House of the Dragon season 2

After the final season to Game of Thrones, my interest in the series disappeared like a sand castle when the tide comes in; the ending left me with no desire to ponder what might happen next or revisit the early seasons from its heyday. Then House of the Dragon arrived in 2022, a prequel series set over a hundred years before the GOT takes places and it won me over. The characters were all written very well in the adaptation from book to screen with its talented cast and the story, while something of a slow burn, brought back the best of GOT with mischievous plotting and backstabbing galore.

Unfortunately, it would be two years later when season two would land and in that time much of the first season had faded from memory along with the hundreds of names required to keep-up with everything as it unfolds. So, as a partial disclaimer, I would tune into various Youtube channels to help make sense of it all and gain a greater appreciation of the show's universe. Is it annoying that this is required to truly enjoy a show? Only to a degree as I would much rather have a show filled with lore than the showrunners gut the source material and replace with their own ideas, hence why I'm not writing about The Rings of Power or The Witcher anymore...

This season sees Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower now firmly set against one another as the kingdom gradually falls into one of two sides, risking complete annihilation at the fire of a dragon if any family should not bend the knee when called to action. Keeping out of Lord Colys' sight, Daemon seeks to improve Rhaenyra's stronghold in the Riverlands and heads to Harrenhal while Ser Criston Cole leads his young king's army into battle as the conflict begins to heat up.

Much like the first season, this is a great looking and highly engrossing drama told over a limited run of eight episodes. The first couple of episodes were the roughest for me as I played catchup with who's who etc but then it became a joy to watch once I had re-familiarised myself with the world of this show. That does mean a disjointed experience for anyone not willing to do a little extra homework but I found it rewarding enough to feel satisfied by the end of the season. 

It now seems long gaps between seasons are more of a regular occurrence and I think it is to the detriment of a show like this unless you are already familiar with the books. But what is there is a great experience to be had and one I look forwarded to seeing where it goes next in season three.