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The new 'Game of Thrones' show has arrived, in the year of our fears 2022, to get us away from our long winter full of controversial 'thrones'. Do we want to go where it leads us? "House of the Dragon," HBO's prequel series based on George R. Martin's "Fire and Blood," tells the story of House Targaryens in a time before our old friends appeared: one hundred and seventy-two years before of the death of the Mad King, tell the initial titles, and the birth of his daughter Daenerys Targaryen. Life in the year 172 a. C., as I call it, sounds familiar: dusty cities and palaces, fire-like chandeliers, ghost-headed ruling families, occasional orgies. (From time to time, perhaps, it's best to adjust the show's violence-to-debauchery ratio.) As always, there's a succession crisis, and when HBO's series is fueled by a succession crisis, just sit back and watch the infighting - we've got hours of hefty betrayal to enjoy or endure.

The Dragon quickly offers some of the pleasures of the Ancient Thrones. The show begins not with a somber sequence of icy monsters, as Thrones did, but with the announcement, in the Great Hall, of Prince Viserys (Buddy Considine) as the next king. The action moves forward, nine years into the reign of Viserys, when, after a delightfully familiar credits sequence (no maps, just an amulet and relaxed drumming in classic Jawadi ramen style), an aerial symphony of clouds and flapping wings leather leads us to jump. in the Red Keep, in King's Landing. The King's teenage daughter, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) is very flashy and very much like Daenerys, simply by borrowing the family car, a dragon named Syrax; I dismounted with brave indifference. She "she tries not to look too comfortable," she 

tells an old grizzled gentleman, shaking out her blonde braid and removing her driving gloves.

He replies, "Every time that golden beast brings you back intact, it saves my head from a sudden surge." Oh, heads on nails, how we missed you, Westeros! Inside the palace, Rhinera and her friend Aliscent Heitor visit the pregnant queen ("This embarrassment is how we serve the kingdom," she says, proud and sad), and then Rhinera departs to meet the king and his advisors. where, as he pours water on her, disguised as Arya, he listens to the proceedings: reports beginning "We have all been contemplating the lunar charts"; A discussion about a madman punishing a pirate named Crabfeeder. (The crustaceans in this series are what the leeches were for Melisandre in "Thrones: Disgusting and Basic.")
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The episode gives us glimpses of some interesting character development: Alcock does a masterful job of conveying the wit of Reinera and her turbulent status as a capable but underappreciated princess. Consider nods toward warmth and strength like Ned Stark, along with slight actual incompetence. (He likes to procrastinate on important decisions, he likes to take care of the huge sandcastle model of the city, and he thinks of it like a fanatical model of trains.) There's a fleet of nostalgic details: the goofy iron throne, a idyllic young soul named Samuel, the grandeur of C.J.I. Dragons (do they always look like Wookiees?) and it's hard not to love a scene where hundreds of flashing votive candles are surrounded not by rose petals and a proposal, but by a Humvee-sized dragon skull. But the construction of the Dragon's world lacks some essential storytelling elements that could improve it dramatically: sparks of young love, odd friendships that are interesting or entertaining, and well-planted seeds that bear attractive fruits. There is a pleasant dialogue, but mostly of unintended variety: "Laugh with your whores and your sluts!" The king shouts at one of his relatives in anger. Tyrion Lannister is not.