‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 is ‘event television’ and ‘remains a bloody good time’ [Review Round-Up]
Season 2 of “House of the Dragon” premieres June 16 on HBO. The reign of House Targaryen begins with this prequel to the Emmy-winning HBO series “Game of Thrones,” based on George R.R. Martin‘s “Fire & Blood,” “House of the Dragon” is set nearly 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones,” telling the story of the Targaryen civil war with King Viserys I Targaryen’s children battling for control of the Iron Throne.
This second cycle has garnered early buzz from critics, certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a critics consensus that reads, “Approaching its dynastic cataclysm with a deliberate stride rather than a charging gallop, ‘House of the Dragon’ carefully sets up its emotional stakes to make the fiery spectacle all the more scorching.”
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Picking up where last season ended, the war is on for the Iron Throne as the Targaryens battle their own blood. The ensemble cast includes Emma D’Arcy, Rhys Ifans, Matt Smith, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Fabian Frankel, Olivia Cooke, Ewan Mitchell and Tom Glynn-Carney. Read our full review round-up below.
SEE ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 trailer promises more classic ‘Game of Thrones’ backstabbing [Watch]
Lauren Sarner of New York Post praises the series, stating, “’House of the Dragon’ has some Vhagar-sized flaws, but it remains a bloody good time and still feels like Event Television.” Adding, “Villainous brothers Aegon and Aemond are standouts – the actors seem to be having a blast chewing scenery, which gives their scenes an electric energy. Corlys Velaryon (Steve Touissant) and his wife, Rhaenys (Eve Best), are also highlights. There are new characters up the wazoo – too many, but some are welcome additions, like Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) and Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor, delivering “GoT” nostalgia by imitating Jon Snow’s accent).”
Vicky Jessop of London Evening Standard says, “We spend more time with each of the main characters — freed from the timehopping constraints of season one — and as such we get a deeper, more satisfying dive into them. Cooke, in particular, is great as Alicent.” Concluding, “While Matt Smith’s Daemon sets out on fun little solo missions without the backing of his wife, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans, Shakespearean as ever) is trying to keep the show on the road and Ser Criston Cole is still cornering the market in being loathsome.”
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Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone was less impressed, stating, “In its second season, HotD remains a show that mistakes confusion for complexity, hurling waves of thinly-defined, often interchangeable characters at the audience, and hoping no one will mind because here be dragons.” Adding, “On several occasions, Season One’s episodes presented sequences that were literally too dark to see, including the franchise’s first proper dragon-on-dragon battle in the finale. Now, when the two sides — the Greens on behalf of Aegon, the Blacks believing that Aegon has usurped the Iron Throne from Rhaenyra — come to blows, it tends to be in bright, vivid daylight.”
Helen O’Hara of IGN Movies notes, “’House of the Dragon’ is still beautifully made and performed in season 2’s opening pair of lengthy episodes, but these messy family dynamics can be frustrating rather than fascinating when there’s so much at stake and so little being done.” Concluding, “Matt Smith’s Daemon remains the most interesting character, capable of ruthless murder one minute and unusual tenderness the next, but he’s closely followed by his entirely devious but increasingly weary opposite, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans). Tom Glynn-Carney’s King Aegon is given a few moments of humanity here to make up for his unrelieved venality last season, but he’s still intensely unlikeable and very much in the same mould as King Joffrey Baratheon.”
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