House of the Dragon Season 2 early review – Fire and blood

There’s an old adage which states that superhero movie sequels are always better than the original. And there’s valid justification for that: The pesky origin story is out of the way, the cast members have fully stepped into their roles, and the rules of the world have been established. We’ve met our responsibilities and now it’s time for the power. House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series, is about as far removed from superhero comics as you can get, but it seems the adage applies. At least that appears to be the case for the first four episodes of the series’ second season to which we got early access.

Pulling from 2018’s Fire & Blood, author George R. R. Martin’s prequel to his original A Song of Ice and Fire book series, House of the Dragon season one actually only covered approximately 60 pages of content. That’s because Fire & Blood was more a historical textbook than a traditional prose novel, and of the section of this history of the Seven Kingdoms it covers, there still around 250 pages left. So, yes, it’s still early days, but all the setup work is done. The dynasty destroying civil war known as the “Dance of the Dragons” is here. And thus far – to borrow a colloquialism that also fits with the overall draconic theme – it is fire!

Following a series of machinations, both deliberate and accidental, the first season ended on a particularly somber note. Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) had been denied the throne of the Seven Kingdoms publicly promised to her by her late father and suffered a grievous personal blow. As the second season resumes, she is in a state of deep grief about this loss. Rather than seeking revenge though, she is still trying everything she can to find a peaceful resolution. After all, the new king who sits the throne is not only her half-brother, but the son of Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), Rhaenyra’s childhood best friend and now her father’s widow and dowager queen. Events have forced the two women on opposite sides of a conflict neither could have ever imagined possible in their youth. And they both know that when dragons go to war, everything burns.

Unfortunately, the people around them are much quicker and happier to respond with bloodshed. Most notably, these include Daemon (Matt Smith), Rhaenyra’s firebrand uncle/husband; Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), the bitter Kingsguard Commander who traded Rhaenyra for Alicent as lover; King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), the petulant new king who is quickly realizing his own ineptitude; and Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), Aegon’s unsettlingly serious and far more martial younger brother. Swords are rattled and dragons saddled despite the more temperate voices such as Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), Hand of the King, and Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best), another strongly capable Targaryen woman who saw her throne go to a man.

Martin’s world, as interpreted now by showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, has never been simple enough that a singular application of violence or diplomacy solves everything though. And season two sees the story twisting and turning in some unexpected and shocking directions. And I’m not kidding about the shocking parts. The faint of heart take heed as things turn very dark very quickly. Deaths – because what would these shows be without members of its expansive cast being killed off? – run the gamut from surprising gut-punches to tragically poetic.

Condal, Sapochnick, and their team of directors never turn the show into a gasp-a-minute parade of horror, nor do they lean too heavily into the action, but things are always moving with a meticulously deliberate stride. Divorced of the time jumps required in season one – which led to quickly swapped out cast members as characters aged up – there’s none of the frantic muddling of the plot. There are no head scratching moments of “Wait… who is this now?” or “When did that happen?”. As both sides of this conflict desperately begin to bolster forces, the story introduces new faces from across the Seven Kingdoms, some bearing very familiar names, but they never really distract from the core cast. As such, the scale of the story told here may not feel as expansive as that of Game of Thrones (not yet at least), but the gripping character drama and palpable audience investment harks back to that show at its global cultural phenomenon peak.

And a large component of why House of the Dragon season two has been so compelling thus far is that the cast, to put it plainly, is acting the absolute crap out of every scene. The first season was no stranger to acting accolades, with Emma D’Arcy earning themselves a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination. If I was a betting man, I would say there’s a strong possibility of them winning it this time. They are simply magnetic on screen, and fortunately get matched with very willing dance partners. A scene involving a row between Rhaenyra and Daemon had me glued to the screen every bit as much as some of the wild aerial dragon fights that we’re treated to. You don’t need fire-breathing CGI beasties with actors this good (although they don’t hurt). Expect Smith and Cooke’s names to also come up in awards season.

Unfortunately, while House of Dragon’s second season evokes all the highs of early Game of Thrones, it also reminds us of one of its most controversial lows. A brief scene in an episode features a moment so sexually explicit and completely superfluous to the narrative that it’s basically nothing more than pornography. Game of Thrones infamously caused the coining of the term “sexposition” with its completely mundane scenes set among random nude women engaged in sexual acts. This scene is much briefer, but more explicit than anything I can ever recall seeing in a show this mainstream. And there is absolutely zero reason at all to include it or film it the way it was. I guarantee that when this airs, it is going to cause quite a stir.

And that bit of egregious titillation is doubly frustrating because it will no doubt hog the headlines. Headlines that should be about the flawless production design, the tight writing, the fiery spectacle, jaw-dropping shocks, the strong character work, and even stronger performances from the cast overall. It’s those factors, on display in the opening half of House of the Dragon season two in thrilling and visceral fashion, that has me waiting on tenterhooks to see what happens in the last four episodes!

House of the Dragon Season 2 starts airing on M-Net and Showmax express from the US on Monday, 17 June 2024. New episodes arrive weekly at 3am.