Good morrow television lovers. In case you didn’t realize it yet, House of the Dragon is back with a vengeance! Right off the bat in the first episode, a shocking murder takes place. It’s revenge for a certain killing in season 1’s finale, which was a stunning ending to a brilliant first season.

House of the Dragon was my favorite series in 2022, which also saw the release of many other big fantasy shows like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime, Andor on Disney Plus, and The Sandman on Netflix. These were all good, but HBO’s House of the Dragon ruled the streaming year by far if you ask me.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it is definitely not a repetition of Game of Thrones because rather than another epic adventure series, it is more like a Shakespearian family drama like The Godfather and executed perfectly. The Targaryans are a deliciously dysfunctional (and occasionally incestuous) family, and one bloody betrayal follows the other. It also has loads of politics and strategizing, which I love, so now that war between the Blacks and Greens is inevitable, it is set to be another immensely satisfying season.

Why is the drama so effective? First of all, the outstanding writing. There are many fantastic characters and every scene is bristling with emotion. It’s like a chess play taking place with fantastic dialogues and superb acting. All very real.

Each side has a powerful female leader. Rhaenyra Targaryen, the rightful heir to the Iron Throne is passionate and wise, and it’s hard not to be on her side. The Greens have Alicent Hightower, a very clever and determined political strategist who you definitely don’t want to have as your enemy.

Each side also has a Dragon riding sociopath. Daemon, who has been a fascinating scene stealer since the very first episode, is with the Blacks. He supports his wife Rhaenyra – if it suits him – but now he seems to be after the Iron Throne for himself. On the other side, we have the eyepatch wearing Aemond, who rides the biggest dragon of the realm: Vhagar. We know he is capable of terrible deeds, and whatever his destiny will be is one of the most intriguing questions for me (I don’t know because I never read the book ‘Fire & Blood’ on which the show is based).

After the shocking murder in the first episode, the following two episodes (2 and 3) are a little more quiet, and then in the fourth episode we are treated to one of the most spectacular finales in television history. I was amazed…

House of the Dragon has been renewed for a third season, so we won’t get served up a conclusion to this high drama with dragons any time soon. Like in Game of Thrones, the current rulers of the Iron Throne are not of our liking, and we very much would like to see the other party take over. But how this can be done is hard to say. One thing’s for certain: there will be much much more fire and blood before this historic feud in Westeros is over, and I will be there enjoying every minute of it.