‘House of the Dragon’ Check-In: Who Is Season 2 Meant for?
Halfway through “House of the Dragon” Season 2, we need to assess our surroundings. There have already been multiple major character deaths, an airborne dragon battle, attempted fratricide, twin-on-twin violence, and a character known only as “Cheese” kicked a dog.
At the midseason mark, two of IndieWire’s TV critics weigh in: Is the season worth the C+ bestowed upon it by Ben Travers? Will it live up to Proma Khosla’s dreams of “Fire & Blood?” With Ryan Condal now operating as sole showrunner, the series has a de facto creative leader at the helm, one whose commitment to the source material has his cast in awe.
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There are still canon departures and literal flights of fancy (thanks to Matt Smith’s Daemon), as well as moments that harken back to “Game of Thrones” in its heyday.
Here’s what our critics had to say.
Ben Travers: What is going on with “House of the Dragon”? Proma, I don’t mean to come in so hot, but we’re five (going on six) episodes into the second season of HBO’s first sequel series, and I’m struggling to engage with a show that’s designed to invite easy engagement. There’s so much conflict! Everyone is fighting! There’s the big, sweeping war between the Greens (the Hightowers) and the Blacks (the Targaryens). There’s the personal vendettas held by their respective queens, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). And then there’s evendissent within the two houses, as well, what with Rhaenyra and her uncle-husband Daemon (Matt Smith) on the outs, and Alicent trying (and failing) to control her petulant, power-hungry sons. (Here’s hoping one of them will give into his injuries! …too harsh?)
And yet, despite all that, I’m not sure what we’re meant to latch onto. Sure, Episode 4 gave us plenty of dragons, but the redundancies of each aerial battle become more apparent each time another fire-breather swoops in from out of nowhere, and spectacle alone is not what drove people to turn on “GoT” every Sunday. (It was the incest…uous infighting!) Part of my detachment stems from the show’s unavoidable prequel problem — when you know what’s going to happen, even two centuries later, it can be hard to get hyped about plot engines that keep you in suspense over what happens next — but that’s always been the case, and I didn’t feel this wayward during Season 1.
So, to me, all this boils down to “House of the Dragon” having character problems, and Proma, I need you to help me unpack them. As our critic covering each week’s episode, what have you noticed that may be holding Season 2 back?
Proma Khosla: The prequel problem is such a good point. Not a week goes by on social media where someone doesn’t remind us that all of this is happening so Bran Stark can sit on the Iron Throne and the song of ice and fire is rendered all but useless. As someone who read “Fire & Blood,” I do look forward to watching a lot of it come to life on screen, but I still know the endgame.
This might be a classic case of “Who is this for?” Is it for “Thrones” fans who love a good fight, for book readers being treated to the visual spectacle of the original material, or perhaps a secret third thing?
I’ve been hot and cold with the season. There’s a lot I’m enjoying — the comedic timing, more screen time for Ewan Mitchell, Harry Collett, Tom Glynn-Carney, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, and the redeemed Sonoya Mizuno — and the writing and execution of certain scenes in particular, like Daemon and Rhaenyra’s Episode 2 fight or Alicent and Rhaenyra meeting in the sept. The book-to-screen changes are fascinating and keeping me on my toes, but the lulls are really lulling. We are on week three of Daemon swanning around Harrenhal in his nightmares — week six for you and me technically, since we watched Episodes 1-4 at the beginning of June — which is crazy to me. The man is renovating!
BT: Sending your loudest, proudest, and nastiest agent of chaos into a half-season time out has to be one of the worst decisions Ryan Condal and George R.R. Martin could’ve made, and to this non-book-reader (I am, as is evident to everyone, illiterate), indicative of what’s wrong with a show that’s overly loyal to its source material. Whenever I complain about stories stalling out, someone is always more than happy to tell me they have to wait for this other story to catch up, or this other story to play out – in other words, because this is how the story was told before, it has to be told the exact same way again. Quite frankly, that’s horseshit. There should be a difference between how character arcs connect and what plot gets trimmed or extended when you’re switching storytelling mediums, and just because the original “Game of Thrones” went off the rails when it abandoned the books in later seasons, that doesn’t mean the key to a successful spinoff is absolute faithfulness.
But I digress. There could be another reason I needed to watch Daemon go down on his mother. Clearly, I should not question such things and just patiently — and I stress the word “patiently” here – wait for the rest of Season 2 to play out.
PK: I think there’s also a pacing issue afoot. It’s a lot of pressure to be event television on the level that “Thrones” and now “HotD” are expected to be, and beyond impractical to have weekly dragon battles, shocking deaths, etc. That said, Season 2 might be too drawn out. Season 1 had the task of establishing characters and their relationships over many years and now that we’ve settled into it, it’s hard not to feel like we’re treading water between big battles (there are supposed to be two total this season) with council meetings and arguments and incest fever dreams. THERE ARE SO MANY COUNCIL MEETINGS. When did I subscribe to Westerosi CSPAN?
BT: Listen, if we’ve learned anything from Hollywood history, it’s that people love when fantasy-adventure prequels spend copious amounts of runtime watching politicians talk about trade disputes. But really, there’s a compelling aspect to “HotD’s” council meetings that has yet to spring to life: I’m talking, of course, about the plebs. The masses. Those who are ruled by this ruling class. Season 2 has devoted notable attention to how the oft-petty decisions of princes and kings carry real consequences for their laboring subjects. (Lest we forget: The season’s opening scene in Winterfell included the quote: “When princes lose their temper, it is often others who suffer.”) There’s the guy who just wants to get paid for the work he was ordered to do. (Building swords, I think?) There are all those dead kids (a horrifying theme this season!) strewn across battlefields to start Episode 3, all because a couple of teens got into it over green vs. black. Just last week, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) warned that the people were scared enough that the slightest rumor could set them off.
I trust “House of the Dragon” to follow through on these rumblings — after all, the Season 2 premiere’s rat foreshadowing delivered its best twist yet — but what I do not need are more council meetings, in part because Episode 5 also spent a preposterous amount of time conveying the exact same point: Each house hates women even more than it loves itself. Watching Alicent make reasonable points about who should lead while Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) recovers from injury, only to be overridden by every man at the table, was clear enough. But then the camera had to hold on her increasingly heartbroken, frustrated face while she processed just how deep the patriarchal roots go? That’s too much! The point was already made! How many times do you need to underline it? (Kudos to Cooke, though, for acting her ass off.)
Scenes like these — where women “in power” are shown to be smart and capable yet get pushed aside anyway by a gaggle of dudes — are routine for “House of the Dragon,” and I would be overjoyed if one of TV’s bro-iest franchises would lean into substantive feminist storylines. But so far, it feels more like we’re being tortured by these scenes instead of educated or entertained. Honestly, I could say the same thing about a majority of Season 2.
PK: For a show whose conflict is rooted in two female characters, I’m not sure how I feel about “House of the Dragon’s” approach to feminism. I’ve mentioned this in an episodic review, but the show is pretty ardently sanctifying Alicent and Rhaenyra this season and blaming the war on unruly men around them. The show is also trapped by the “Game of Thrones” legacy; one of the most maligned series finales in history happened because the most engaging female character spiraled out of control in its final hours, leading to what many perceived as an unearned end to her arc.
And while I don’t want any of the women on “House of the Dragon” to receive the Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) treatment, they’re playing too much by the rules and I want them to shake it up. Fly a dragon into enemy territory, hang your enemy’s head on a spike! Alicent, maybe slap someone? But not Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), because we saw how that went in Episode 2. Women can be complex and rational without being beacons of morality.
“House of the Dragon,” if it follows “Fire & Blood,” should be doling out some of that Targaryen madness, though the show risks evoking “Thrones” outrage if this is clumsily handled. We can only hope there’s a longer game and careful plan if such character turns are in store.
“House of the Dragon” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.
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