House of the Dragon: The Complete Second Season - 4K Blu-ray Review

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Being a long time Game of Thrones fan I was one of those people who was ready for the series to end by the time the lackluster (and rushed) season 8 finished. I had loved the series since the very beginning, but after season 5 the show started to slide down hill quite rapidly, with season 8 simply being the two director’s rushed attempt at wrapping everything up so they could go work on Star Wars IPs (which they were summarily canned for once everyone saw what they did with Game of Thrones, ironic isn’t it). So color me rather skeptical when I saw House of the Dragon being advertised. I mean, the main show as already over, and spinoff’s of a popular show USUALLY end up being way worse than their predecessor. I mean, look at what happened when the powers that be decided to make a spin off of The Witcher? So I decided to skip the show entirely until I had heard enough word of mouth to make an informed decision. Plus, with so many other good shows out there I had zero need to watch a cheap copy.

By the end of season one’s run on HBO Max (now just MAX) it was pretty clear that Ryan Condal was going back to basics, and made an absolute banger of a first run. I never got to review the very first season, so I sorta forgot the show existed (or to be more precise, that I needed to start ANOTHER show) until I got the press release from Sony for the home video release, and subsequently the 4K UHD set showing up on my doorstep. So that means yours truly had to go on a full blown House of the Dragon bender, binge watching both seasons back to back in order to catch up with all of you and give you my hallowed opinion (of which I’m sure you guys are waiting with baited breath for).

I was full blown excited after watching the very first season of the show earlier in the week, and since I had paid literally ZERO attention to critical and fan reviews of the 2nd season, I went in completely blind. Needless to say I exited this final season a few hours ago scratching my head. While a lot of people seemed to be a bit mixed over the first season’s time jump I was rather pleased with how it turned out, and generally loved the mix of action, political intrigue, and betrayal. Not to mention a return to HBO’s original blood, nudity and gore elements that littered the first 3 seasons of Game of Thrones. But this season...well...this season was simply SLOW.

I’m not going to get too much into the weeds because over explaining the show is not something this season/series does well with. But needless to say that this season gets bogged down VERY heavily with the writing. At first glance It seems like nothing happens, and the pacing is off the charts uneven. Each episode seems to have less and less interesting things happening, with a finale that was absolute torture to watch. And even after the hesitantly settled civil war attempts are put to rest, I felt not a lot has happened in Westeros. But looking at it more closely I feel that this season was a 2 faceted event that sets up more to come, but also is a cope for the beleaguered production issues. But at the end of the road this “dance of dragons” feels like characters spinning in place.

Don’t get me wrong, the performances are very solid. Matt Smith is deliciously twisted, and I have a new respect for Olivia Cooke as Queen Hightower. But holy cow, Emma D’Arcy just steals the show as Queen of the Targaryen’s. She is absolutely electrifying with all of the machinations and twistings with various players vying for the throne. BUUUUUUUUUUUUT at the end of the day, the characters feel like they’re spinning the wheels in place as if nothing happened….because….well… nothing really DOES happen. The entire season is much like the Jake Paul/ Mike Tyson boxing matching from a week ago. There was a whole lot of dancing around each other and half hearted jabs, but nothing really got done till the finale.

Part of this is probably due to a HORRENDOUS production, as word on the street is that the entire cast and production were just jerked back and forth from writers room to filming MULTIPLE times over the short season. The big picture after everything is settled is that House of the Dragon Season 2 is leagues better than last year’s production in terms of visuals and costuming an graphics, but a rather large step back from the storytelling quality. I had a good time with the show, but it was simply middling compared to the excitement I felt binging last year’s season.




Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

HBO/Warner’s video encodes for any of these Game of Thrones 4K discs have always been superb, and this particular one looks surprisingly exquisite due to the upgrades aesthetics and budget that was awarded the show. Whatever you may think of the show itself, the 2.00:1 HEVC encode is above reproach. The show has a very distinct aesthetic vibe to it, with deep dark medieval castles that are shrouded in deep shadows and murky candlelit stone bedrooms that really tax your display’s black level resolution. With that in mind, the Dolby Vision really sparkles in those dim lit scenes, showing rich shadows and incredible details even when the only thing lighting a stone room is a flickering torch off in the corner. Outdoor shots tend to be either dimly lit or given a warm sandy brown motif in full sunlight. Both of which showcase incredible detail and a vibrant color spectrum that, while slightly dulled, display tons of nuanced shades and colors in between the overarching color scheme. The ice blues of winterfeld contrast with the medieval throne room, yet each of the various locale color grading’s allow for an absolutely brilliant amount of detail without any artifacting. In fact, the only REAL artifacting I occasionally saw was some noise speckled scenes in the pitch black of a prison cell or bedchamber, and even then it is barely noticeable.









Audio:

The impeccable Atmos track of season one is followed up by another vision of perfection, driven with the mood driven “theme” of the Game of Thrones world, followed up by a wonderfully nuanced experience that ranges from dialog driven segments, punctuated by all of the war preparations that allow for the surround and overheads to really shine. Ships unloading at port, musical score elements floating all around, and the rattling of armor and sabers as the various factions arm up for the expected conflict all offer a ton of auditory elements to enjoy in your home theater. Bass is rich and resounding, accentuating the beautiful score and also adding weight to battles and the thudding of dragon wings as they land. While I may not have been totally enamored with this seasons’ show, I certainly am in love with the Atmos track.
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Extras:

Disc One
• The House that Dragons Built - Ep #1 Extended Version
• Defend Your Council
• Character Spots
-- Rhaenyra
-- Aegon
• Fire Hot Takes: Team Green vs. Team Black
• The House that Dragons Built - Ep #2 Extended Version
• Return to Winterfell
• House Who? (House Stark)
• Return to the Realm

Disc Two
• The House that Dragons Built - Ep #3 Extended Version
• House Who? (Bracken & Brackwood) .
• Fire Hot Takes
-- Case for Ruler
-- Daemon vs. Aemond
• The House that Dragons Built - Ep #4 Extended Version
• Eve Tribute Piece
• House Who? (House Tully & House Frey)
• Guess That Line - Eve & Steve
• Character Spots
-- Daemon
-- Corlys

Disc Three
• The House that Dragons Built - Ep #5 Extended Version
• The House that Dragons Built - Ep #6 Extended Version
• Character Spots
-- Alicent
-- Aemond

Disc Four
• The House that Dragons Built - Ep #7 Extended Version
• The House that Dragons Built - Ep #8 Extended Version
• Family Tree
• Divided Kingdoms
• The Curse of Harrenhal











The sophomore entry for the George R.R. Martin spionff is a decent step back from the previous season. I’m not going to weep, wail, and gnash my teeth about the show “killing itself in front of fans!”, but I will say that I was a bit perturbed by the uneven pacing and very little that actually happens plot wise this year. Acting wise D’arcy and Smith kill it, and the visuals are off the charts, but the before mentioned pacing and narrative issues sort of counterbalance those benefits. Video and audio are quite nice, and the extras are UNBELIEVABLY dense, leaving me to say this was a bit of a “give and take” situation from last year. Fun enough, but not what it was. Solid enough watch, but fans of the show will be VERY pleased with the technical aspects outlined above.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Jefferson Hall, Rhys Ifans
Created by: Ryan J. Condal, George R.R. Martin (Novels)
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, German, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Spanish, Dutch
Rated: NR
Runtime: 480 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 19th, 2024