Of all the stupid things I regularly do to myself in the name of morbid curiosity, watching House of the Dragon is definitely up there.
Considering how pathetically Game of Thrones ended, you’d think I’d avoid this prequel/spinoff/whatever it is on HBO. I’m a writer, I don’t like it when I am set up for years by a team of fellow writers, only to be drastically punked in the end.
The problem with House of the Dragon is that it’s really rather good. I especially appreciated the final family dinner scene in season one, before the lives off the characters go spectacularly to shit as they fight over that same Iron Throne again. The way it was acted, scripted, and filmed was extremely bittersweet – if you know just how precious and fragile family is, and I do, you’re bound to feel its impact.
The other problem with House of the Dragon is that it’s emotionally torturous. Game of Thrones at least attempted to give us some real, if flawed, heroes. House of the Dragon is mostly ESH — i.e. Everyone Sucks Here, as the Reddit terminology goes. Sure, we do see some innocents/people who try to do good, but they get slaughtered, and I’m guessing that trend will continue.
I do like the fact that at its core, House of the Dragon is about a girl friendship gone completely off the rails. It’s full of sexual jealousy and recrimination and adolescent feuding that has blown up into civil war-like proportions since the former besties are too powerful for their own good.
I guess one half of the feud, Alicent Hightower, doesn’t know just how powerful she is just yet, but something tells me that she may find out eventually (at least I would hope so, all of that repressed rage should get a chance to erupt like fire from the proverbial dragon’s mouth sometime).
The men on House of the Dragon have a lot of scenery to chew, and foolishness to engage in, but the gravitational center of the show is in the emotional deadlock between Alicent and Rhaenyra, and each remains compelling in her arc so far.
I like that these two women kind of suck in their own way, and also are extremely protective of their children, as well as tempted by the wrong kind of men. It’s depressing to watch on one hand, but on the other hand, it’s interesting television.
It’s always annoying when a big budget show feels it has to make its female heroines a little too strong and a little too perfect or risk alienating the audience. There’s none of that here. I guess if I were forced to choose a side, I’d definitely choose Rhaenyra — she’s the fun one to Alicent’s seething good girl — but knowing how both HBO and George R. R. Martin operate, I have a feeling neither will win in the end.
I’m mostly an idealist at heart, and I do get tired of shows that assault my sense of idealism. It’s why it took me forever to get into that other recent HBO prestige project featuring relatives obsessed with power, Succession. The writing was awesome, and also I wanted everyone on that show to get hit by a meteor (well, everyone but the harried staff who had to deal with that awful, gold-encrusted, Murdoch-inspired family).
On the other hand, entertainment should at least occasionally challenge us, and House of the Dragon takes that notion seriously. The questions it asks about what makes and breaks a family are worth pondering. The old tits and dragons formula also works here too, just like it did with Game of Thrones.
I guess at the end of the day, I wish I wasn’t as addicted to this particularly punishing television universe. Real life can be stressful enough. So I just tell myself I’m in it for the tits and dragons, and listen to a random Disney soundtrack as I wind down afterwards.