The long-simmering Targaryen civil war finally explodes in full force, as Team Green and Team Black face off on the land, the sea, and the sky.
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Episodes viewed: 4 of 8
It’s been four years and two slow-burn seasons since House Of The Dragon first premiered. As the Game Of Thrones prequel enters its third run, showrunner Ryan Condal seems keenly aware that viewers are ready to get to the dragon-fireworks factory. Last season ended with a montage of the battles to come, and the show wastes no time diving right into them — including an epic sea skirmish, a few shocking losses, and some of the best dragon CGI the show has yet produced.
The first two episodes move at such a breakneck pace it almost feels like House Of The Dragon has bent to its naysayers and simply become a late-stage-Thrones-style spectacle show. There is no shortage of explosive shakeups for Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), her frenemy Alicent (Olivia Cooke), her husband Prince Daemon (Matt Smith), and the many, many supporting players in the war of Green versus Black.
Brings a welcome sense of unpredictability about where the story is headed.
Thankfully, that exhilarating jolt of energy doesn’t come at the cost of nuanced character drama and thoughtful quasi-historical themes. House Of The Dragon may not offer the same kind of massive tonal shift as this year’s delightful Thrones spin-off A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, but it has always operated in the key of a political period drama more than a high-fantasy epic. It’s effectively a Westeros take on a Shakespearean history play, with a touch of West Wing-style governing drama, all filtered through the question of what it means for women to claim power in a medieval world. Those elements remain the backbone of the season, particularly in a tremendous episode that puts D’Arcy front-and-centre for a high-wire day-in-the-life-style story about what it actually means to be a queen.
Indeed, the performances continue to grow richer as the show barrels forward. Having engaged in some witchy dream therapy last season, Smith adds some softer new notes to Daemon, a role that still fits him like a glove. Meanwhile, this season’s most intriguing addition is Alicent’s cousin Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton), a confident nobleman who at various points seems to be Team Green’s answer to Robb Stark, Tywin Lannister, and maybe even Ramsay Bolton, all at once.
That ambiguity helps fuel a season full of turns about what the end to this war might actually look like. Only occasionally does the pace feel inconsistent, as the show stretches itself thin checking in on all the characters on its increasingly crowded board. The upside is a welcome sense of unpredictability about where the story is headed. This is a game of thrones where the importance of what transpires in the royal family’s chambers and the court of public opinion are just as vital as what happens on the battlefield — and all of it is granted equal stakes.
More action-packed but still as thoughtful as ever, the first half of Season 3 suggests it could very well be House Of The Dragon’s best offering yet.
