House of the Dragon: season 3 finally unleashed the dragons (review)

After a frustrating second season, which spent more of its time preparing for war than telling it, the HBO series finally returns with what fans have been waiting for: fire, blood and dragons. More spectacular, more brutal and above all much more urgent in its narration.

Six months after A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a nice offbeat but somewhat sluggish break in the universe of Westeros, Game of Thrones is already back on our screens. And this time, House of the Dragon finally stops revolving around the dragon!

This Targaryen civil war that season 2 kept promising without ever really delivering comes to us head-on. No more human-scale story. No more endless strategic discussions and entire episodes dedicated to moving pawns on the chessboard. This season 3 shifts into total spectacle, like the counterpart of a wait that has become almost unbearable.

It opens with the impressive Battle of the Gosier, a naval confrontation of a cinematic scale rarely seen on television. The two camps claiming the Iron Throne face each other in a chaos of flames, broken wood and dragons that tear the sky apart. This opening finally rewards the eight episodes of setting up the previous season. It’s sometimes a little confusing (if you don’t revise first, you risk being a little lost), but above all it’s hot, furious and terribly exciting.

There is action, spectacle, dragons and deaths. Lots of deaths. The crowd demanding heads was successful. But the real success of this season is not limited to its battles. Above all, the series finds a form of dramatic urgency which revives the intoxication of the first seasons of Game of Thrones, this perverse and frenzied desire to see how it will all (badly) end. The dialogues are electric. Every face-to-face seems to end face-to-face. The game of alliances and betrayals regains all its flavor while Rhaenyra’s torments seem to have no end.

House of the Dragon finally leaves the grueling status quo of season 2 to reshuffle the cards and refocus the narrative. The drama finds a form of moral brutality, a scathing violence for the survival of a lineage and the domination of a House, which it had previously completely abandoned, imprisoned in its need to shape the usurped queen.

The series also assumes more of its political dimension, in the noblest sense of the term. The management of the city, the rivalries of egos, the expectations of the people and the calculations of the ruling class occupy a central place in the plot. The Seven Kingdoms are on the verge of implosion. We feel it and it’s quite enjoyable.

Of course, this can all seem a bit redundant at times. We’ve seen this before. “Westeros fatigue” is never far away. But Emma D’Arcy delivers a performance on the same level as that of Paddy Considine in season 1, while Matt Smith is still just as badass. Season 3 restores the nobility of medieval fantasy.

House of the Dragon, season 3, to watch from Monday June 22 on HBO Max in France.