Why you should catch up with House of the Dragon
Review Overview
Cast
8Characters
8Conflict
8Ivan Radford | On 16, Jun 2024
Season 2 premieres on Monday 17th June 2024. This spoiler-free review is based on Season 1.
How do you follow a show like Game of Thrones? HBO spent a lot of time and money trying out various ideas for other projects set within George RR Martin’s fantasy universe. It turns out the answer is simple: you don’t follow Game of Thrones. You go 170 years before it. House of the Dragon eschews the original show’s sweeping scope and zooms in on one House: the Targaryens. It goes far back enough in time that it’s almost a standalone affair, making it accessible to newcomers as well as familiar to fans. And it spends less time worrying about monsters and more time on people. It’s a family feud writ large, a political and personal battle steeped in violence and vengeance. It’s Succession – with dragons.
We begin in a rare time of piece for Westeros, and Season 1 smartly takes its time to ease us in. There’s no doubt from the off that civil war is on the cards, and that the deck will soon be on fire, but showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik are in no rush to discard current ruler Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine). That decision pays off time and time again, not least because Paddy Considine is so brilliant.
Considine invests Viserys with heart and honour, often just through the understated way he sits or stands. He’s a kind and softly spoken king, supported by his dragon-riding family, and he’s interested in peace more than power (and prophesies the coming winter that unfolds in Game of Thrones). All of which makes him the best and worst of his family, and the most qualified and ill-equipped to steer Westeros into the future. That becomes apparent the more time passes, and that is Season 1’s other inspired decision: to time-jump so that we cover lots of ground historically without losing the personal attachment of every year that goes by. And so it is that we move from a tragic death in the opening episode to a vulnerability that gives others the opportunity to manouevre and manipulate their own way to power. By the time Viserys is tellingly wearing a mask to hide what his face looks like, his attempts at reconciling his family over dinner are well-meaning but futile.
There’s no getting round the fact that the graphic nature of that early loss leaves a sour taste in the mouth – it immediately recalls the misogyny that was endemic in Game of Thrones, with House of the Dragon not sparing on the sex, violence or nudity. But as the show moves forwards and finds its feet, it does begin to move away from its own worst tendencies, no doubt thanks to its story being rooted so centrally in the friendship and rivalry between two women.
They are Viserys’ daughter, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Alicent Hightower, the daughter of Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the Hand of the King. Initially played by the excellent Milly Alcock and Emma Carey, the duo are childhood friends who don’t really see the cogs of power moving around them – as Viserys causes controversy by declaring that Princess Rhaenyra will be the heir to his throne, rather than Viserys’ brother, Daemon (Matt Smith – more on him later), and Otto looks to make Alicent the King’s future wife, thus securing his own family’s future. These patriarchal, power-hungry moves position the two women in opposite camps, sowing seeds for civil war.
When we fast forward to them at an older age, Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra is finding herself as a mother and power player in her own right, but has built that confidence not in the support and loyalty of childhood ally Alicent but in her uncle, Daemon, whose power and lack of inhibition in using it both have always held their own appeal. She’s navigating trauma, pressure and anger, taking her from the playful aspiration of Alcock’s young princess to the ambitions of someone all too prepared to strike back at her enemies.
Olivia Cooke’s Alicent, meanwhile, is a fascinating mix of conviction, desperation and pathos, as she unwittingly becomes one of the most influential people in Westeros – but, poignantly, never really gets that power for herself. Following the example of Rhys Ifans’ wonderfully manipulative Otto, she pours her efforts, brains and skills into shaping other people;s paths, which makes her deceitful even as she’s honest, human even when she’s monstrous and bitterly wounded even when she’s trying to act morally.
The game being stacked against them both is foreshadowed by the events that take place right at the start of the series – when Viserys is selected to inherit the throne, rather than his cousin, Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best), even though she has the stronger claim to do so. Eve Best is quietly there doing some superb work as a stalwart political player who has repeatedly been snubbed in a family that has decided to prioritise malel lineage, and her stoic resilience pays off in one striking sequence involving – you guessed it – a dragon, which unleashes her as a force who could be thrillingly unpredictable.
The dragons themselves are enjoyably more present than in Game of Thrones, and directors Miguel Sapochnik, Clare Kilner and Greg Yaitanes make the most of the budget and special effects to craft some visually stunning and emotionally exciting confrontations – some, shrouded in lightning and cloud, others, grounded in silent waiting, towering over the humans around them. Ramin Djawadi’s score also knocks it out of the park, pointedly reusing the cyclical theme from Game of Thrones and then leaning into the tragic tension of building piano and the deeper threat of an ominous cello.
But the most thrilling element of all is perhaps Matt Smith. The former Doctor Who and The Crown star clearly relishes the opportunity to sink his teeth into a very different, yet no less iconic, character, as he dives into Daemon’s dark, reckless behaviour. He has swagger that balances villainous charisma with his volatile cruelty, and that makes Daemon a chaotic bad guy – and an instant fan favourite. That we’re already seeing how actions have consequences for everyone within this tightly knit – and tightly wound – family promises some weighty grappling with guilt, grief and more in Daemon’s future, which makes him all the more electrifying to watch.
There’s no doubt, however, that this is Rhaenyra and Alicent’s show. The duo are destined to butt heads, yet they also know each other well enough to be both shocked by their counterpart’s actions and know exactly what to do to push their buttons in response. They share a righteous entitlement and arrogance that stems from being part of a dynasty that takes pride and power from being able to ride dragons – even though one of the first season’s key moments reminds us that dragons can’t really be controlled.
The way they are both compromised and corrupted in different ways gives their characters a depth that makes House of the Dragon potentially much more interesting than Game of Thrones, not least because the show has the time and space to dig deeper into each of them. The toxic ripples that spread out from them give us all kinds of interesting, flawed supporting characters, from the spiteful one-eyed Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and the messed-up Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) to the strong and obsessive knight Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), all on Alicent’s side of the conflict, to the surprisingly sweet treatment of Laenor (John Macmillan), on Rhaenyra’s side of the fence. All these interesting and shifting dynamics erupt in fiercely well choreographed moments, such as a Small Council meeting when the two spar viciously and honestly. And, of course, there’s a wedding that doesn’t go according to plan.
The result is a narrow, intimate, grudge-filled affair that matches massive production values with a refreshing amount of grit and heart. If Seaon 2 can hold on to that focus, the prequel just might eclipse Game of Thrones. Succession with dragons? Yes please.