TV Review: HOUSE OF THE DRAGON: Season 2, Episodes 1-8 [HBO]

House of the Dragon Season 2 Review

HBO‘s House of the Dragon: Season 2, Episodes 1-8 TV Show Review. Fire and Blood. This is what we were promised, the great words of House Targaryen, the conquerors of Westeros, the unifiers of the Seven Kingdoms, the riders of dragons… And yet, in season two we see but a glimmer of these words, a kindle rather than a fire. In its second season House of the Dragon delivers a mostly disappointing affair, full of pacing issues and meaningless plot threads, lacking the compelling character dynamics and progression of its first season. The dragon’s fire seems to be fizzling out.

The ending of season one saw a Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) full of rage, having lost her son at the hands of Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Vhagar. A creeping long take draws close to her as she is told the news of her son’s murder, turning to the camera to address us with a face of fury, pain, and anger. It is a compelling moment to end on that excites ideas of the dark and rageful war that will come to ruin Westeros and the dynasty of the dragon. We begin season two as we left it, and the show seems to deliver on this promised rage. Rhaenyra spends the majority of the opener mourning the death of her son, looking for signs of his remains, and pledging “a son for a son” in revenge. It is a powerful moment that cements the damage of Aemond’s barbarity upon Rhaenyra. This death was set to have a profound and lasting effect on the Black Queen, but as the season progresses Rhaenyra seems to revert to a rather uninteresting, dispassionate character that misses the fiery, tragic qualities of season one Rhaenyra, both young and old.

Emma D’Arcy is as convincing as ever, imbuing Rhaenyra with pathos and understanding, but the show fails to give them any truly compelling material as Rhaenyra is forced to be merely a bystander in her own war, detached from any truly gripping character moments. There are, however, some instances here where Emma is truly allowed to shine as Rhaenyra. A tremendous moment finds all the formerly riderless dragons at Dragonstone claimed by illegitimate Targaryen children as their new riders. Now in the service of Queen Rhaenyra, they roar as one in the face of the villainous Aemond and his formidable dragon Vhagar. She stands proudly and defiantly beside the dragons in song, an inspired and passionate moment, something this season offers far too infrequently.

It is this infrequency of intensity and passion where the main issues lie at the heart of season two. Characters and events feel as though of little consequence or in their telling, lack the weight we come to expect from the high drama of season one or Game of Thrones before it. Its gripping material seems to be replaced by tedious conversations that lack the spark and wit of its predecessors or by dreary, meandering plots such as Daemon (Matt Smith) in Harrenhal, possibly the worst plot thread the show has conjured up in its entire run.

For an entire season we watch as Daemon progresses nowhere as a character, confined to a monotonous storyline where nothing of significance ever happens. In his flight from Dragonstone he must wrestle with his inner conflicts – his desire for the iron throne, his resentment for his brother naming his daughter heir over him, his forever place as the second never first – but the show seems fit to make these points over and over again for eight episodes straight. They offer little development for Daemon or anything truly challenging for him as a character. It of course pays off in the finale where Daemon finally comes to terms with his place under Rhaenyra and at her side, having experienced a vision that is also likely to please long-time fans of the show. And yet one mourns the wearisome, wasted screentime in the getting there where it is clear that, despite Matt Smith’s best efforts, the show didn’t quite know what to really do with Daemon.

The show is not entirely without merit, however. In its penultimate episode, as formerly mentioned, Rhaenyra finds illegitimate Targaryen children to claim the riderless dragons at Dragonstone, bringing them to her cause. What follows is the strongest episode of the season, an episode of direction and purpose all fixated towards one goal: the claiming of dragons. It is the most focused episode of the season, that climaxes in a display of formal brilliance from the show. The dragon claiming erupts in flames and chaos as the dragon Vermithor, the Bronze Fury, begins to unleash his calamitous ruin upon the claimants. We follow our central character Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew), who has been carefully set up in previous episodes, on the ground in frenzied long takes, presenting the dragon as a fearsome monster, something straight out of Jurassic Park. The low angle perspective accentuates the fearful beast’s size, and alongside the long takes keep a great tension on the lives at stake. It ends with Hugh facing the beast with courage and bravery, claiming the beast in one of the show’s most thrilling moments. This episode also raises interesting questions about illegitimate descendants, their own places in a world of royal bloodlines and the integrity of succession: “Let us raise an army of bastards”.

It is an episode that sees the show at its strongest and is the closest it gets to the compelling drama and thematic material of the first season. Other than a spectacular dragon fight in episode four and some compelling character moments littered sparsely throughout, season two fails to deliver any truly compelling drama or weight in its telling. It is a disappointing turn from an otherwise excellent season one, and raises worrying fears over the future of the show…

Rating: 6/10

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