The House of the Dragon – Driftmark Review

It’s pretty amazing what difference a (mostly) new cast can make. Lest you think I’m criticizing the younger versions of the vast majority of The House of the Dragon’s ever-growing cast of characters, I’m not. But having older, more experienced actors take the reins when the story needs to start getting darker, more complicated, and yes, more incestuous, has paid dividends for the series in just two episodes. Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy continue to be pitch perfect in their work, heightening the tension with simple looks and wonderfully nuanced performances. And as the main thrust of the series’ story comes into greater focus – that would be the coming war between the Greens (Alicent’s faction) and the Blacks (Rhaenyra’s side), wonderfully hinted at by the mutterings of Helaena this week (after she predicted Aemond’s loss of an eye last week – looks like we’ve got a seer on our hands here) – having two strong performances leading each side of the story is a crucial element to the series continuing to become stronger.

Now, I genuinely enjoyed this episode. The massive confrontation in the Driftmark hall was incredibly suspenseful, slowly unfurling Rhaenyra’s “secret” for all to see. Paddy Considine’s facial expressions as Viserys ties himself in knots to ensure that Rhaenyra remains the heir was a thing of beauty to watch – as was Cooke’s face falling as Alicent realizes that she has overplayed her hand (thanks to her son’s brash sense of privilege). Sure, the overhead shot with the two future warring factions nicely split down the middle at the end of the sequence was a tad heavy-handed, but it made its point. And what a point it was. The key to keeping the narrative going on a series like this one (especially with one final time jump coming on the horizon) is not to get too precious with characters’ secrets. Keeping information hidden works when you have a small cast and a short timeframe in which to tell a story. When you are making an epic, brevity is your friend. Laying out the parentage of Rhaenyra’s children now, before things get too far down the track, means that this isn’t something characters will have to tip-toe around time and again. Rather, it’s now part of the fabric of the story and we can take it as read and move forward.

I also appreciated that, in a shocking first for a Game of Thrones series, the token queer male character was allowed to live – although that sequence at the close of the episode was needlessly confusing when it absolutely didn’t have to be. Slotting in the scene of Daemon killing the servant didn’t fit nicely when it was placed in the flow of the sequence – it would have been better as a reveal once the body was discovered and the pair were secreting themselves away to their ship (and perhaps a shot of them swapping the body into the fire would have been nice too, considering how much work would have gone into setting that bait and switch up – I assumed this would be the case, as Rhaenyra wouldn’t want to actually kill Laenor) . It also leaves a gaping plot hole: What happens to Laenor’s dragon? We know that dragons only switch allegiance once their rider has died (you know, the key plot point of the episode). However, Laenor is not dead. Is there suddenly going to be a dragon hanging out in Pentos or something? Or will Seasmoke break his bond with his rider? One also assumes that, at some point, Laenor will be pulled back into the civil war about to erupt – again, dragons are going to be key, so having another dragonrider to help the Blacks would be crucial – so I doubt this is the last we see of him and having him keep his dragon would be a great boon to both him and his side in the war. One hopes this particular dragon question will be revealed next week, but again, The House of the Dragon has been much less concerned with the minutia of the story and much more interested in painting the broad strokes of a developing conflict – not necessarily a bad approach, but a clear choice.

So, if I loved the narrative tension, the performances, and the story itself, what didn’t I love about “Driftmark”? Well, that would be the really awful direction of the episode. It’s rare that I use a review to criticize a director’s work in an episode of TV, largely because directing in television is a different beast than film. Often, directors come into a series and direct a single episode – particularly with dramas – at a time, perhaps only helming a handful at most throughout a series’ run. So, I give television directors the benefit of the doubt more often than not. But woof. Miguel Sapochnik, co-showrunner of season one and the infamous director behind the dark disappointment of The Battle of Winterfell, strikes again with an utterly confusing visual palate. The scenes indoors were fine, if a bit basic in their framing and staging. But everything that occurred outside was a mess. I’m not sure if those scenes were filmed during the day and treated with a really bad filter on the lens, filmed at night with bad lighting to make it appear as dusk, or if there was some sort of attempt to create a “midnight sun” situation, but wow. What does Sapochnik have against light and color? If this were any other series, I would be shocked that the showrunner allowed something that poorly lit and filmed to make it to air. Considering the man behind the mess was, in fact, one of the showrunners (and this isn’t the first time he’s filmed something that was so poorly lit that it took away from the story he was trying to tell), I’m not at all shocked.

But, come on. You know one of the reasons I prefer watching The Rings of Power or Andor to The House of the Dragon? It’s because both series are filmed so that I can always see what is happening clearly. Even the recent Rings battle sequence that took place at night was filmed in such a way so that we never lost sight of our characters and could always follow the action clearly. Creating ambiance through light and focus is a crucial element of visual storytelling. But that doesn’t mean that you must shade your story in dark grays and blacks to tell your audience that your world is dark and moody. That’s what you have actors for – and costume designers, hair and make-up teams, and, in the case of fantasy epics, VFX teams. You need to trust all the tools at your disposal to instruct the audience on how to watch your series. When you simply throw an inky pall on the proceedings, you make it nearly impossible for us to understand what’s happening and hamper our ability to empathize with the characters. Watching Aemond claim his dragon is one of the most important moments in the story – we needed to see that happen clearly, concisely, and grasp that moment for what it was. Instead, it was hard to determine just what was happening at each beat.

This was one of The House of the Dragon’s finest hours from a narrative perspective. This was the moment where the official battle lines were drawn for the war ahead. We needed to see clearly each step that occurred to allow this to happen. Sapochnik knows better than this – but once again, when he needed to present us a sharp episode, he dropped the ball. And it’s a shame because this could have been an all-time great episode within the Game of Thrones universe.