House of the Dragon is back with its season finale "The Black Queen" and it's brilliant, it's cinema. The premise: While mourning a tragic loss, Rhaenyra tries to hold the realm together, and Daemon prepares for war. What follows is some brilliant drama and scenes that will stay in your mind, the writing and direction is superb, and well like I wrote before it's cinema. This is an episode of House of the Dragon, an episode of the Game of Thrones franchise, an episode you'll remember. The writing is superb and you see the passion, in each line of dialogue and in the overall writing, great writers are behind this show and season finale.
With the death of Viserys Targaryen two episodes ago and the ascension of Aegon II in the previous episode titled "The Green Council", for this episode we finally get to see Rhaenyra and Team Black who were absent except for Rhaenys "The Queen Who Never Was" Targaryen. This episode is full of brilliant acting, with people acting out all kind of emotions. If Emma D'Arcy doesn't get nominated for awards for her performance as Rhaenyra Targaryen, I don't know what they would be thinking, she's putting everything she got into this role, top notch performance. The other performance among my favorites are Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, it's just impressive and like D'Arcy's, it's award worthy. The supporting cast is all great, but Ewan Mitchell's performance as Aemond Targaryen continues to amaze me, they have a rising star in their midst.
"The Black Queen" was directed by Greg Yaitanes who's also producing House of the Dragon, I just have to say this, his direction and visual storytelling is perfect. Like it was in the other episodes he have directed, but this was his best, and possibly one of the season's best episodes. The cinematography too is brilliant and beyond perfect. Fabian Wagner is a genius, an artist. There's so many shots that are brilliantly shot and just stunning, from the camera angles to establishing those shots that lingers on our minds. Truly mesmerizing.
I wrote before how brilliant the writing is and I can't praise it enough, I think Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik along with George R. R Martin have done perfect job with creating the show, with the two former being show runners. Sara Hess wrote episode 1.10 "The Black Queen" and her work was brilliant, with Clare Kilner directing it and her work was too quite phenomenal. There's a Shakespearean quality to this show that makes every scene so interesting to watch, really giving the show a different feeling than it's predecessor and other shows. It feels much more serious and mature, more intelligent in a sense, than Game of Thrones. The characters are so richly drawn and the tension and conflict that's built up between them so compelling and complex. Despite the plethora of dragons, it is less fantastical for one thing. It's also more focused and less epic, with a smaller cast and a tighter focus. Episode 1.10 was brilliant, the whole production was superb and we even got to see a new set of Storm's End which have been referenced but never seen in both shows, it's the home of House Baratheon. The exterior like the interior was impressive and I can't wait to see more of it and everything else we'll see in Season 2. The Storm's End sequence was mesmerizing and truly brilliant. But let's talk about the musical score, Ramin Djawadi uses old musical cues like new ones, making sure that people won't forget how important the powerful and epic music is to the heart of the show, so powerful to our own hearts. I won't go into any details but that ending was spectacular and what a great setup for season 2 which will be arriving in 2024, Ryan Condal wrote a perfect season finale.
