House of the Dragon, Season 2 (HBO/Max) 

By: Rachel Brodeur

Watching the second installment of HBO’s House of the Dragon is like waiting for a dragon egg to hatch: ungodly slow, but one still wants to wait around and see what happens. The series picks up where season one ended with Rhaenyra, played by Emma D’Arcy (The Talent, Truthseekers) challenging the legitimacy of King Aegon II Targaryen’s, played by Tom Glynn-Carney (Dunkirk, Tolkien), ascension to the Iron Throne. 

The show’s title delivers what it promises - the dragons are the real stars of the series. The best action of the series is in watching the movements and brutality of these fantastical creatures. Fans keep track of dragon names much as they would any other character on the show, and many are more attached to the dragons than the people riding them. The effects of blending the massive beasts into scenes with humans is seamlessly well done and allows viewers to lose themselves into the reality of the world. 

As for the human characters, the women take the center stage in season two. Unfortunately, scenes with Alicent (Olivia Cooke, Ready Player One) and Rhaenyra are sometimes tedious. Despite their positions of power, their lines are often too emotive and literal, having them announce all thoughts in their head to everyone who happens to be in the room. The series would benefit from some more of the plotting, inference, secrecy and surprise seen in its parent series Game of Thrones, or even other HBO juggernaut Succession. Even some of their male co-stars, Matt Smith (Doctor Who, The Crown), playing Prince Daemon and Ewan Mitchell (Saltburn), playing Aemond maintain a level of suspense and intrigue by not revealing their whole hand all the time.  

Ultimately, season two of House of the Dragon reads more like a preamble of what’s to come. It’s not a complete story, and it doesn’t even try to be, but most fans are willing to accept that. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait for season three, which HBO confirms will start filming, however, unconfirmed release dates have been speculated sometime in 2026. 

Rachel’s Rating: 6/10

HBO’s House of the Dragon is a slow continuation of the Game of Thrones prequel series. There are fantastic moments of dragons and royal plotting, but be prepared to wait for them between slower scenes of plot and world building.