You desire not to be free, but to make a window in your prison

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.  

#12 : House Of The Dragon

Fire, frenemies, fights and foot fetishes … the Game of Thrones prequel certainly scratched the itch for many fans. Matt Smith became TV’s most lovable villain of the year, while Emma D’Arcy gave us another Targaryen queen to root for. Together, they were the incestuous power couple we never knew we could be so invested in. All 10 episodes were thick with plotting, backstabbing and building a world about to be torn apart by civil war. And just when your attention was about to stray … DRACARYS! Judging by the fiery look on Rhaenyra’s face in that final scene – right after she’d been told <SPOILER ALERT> – all hell is about to be unleashed in the confirmed second season. Let it burn.

We're skipping over #11 for the time being - it's a second tier choice, but will involve watching four seasons, so I feel it's unlikely to make the grade before the end of the year.  But we'll come to that when we come to it...

Despite having a large amount of problematic content, I loved most of Game Of Thrones - and, unlike many of the noisier fans, I was happy enough with the ending.  And so I watched the first episode of this and thought it ticked many of the same boxes - and then never bothered watching any more.  Part of the problem was that it was on at the same time as The Rings Of Power and that just looked a lot nicer (even if some of the storytelling there was somewhat dubious - we won't be seeing it on this list).  Another part of the problem was that it looked as though a couple of the GoT boxes that were going to be ticked were misogyny and incest - yes, I appreciate "olden times" (real or imagined) weren't exactly great for women and they do provide balance through strong female characters.  But even so, it did feel a bit unnecessary at times (but not for Jeremy Clarkson though).  Well, let's see if things continue in the same vein.

Well, they do and they don't.  Things still aren't great for women, but there are some very strong female characters in this - and it seemed less obviously misogynistic to me.  It definitely has a good line in politics - slightly less confusing than GoT because there are fewer characters (but that's not to say it's not confusing).  The action is definitely not quite so action-y as GoT, although there's a decent battle at the end of episode 3

Unlike GoT, it has a surprisingly low-key penultimate episode (except for the last two minutes!). Which makes you think you're in for a stormer of a final episode, but it's very political with lots of intrigue - except at the very end when the thing I've redacted above happens and, boy, did The Guardian spoil that for me (and they got it wrong as well!).  There's a reasonable argument that it's just getting interesting by the end of the season - it feels to me like it was paced as though they'd only get one season and they had to manufacture an ending when they heard they'd been renewed, but it was done well enough to draw me back to it whenever it reappears.

However, I just didn't enjoy it as much as GoT - my major complaint being that it suffers from a lack of likeable characters.  There's just no Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister or Arya Stark here for you to root for.  And some of the characters (particularly the children) are a bit underwritten, but I do suspect we'll be seeing more of them in the next season.  Another complaint I have was that some of the important scenes happen very quickly and sometimes in the dark, which can make it difficult to work out exactly what's going on.  See also, the massive jumps forward in time that occur in places - luckily there are many episode recaps available online to explain the stuff I just didn't understand.  It also, and this seems a strange thing to say for a series with loads of dragons flying around, feels a bit too grounded in reality - there's very little of the "spooky weird shit" that GoT provided.

One further comment that may or may not be relevant for you - it's very c-wordy.  It's mostly in some kind of context (generally people behaving like utter c words), but I suspect some won't feel the need for it.

Given the cast, it would be amazing if it wasn't well acted - and I'd say everyone uses whatever they're given, but some are given more than others.  Paddy Considine is always good value and he degrades impressively through the series, with some great prosthetics/make-up towards the end.  For a change, Rhys Ifan is nicely understated in his role, but there's no danger of saying that about Matt Smith with him being very much overstated - he gets to do some bad things!  Olivia Cooke and Emma d'Arcy do a very good job in taking over two of the main characters half way through the season - although it's a shame that Emma doesn't have loads to do until the final episode and then Olivia isn't in it at all!  Milly Alcock also gets a name check for holding her own in exalted company (and I couldn't believe she was 19 when this was filmed - she looks about 12!).  And finally, it's always nice to see Eve Best (she's brilliant in Nurse Jackie if you haven't seen that).

As well as being well acted, it's well directed and looks absolutely fabulous at times.  It also looked so much better when I stopped watching it on NowTV and switched to a higher resolution source - NowTV is a very convenient and cheap(er) way of watching Sky offerings, but the lower resolution just makes me feel conned rather than tempting me to upgrade.

All in all, this is a bit of an odd one - I enjoyed it and I'll be tuning in (athough I'm not sure anyone "tunes in" any more) for the next season, but it also felt that if I'd not had it in my life then I wouldn't have missed it in the slightest.  If you like GoT, then you'll probably like this and it's certainly worth a watch - but I'd struggle to describe it as essential telly.  It'll be on Sky for ages though, so you've got plenty of time to catch up with it.

#10 - A really well written series
#13 - Odd and confusing, but not necessarily bad