“There are many pieces at play here, some of which you can’t see,” the cunning Hand to the King and member of the Green council Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans, arguably the highlight of the series) says at one point in the second season of “House Of The Dragon” trying to assuage the anxiety and perplexity of a confounded character on the show. And it’s advice Hightower would do well to share with the audience, who often wonder what in blazes is going on. Season one suffered from these issues, coupled with momentum-robbing time-jumps just when audiences were growing accustomed to characters. While the time jumps are mercifully over, many of the overall lack-of-clarity problems aren’t resolved in season two which often makes it a trying experience.
No one expects “House Of The Dragon” to be “Game Of Thrones,” which would be a tall order to ask of it. However, HBO’s ‘HOTD’ show should at least engage, compel, and intrigue in at least a similar manner. Sadly, it often does not, if only because you’re frequently checking to see exactly who is being referenced, given the show has major characters named Rhaenyra, Rhaenys, and Rhaena, a Jaehaerys we never see, a Jacaerys, and so forth, etc., etc.
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You’ll be forgiven if you don’t fully remember the details of season one (unfortunately, at least a small indictment on the series itself). But in case a recent rewatch didn’t really refresh your memory, and you don’t have all your charts and graphs ready, the need to know outcomes that it all ended in dragons and bloodshed and what would be the beginning of a Targaryen civil war.
But it’s often a convoluted show; the byzantine plot and all its sometimes indistinctive and many characters make it easy to get lost like so many of the dark corridors of these dark castles. Like “Game Of Thrones,” “House Of The Dragon” features at least two dozen major characters, but only a handful are very memorable. Worse, season two seems only intent on adding at least another new dozen to the mix (and for a show with myriad characters, it’s really only D’Arcy, Smith, Ifans, and Cooke who truly convince and matter).
Recapping and recounting any of the past stories is, honestly, tortuous. Still, the shortest possible version is that ‘House Of The Dragon’ is about King Viserys Targaryen’s (Paddy Considine) heirs and children battling for control of the Iron Throne once he passes on (though everyone was plotting its advance). Think of it like “Succession,” if’ HOTD’ basically began where that show ended: the Emperor dying, the greedy entitled children scrambling and fighting for their piece of the pie, only much more convoluted, far less entertaining and funny, and somehow more underhand (and or at least murderous).
In the scheming usurping of the iron throne machinations of last season—Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), the supposed rightful heir all set to ascend to the monarch of the land, only for Prince Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) to take the mantle as King instead—the already tense acrimony of these betrayals led to further rancor, much of it perpetrated by the younger, impulsive members of each House (and let’s not forget the entire Iron Throne claim is all a case of a misunderstanding known to many as the great Aegon mistake)
Before it was all settled and the right to the throne was still in question, all Houses sent ambassadors to entreaty various houses to their side. Rhaenyra sent her son Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) on the dragon Arrax to win over the Baratheons. But Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), son to her rival Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) also arrived on the elder dragon Vhagar, a skirmish ensued, and Lucerys and Arrax inadvertently perished leading to a path of further malice and unavoidable civil war between the Green and Black Targaryen houses.
Season two opens in the wake of these various betrayals, bitter feelings, and tragedies, Rhaenyra at Dragonstone with “The Blacks” mourning her kin in grief (not to mention the stillbirth she suffered at the end of season one). The other side, Alicent, and the Greens are bracing for bloody retribution while some members of her House contemplate a preemptive strike before the bilious revenge can rise. And it’s a lot of intricate, convoluted talk. And if you don’t remember the names of dozens of characters—the show seemingly built for the pause button and a nearby Wikipedia page to check notes—it’s easy to be bewildered.
And that’s essentially the plot of the first half of the series, a waiting game of political intrigue. Both houses are waiting nervously for impending war but hoping to plot and strategize the perfect point of attack and not trying to be too hasty about it. But Targaryen’s being the volatile, impetuous, ruthless people they are, more vindictive plots are hatched without sovereign leader consent, and more children are assassinated, caught in the mess of petulant, warring leaders (yes, HBO is spoiler-phobic, so we must be vague).
“House Of The Dragon” season two also becomes a show about the wise, sagacious, and patient elders having to war within their own houses against the capricious, rash members of their tribe like the young cocksure King Aegon.
All sides know war and bloodshed is inevitable, but it’s a matter of when. Not helping matter at all, naturally is the hot head of all Targaryens, Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) Viserys’ brother and Rhaenyra’s uncle/husband (even one look at a family tree will leave you baffled). Daemon is simply too unpredictable and unstable for everyone and begins to splinter from his wife/niece Rhaenyra’s patience and loyalty, who no longer believes she can trust or contain his bloodlust. He breaks off with his own dragon and his own secret agenda. Additionally, riddled with nightmares or prophetic visions, Daemon also seems to be losing his grip on reality, which surely won’t help.
In the haste of it all, essential wise Hands are dismissed, and Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel), Lord Commander of the Kingsguard under Aegon II Targaryen, hatches his own plot of retribution, and so on and so on. War is coming, but before that wholly arises, there will be many smaller assassination schemes that often don’t go as planned.
Some new threads are introduced too: The Starks, the members of the Night’s Watch at the Wall, more members of Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), the sea-faring “Sea Snakes” clan, and the return of the “White Worm, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno, excellent, but underused), who leads a network of spies throughout King’s Landing, turn up again to do her manipulative bidding.
Knowing that the reckless and foolish young men are starting to dominate the strategies and aware that Alicent does not share the same bloodthirstiness, Rhaenyra makes a bold decision, risking her life in the process to petition Alicent so their more shrewd, level-headed insight can prevail. But alas, these two former “sisters” have too many resentments and painful betrayals built up between them, and the desperate mission fails. To be fair, season two starts to pick up a little toward the middle, but it’s still a fairly frustrating show that never captivates like its ancestor.
Created by Ryan Condal and George R. R. Martin—and having recently lost “Game Of Thrones” showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, who stepped down after season one after a reported internal dispute with HBO— season two of “House Of Dragon” eventually settles into a groove of basic understanding—The Black and The Greens detest each other, and will soon go to war— but the palace intrigue is often just confounding, the writers of the show mistaking overly-layered intricacy for complexity and just creating a lot of viewer disorientation in the process.
Episode one, the foreshadowingly titled “A Son For A Son,” is directed by “Game of Thrones” veteran Alan Taylor (“Thor: The Dark World”) and he handsomely directs this pilot, but man, if you thought the underlit, dark and hard-to-discern final episodes of “Game Of Thrones” were hard to watch, get ready for a show that so constantly dimly lit it feels like a dark, dour experience.
“Game Of Thrones” was never fun per se, but it was at least entertaining and eminently watchable, amassing a considerable following in the process. It’s nearly undoubtedly that if “House Of Dragon” continues in this elaborate manner and adds more indistinct characters, the series will surely peel off anyone but die-hards. At its best and most straightforward, a tale of bitterness between two rival houses and the conflict that will soon erupt between them, “House Of Dragon” works. But all the little side plots and quests entangle and muddy the entire affair. And yes,’ GOT’ has side plots and dozens of side characters for days, but ‘HOTD’ is nowhere near as elegant as coherently threading them through the main narrative.
Will the hotheads or the cooler heads prevail? Given this is Westeros, it’s pretty clear the mercurial members of each House will eventually win out. Still, they’re often so one-dimensionally brash that it’s often aggravating and hard not to root for the more judicious members of each team who bring a level of sophistication and complexity to the show that feels more like the true clear strategic brilliance of “Game Of Thrones.”
“There is no hatefulness greater to the gods than a war between kin and no war so bloody as a war between dragons.” Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) says to Rhaenyra at one key point. So if winter was coming in “Game Of Thrones,” war is approaching in “House Of The Dragon.” But 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. [C+]