Review: House of the Dragon, "Second of His Name" | Season 1, Episode 3
HBO’s followup series continues to play Thrones’ greatest hits, but the impact isn’t the same
I still don’t really know what to call House of the Dragon.
It is no doubt a clear effort to take component parts of what made Game of Thrones a success and build a new show out of them, but since the premiere’s effort to turn the events of that series into a prophecy in this one the connections to that show have been scattered. It’s technically a prequel, but I don’t know that it’s really functioning as one, and while it’s spinning off a particular family it involves no direct links to the previous series, making that claim equally dubious, as far as I’m concerned.
In “Second of His Name,” my efforts to articulate the series’ creative choices has left the realm of television vernacular entirely, as I don’t think it captures the vibe of this story. What House of the Dragon feels like to me is a band playing its greatest hits, but all of the band members have been changed out. It’s not exactly a cover band—the songs still sound great, and the concert transports yo…