale motivation that made its predecessor work so well.

Those who happen to like how “House of the Dragon” challenges some of the more irritating aspects of “Game of Thrones” will probably enjoy this new season, which promises more of the same, along with twists and dragons aplenty. (“House of the Dragon” has been also renewed for a third season.) For those who prefer the latter for its vast network, menacing speeches and subterfuge, this world will probably continue to feel a little impoverished.

Shockingly, after almost two years since season one premiered, the show is off to another slow start for better, and sometimes for worse.

Season two feels like a stopgap placeholder to build towards all-out warfare that will only erupt in season three, making for a poorer season meant for those with only the steeliest of patience.

Thus far, Season 2 has a hard time escaping its own trappings. The plot lurches forward. The characters focus on what we’ve already seen. New developments on either front do little to raise our curiosity.

It’s neither interesting enough to pull us consistently into the flow nor weird enough to rattle our chains. The production is solid but static — it has the board-game feel that marks the franchise. The fetish for geography and architecture is there, but without the earlier show’s visual grandeur. And the audience’s emotions are still manipulated through melodramatic choreographies of events rather than genuine, organic surprise.

More dragons. More death. More brutality. More twists. More confusion. More plot holes. More waiting around for something interesting to happen.

The good news, for people who were happy with what HotD offered last time around, is that this is the same show as before, even a bit better in some areas. But anyone hoping for a substantial growth curve will find it as denied to them as the Iron Throne is to Rhaenyra.