Tag: House of the Dragon Season 2

July 6th, 2026

House of the Dragon Season 2: In anticipation of the latest season 3 of this Game of Thrones prequel I decided to revisit the final episodes of Season 2. I thoroughly enjoyed Game of Thrones and read the books as well. In addition I read the book for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and watched that first season. I have to admit as I revisited the last few episodes that I couldn’t recall whether I had seen the final few episodes at all. I am convinced that I did not. The key storyline is the amassing of a more formidable force for the Princess Rhaenyra, who believes that she is the rightful Queen of the rhelm (this is Team Black). This arises from a number of fronts. First, her husband Daemon, played by Matt Smith, who is the brother of the dead King and her Father, is in Herrenhal and looking to gather soldiers to support an attack against the forces of Aegon II, the son of Alicent and his brother Aemond. Yes I find all the names that are remarkably similar to be quite confusing. Daemon has his own issues, including that he should be the rightful King himself, and not a consort to the Queen, and he is suffering from visions and illusions while at Harrenhal.

On another front, Rhaenyra is looking to find more riders for dragons. She has dragons, what she lacks is true blood Targaryans to ride them. You see, dragons will only be ridden by those with dragon blood that they choose. They are powerful animals that are a deciding factor in any battle. Dragons against soldiers is an easy battle. Dragons, which have various sizes and abilities, is a different story where numbers are important. The largest and fiercest of the dragons is ridden by Aemond, who is a violent and cruel leader. So there are episodes to address this challenging task.

So I finished up in preparation for the pending season. Episode four in this series with a battle with various dragons was the best of this entire series (first or second). As with Game of Thrones, there were surprises and betrayals. The quality of the CGI was very high and the second season built on the slower first season, which I did not enjoy as much. There is intrigue with family members along with the childhood friends Rhaenyra and Alicent who had major differences, but they also share in a desire to avoid needless bloodshed with innocent lives. As was discussed in Game of Thrones, it makes little sense to have a crown to a society that has been wiped out. Who wants to rule over ashes?

Meanwhile on the Green side, with Alicent and her offspring battling among themselves while looking towards continuing in the line of succession that they believe that the King stated to Alicent as part of his dying wish. But her adult children have issues with one another, including their own ideas about who is best positioned to be a leader. This intrigue of course comes from writer’s George R R Martin’s interest in the British crown and tales from Henry VIII and others. He creates a believable world, which is intentionally complex with many characters and families. The exploration of bastards in this season is a good one, as clearly these places explored have plenty of sex and family shenanigans. Shakespeare in King Lear wrote: “Now, gods, stand up for bastards!” This series has taken up this cry literally! The results for the Queen are mixed, at least so it seems at this point. Overall this season was more satisfying, even though the issues with Daemon fall flat with the continued visions for him, along with a visit to the Weirwood tree (“truth tree”) with the assistance of a local witch, Alys Rivers who for me is one of the better characters.

I have to admit that I am not clear who I am cheering for. There are true villains like the eye-patched Aemond, but others are not so clear. I am aware of the fate of Rhaenyra from a quick explanation of a dungeon in Kings Landing from Joffrey with Maergery Tyrell. The writers certainly are leaning towards putting the viewers in a position to want to see her succeed in her ascension to the throne. How much is one prepared to lose to achieve in order to obtain what they feel is their birthright? Your friends? Your family? Your children? Your ethics and morals? All this is explored. In short, there were genuinely exciting episodes in this season where plenty took place and the dragons were front and centre unlike season one that was far more about backstory and explanation of the characters with their loyalties. All in all it was good to revisit this and I look forward to Season 3.

Born To Be Blue: This romance/documentary about the later life of jazz singer and trumpet player Chet Baker is presently on Crave but was released in 2015. Ethan Hawke plays the title role, and his muse started off as an acting partner in a movie about his life that they were both filming. Her name is Elaine and she is played well by Carmen Ejogo. Much like the flawed character Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon, Hawke is dealing with a person struggling mightily against addiction which greatly impacts his ability to perform. In this case, we find Chet on the floor in jail and being picked up by the movie’s director. He is filming the scenes for the movie about his life. Hawke is very effective in portraying the charming but flawed musician. We learn that he came from humble roots as an only child on a farm in Oklahoma with a father who had some talent but holds some resentment towards his son who he feels has disgraced his family name.

Baker was gapped tooth missing a big tooth and later has major jaw issues due to a beating by an unpaid drug dealer. It seems that talent means little to those who profit from addiction rather than ticket sales. Baker has alienated all those people around him, in addition to his parents like his manager and fellow performers. When asked by Elaine early in his courting of her about his addiction he responds “I’ve got some habits”. After his beating he needs to rehab himself physically to play the trumpet with his repaired mouth and teeth. It’s painful and takes time. All the while Elaine supports him. He performs yet again in a studio where he first became noticed, and he sounds like his old self. He sings “My Funny Valentine” while looking at Elaine and he manages to parlay this into another opportunity with record and concert promoters present in New York City at the Birdland Jazz Club. Fellow famous performers Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis are in attendance. Things happen. We learn that like any true addict, if left to his own devices and provided with difficult choices, an addict will generally make a poor choice. The audience if left to wonder, like so many other artists who struggled, just how great that they would have been without it. There is so much on the line too, with Baker in particular with Elaine. Baker argues that “all I want to do is play” and “I don’t want a career”. We can see the painful dilemma and how it impacts Baker. Hawke is excellent in portraying this. Hawke gives an excellent performance, and this laid some ground work for his Oscar nomination in Blue Moon last year. I will say that Ejogo (who in real life was married to Jeffrey Wright from 2000-2014) was very good here too. Her young actress showed initial resistence to Baker’s charms but quickly fell for it. Even after seeing Baker hit bottom time and again, she says one thing and yet does another. A moth to the flame. It is sad to see addiction rule a person’s life especially those who have talent and can provide such joy with their art. This story effectively tells such a story. It is to be noted that Baker lived until he was 58yo in Amsterdam.

August 12, 2024

First of all, this is my eldest son’s birthday today and I wanted to send a great big shout out to him! It’s a milestone birthday for him and I am a very lucky Dad to have him in my life. He makes me proud every day. Happy Birthday!

A Quiet Place: Day One: In 2018, the original and surprise sci-fi thriller hit A Quiet Place was released. I was a fan of the John Krasinski story, with his direction, along with him acting with his wife in real life Emily Blunt. The premise was a subtle but important turn on the typical alien invader story. In that story the alien creatures were seemingly without weakness, and were roaming freely through the US and in this smaller US farming community. The movie follows a family and three kids struggling through this invasion. The sequeal released in 2020 continued on with the story for Emily Blunt and family.

This story has nothing to do with Emily Blunt and her family. It is a prequel set in NYC with all new characters. The primary character here, named Samira, is played by Lupita Nyong’o who is a woman stricken with cancer in a hospice facility. The is alone with her cat, and is down on her life and life in general. Then the unexpected for those in the film happens as images and events very reminiscent of 9-11 takes place throughout the city. Raining down from above come these meteorites which are these blurs as attacking creatures with devastating effect.

Buildings are falling, dust flies, fires begin, explosions occur and people are wiped out. In all of this madness we follow Samira who works to navigate her way to safety. Crawling under trucks, running through dusty streets in clouds of dust with an unseen danger, clearly killing these people around her. In all of this, she inexplicably manages to keep her cat close to her. Of course one has to check reality at the door at times. In this case I thought about the practicalities of trying to film these scenes with an adult cat, without Nyong’o being scratched and bitten to shreds. But in the film, with all the chaos going on around her, she still manages to find her cat. Not just once. There was a moment about halfway through the film when in my head I said “if she finds that cat one more time in all of this, I have to stop the film.” I stopped it. Incredibly!

Having been a fan of the first effort especially, I feel as though this story was a cash grab, taking advantage of the goodwill built up in the earlier films. The first film works especially because of the family angle. Mom, Dad, kids and how they interact. Emily Blunt’s character was also pregnant in the first film, and you just agonize with her as she is about the give birth in the scenes. That isn’t present here, despite the best of intentions in trying to gain sympathy for Samira’s cancer condition and diagnosis. She meets some random people who help her, show humanity and give her hope. From a character who talks to her therapy group about how her life was “shit” then before everything happened. I do think that life in North America in 2024 doesn’t have people generally appreciate just how good things are for us. Life even 100 years ago, let alone 400 years ago would have been. She learns some lessons, but as an audience member it didn’t work for me. So I am not able to recommend this. Unfortunately.

House of the Dragon Season 2: The second season of this series finished last Sunday with the eighth and final episode. Apparently there are two more seasons to go. We get to see the trials and tribulations among the Targaryan family as they battle for the crown of the departed King Viserys. There are two camps, Viserys’ daughter Rhaenyra, who was promised the crown by her father in no uncertain terms, but then the son of Viserys’ second wife Aegon. Aegon is one of a few heirs with Alicent Hightower and Viserys.

But as a season, I don’t think it ends in a way that is Game of Thrones worthy. I know that I will harp on this, but if you are marketing this series, and using the Game of Thrones theme song, then you must expect some comparisons with the original series. This doesn’t have the same families and characters weaving amongst each other (although there are some), nor the number of locations within Westeros and beyond. In this way it seems like GOT Lite. This season also didn’t end with an expected cliff hanger.

This feels more as pieces were being placed on a board and then the movements are going to take place later on. I like some of the placements, with the moves being made on both side of the potential battle (Aegon and family versus Rhaenyra and allies). I also note that the women seem to be more stable leaders than the men, certainly within the Targaryen family where the men and boys show themelves to be power hungry and viscious. The one episode where the dragons battle as I wrote about earlier was excellent. But the last couple of episodes have once again moved into more plot heavy dialogue. I wish that it moved quicker. I wish that there were episodes like the dragon battle episode. It seemed that Game of Thrones was able to build off on one another on multiple fronts. I will continue to watch. I do like the production values. I also generally like the actors, and the performances. But the quality of the story and writing seems more borrowed from Wolf Hall or The Other Boleyn Girl or the Tudors, all having to deal with the Henry VIII. Of course it is not completely this story but there are certainly elements of it.