Look, I would never, ever outright complain about my job, but one of the actual cons when it comes to writing about movies and television is that I am oft-spoiled. I learned about Inception ’s ending before I saw the movie and I know most of the beats of Sons of Anarchy ’s big deaths despite having never watched the show. House of the Dragon is one arena in which we have enough people who cover that I can usually keep blinders on, but now that Season 2 reviews have dropped I just learned one little spoiler and I’m not even mad about it.
That’s right, ahead of House of the Dragon ’s Season 2 premiere , reviews are dropping. One in particular over at Variety mentioned the new set of episodes open at Winterfell -- Winterfell, home of the Starks, and the same location where early scenes in Game of Thrones are also set. Per the review from Alison Herman: We open not in King’s Landing or on Dragonstone, but at Winterfell, the seat of the Stark family whose own dissolution formed the spine of Game of Thrones.
The point of the excursion north isn’t just to highlight historical parallels; it’s to indicate that House of the Dragon is shifting its focus from the intimate dynamics of the Targaryens to their disastrous, continent-spanning consequences. Other reviews get a little more spoiler-y about what exactly to expect when new episodes finally hit the 2024 TV schedule, but suffice it to say this Stark injection is very exciting stuff. While it was, of course, very cool.
