Things are starting to come together in the third season of House of the Dragon, and while you definitely need a scorecard to keep up, it continues to deliver a strong fantasy show.
What Is It?
This Game of Thrones prequel is set 200 years before the events of that series, chronicling the rise and fall of House Targaryen during the bloody civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. After King Viserys I names his daughter Rhaenyra as his heir, rival factions within the royal family—the Blacks and the Greens—battle for control of the Iron Throne, plunging Westeros into a devastating conflict fueled by ambition, betrayal, and dragons. It is based on the book Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin.
As Season 3 begins, open war now consumes Westeros, thrusting the rival Targaryen factions into the most destructive phase of the Dance of the Dragons as major battles reshape the fate of the realm. As Rhaenyra and Aemond struggle for supremacy, old alliances fracture, new dragonriders emerge, and the cost of claiming the Iron Throne grows ever more devastating.
Airing: HBO, New Episodes Air Sundays at 9 PM EST (Season Finale August 9)
Starring: Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Fabien Frankel, Emily Carey, Tom Glynn-Carney
Created By: Ryan Condal, George R. R. Martin
Johnny Jay’s Thoughts:
The synopsis above only just barely scratches the surface of this dense and labyrinthine show, and—full confession—I have a hard time keeping up with this one. I have been able to follow the main storyline involving the battle to control the Iron Throne, but House of the Dragon has a plethora of characters and storylines, and even if you have a detailed scorecard, it is a demanding task to keep track of everything going on. Not helping is the long break between seasons (it was almost two years between the second and third seasons), and I watch a lot of other sci-fi and fantasy shows, so this old brain has a hard time sorting it all out.
That said, I am still enjoying the show, and the third season is its best yet. Sure, I am often wondering who some character is that we may have seen briefly in the last year or so, and I am trying to remember how another storyline is relevant to the main action, but I am not totally lost, especially with episode recaps available to help fill in the gaps. And things are really starting to come together and develop more focus as this one leads into its final season (more on that below).
The first season set up the challenge for the throne when King Viserys passes away and there is a question of whether his daughter, Rhaenyra Targaryen, will take command of the Seven Kingdoms or whether the son of his second wife Alicent Hightower, Aegon Targaryen, will ascend to the throne. By the sophomore season, Aegon is in power and Rhaenyra has left King’s Landing but is plotting to assert her right to rule the realm. Both seasons could be slow at times and rather dark (literally—they definitely preferred darker shades while filming), but by the third season, things are really picking up (and they have brightened up the scenes a bit as well).
One big improvement, which already seemed to start toward the end of the second year, is that Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen has been moved much more to the front of the action. Through the first season and into the second, he seemed to be brooding a lot and didn’t have much to do, but they are finally utilizing one of the best characters on the show. In addition, many of the developing storylines from the last two seasons are starting to come together and pay off. There is much less anticipation now and much more action as the story gains momentum.
Buy House of the Dragon Seasons 1 and 2 on Home Video from Amazon.com
I have to admit that Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor was not one of my favorite versions of that character, but I like him as an actor, and he is just deliciously sinister in the role of Daemon Targaryen. And the fact that he is getting more screen time is definitely makes the show more watchable. Emma D’Arcy, as Rhaenyra, certainly holds her own next to Smith, delivering a strong female lead and presenting an interesting look at a person thrust into a dubious position when it comes to ruling the Seven Kingdoms.
Those are two of the primary characters, and I could go on for another couple of pages just talking about the other primary as well as secondary players without even touching on the tertiary and quaternary ones. They have assembled a heck of a cast for the show, but I will say that the characters don’t quite stand out like the ones from Game of Thrones. By the end of the first season of that series, I knew all the main characters (which was quite a lot) and their storylines, and it was not too hard to follow them as the show carried on through its eight-season run (it certainly helped that there was never more than a year between seasons except with the final season). But with House of the Dragon, there are any number of secondary characters and beyond that require me to pull out the scorecard on a regular basis.
That hasn’t kept me from enjoying this one, though, and it offers plenty of the political intrigue, character drama, and moral quandaries that made Game of Thrones so good. It just seems a bit murkier. It is also not as fun as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (you can read my review of that one at this link), which was much easier to keep up with. But it does have dragons—plenty of dragons—edging it higher on the fantasy factor, and the CGI for those creatures is quite good without going into overload.
This is definitely a good fantasy show, and you don’t have to have watched Game of Thrones to understand it, seeing as it is a prequel series. But be sure to have good notes handy to keep up with all of the people coming and going along with their storylines, otherwise you can get lost pretty quickly.
What’s Next?
The Season 3 finale airs on August 9, and the show has already been renewed for a fourth year. It will be wrapping up at that point, which explains why they are finally pulling things together with the current storylines. And more from the Game of Thrones franchise is on the way to HBO, including Aegon’s Conquest, Nine Voyages, 10,000 Ships, and more, several of which will include characters from House of the Dragon (you can read more about those at this link). So fans of GoT have plenty to look forward to in the coming years.
Are you watching House of the Dragon and do you think the third season is an improvement on the first two? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments section below.
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