TV Review: ‘House Of The Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 3 Exposes The Biggest Weakness In ‘Game Of Thrones’

It’s amazing how much politics plays a strong part in the Game Of Thrones universe. After all, the title pretty much says all it needs to about the plot. It involves rich people fighting for power and being willing to do anything to get it. It’s political scheming and intrigue on a level that surpasses Netflix’s House Of Cards. For those who enjoy that kind of thing, it’s incredibly entertaining. And House Of The Dragon does a good job keeping the tension, but in doing so, it highlights a lot of the critical mistakes Game Of Thrones made in its final season. It doesn’t diminish this spin-off any, but it does become tired as there isn’t some bigger threat at play like in Game Of Thrones.

Both sides of this conflict continue to prepare for the coming war as things start to heat up. Daemon (Matt Smith) and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) are heading out as scouting parties to sway all the undecided houses to their side. They are also trying to keep the dragons out of the conflict for as long as possible as that will only elevate the death and destruction to come. Fearing for her children’s safety, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) sends them off with young dragons and eggs, a safety net to carry on her legacy in the event of the unthinkable. In a desperate attempt to stop the war, she sneaks into King’s Landing to speak with Alicent (Olivia Cooke). The old friends still struggle to come to terms, thus marking that war is inevitable.

Because it is political fantasy, the show does a surprisingly great job of putting all the appropriate pieces in place. There’s not as much action as there should be, but tensions are rising and the missing action is sure to come in future episodes. As a prequel to Game Of Thrones, it’s retreading similar territory with one notable difference: the absence of the Night King. Cersei (Lena Heady) and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) were fighting for the Iron Throne the same way that Alicent and Rhaenyra are. What made Game Of Thrones special, however, is that the Night King threatened them both. Many fans criticized the final season for making Cersei the final villain rather than the Night King, and House Of The Dragons demonstrates why that is the case. Humans have been fighting for the throne for hundreds if not thousands of years. That conflict will always be the same. The Night King represented something different, and the fact that the final season fumbled that truth is glaringly obvious in this spinoff.

House Of The Dragon stream Sundays on Max.