At one point amid the swirling pools of violence, beauty, darkness, deviant sexuality, familial feuding and treachery of Season 2 of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” a major character references the Iron Throne and then deadpans: “It’s a big chair. Made of swords.” Got it.
That much we know for certain after the eight-season run of the mostly beloved (we said “mostly,” we’re not getting into and iconic (2011-19), and the “House of the Dragon,” which was set nearly 200 years before the events of the original. As always, pretty much everything else is up for grabs. Some 602 days after the shocking and game-changing events of the Season 1 finale, the sophomore season is a visually glorious epic that once again feels like appointment TV (HBO and Max are releasing one episode per week for the next eight weeks), even though it’s nearly impossible to keep up with what has to be one of the largest ensemble casts in TV history, and it’s a bit of a slow build before we get to the dragons clashing in the skies.
(The first four of eight total episodes were made available to critics.) With Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans and Ewan Mitchell leading that impressive cast; some of the most expansive and stunning location shoots, VFX and production design of any series in the world, and a tangled and Shakespearean storyline punctuated by some gruesome and shocking deaths, “HOTD” is cinematic entertainment that, to invoke the cliché, you should see.