The dragon has returned, but there is still not enough fire.
“House of the Dragon,” HBO’s blonde, super-expensive “Game of Thrones” spinoff, is back after a two-year hiatus with a second season of incest and infighting. Get ready for dragons, fights, silly misunderstandings and a bevy of boring manchildren who can’t get out of their own drama. And get ready to be a little disappointed, too.
The highly hyped first season of the series received mixed reviews, in part because a series of time jumps made for a disjointed and tedious storyline that finally reached a fast-paced, Game of Thrones-esque arc in the war-mongering season finale, and in part because even that bloody episode lacked the emotional punch to back up its violence.
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So perhaps it was inevitable that, in response to such criticism, creators Ryan Condal and George R.R. Martin (author of the Thrones books on which Dragons is based and the Fire and Ice prequels/encyclopedia) would go too far in trying to correct a perceived wrong. If there’s one unifying theme they convey in Dragons Season 2 (Sunday, 9 p.m. EDT/PDT, streaming on Max, 4 stars), it’s surely the belief that “more is better.” More dragons. More death. More brutality. More twists. More confusion. More plot holes. More time spent waiting for something interesting to happen.
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So, this time there is something even better ( finally (At least by episode four they figure out what to do about that damn dragon), but there are other bad parts too: multiple scenes where common sense and logic fly out the window, more twists and surprises introduced with no supporting context or emotion, and more gratuitous violence that borders on obscene. There are too many side quests and not enough tension to keep me interested in the battle for the Iron Throne that’s supposed to be the heart of the series.
So what’s the deal with that battle? With the dreaded Targaryens gone, there are two heads of state vying for the pointy chair: Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), the previous king’s wayward child, and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), who thinks being king means playing with cool toys. He’s supported by his mother, his grandfather Otto (Rhys Ifans), and his psychopathic brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell).
Glaring on the island is Aegon’s half-sister Rhaenyra (Emma Darcy), who was promised the throne by her late father but has a nasty habit of angering everyone at court. Supporting her are her husband (and uncle!) Daemon (Matt Smith), her in-laws/cousins the Velaryons (Eve Best and Steve Toussaint), and her children (who everyone knows are illegitimate but have to pretend they’re not).
There are dozens of other characters you may or may not remember, but the show would take longer to explain them than it would to reintroduce them, they’re all angry, they’re in stupid wars or on the verge of war, and the writers (and marketing team) want to boil this down to a simple “green vs. black” conflict: Aegon and Alicent are green, Rhaenyra and Daemon are black, and everyone else is a bloody death.
In the first four episodes (out of eight) made available for review, these very different characters blend together to produce something bad, but not too bad, and sometimes good. Smith, one of the great actors of his generation, is completely useless, plodding and pouting. The fight scenes have improved and are (finally) full of action. But the storyline is based on logical errors and leaves too much room for doubt. Some are too easy – assassins sneaking into castles undetected and dragons flying across vast lands in the blink of an eye – and others are too difficult and complicated. Who is fighting? Where? Why? Who is loyal to whom, or is it all arbitrary? How many sons does Alicent have? And is Cook really only two years older than the actor playing her son?
Sometimes I can’t help but get angry at this show. The writers consistently choose uninteresting and unchallenging storylines. There’s so much potential lost in every dull decision and lackluster line delivery. With so much time, energy and money poured into a series like Dragon, with so many actors and crew putting in the work, the end product should be worthy of the effort. When you see dragons fighting in the sky, their riders should have as much glory, glamour and power as those CGI beasts. For now, the bickering Targaryens are no match for the great heroes and villains of Game of Thrones’ heyday.
Let’s hope the rest of the season builds on the solid accomplishments of the fourth episode and culminates in a climax that will excite and shock viewers.
But if it collapses again under the weight of the hype, the House will remain empty forever.
