While the awful finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones series spoiled most of the goodwill the show had earned over its eight-year run, House of the Dragon—a prequel series set two centuries earlier—debuted with a confident, enthralling first season in 2022. The second season is slower than expected, but it nevertheless includes some scorching-hot action, mostly in the form of dragon battles.
House is derived from George R.R. Martin’s overarching, multidecade history of the fictional Targaryen dynasty. That makes it a more difficult adaptation than A Song of Ice and Fire, the character-based drama series from which Thrones was derived. Even so, showrunner Ryan Condal has done an admirable job depicting an epic civil war between two rival branches of the dragon-riding royal family.
Said conflict is costly and destructive—and not just for the combatants. While Thrones periodically dwelt with the plight of civilians caught up in war, the greater involvement of dragons changes everything. Much like a modern-day confrontation between two nuclear powers, there’s simply no way to win; the entire countryside burns.
The 33rd season of “Dancing with the Stars” premiered Tuesday on ABC22, with a new cast of stars, including Vermont’s own Ilona Maher, the Bronze-medal winner in women’s rugby at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Maher and her partrner, Alan Bersten, a Latin and ballroom dancer, did the Cha Cha to “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” by Shania Twain. The pair scored 18 points out of 30 and finished 8th in the first round.
None of the 13 teams was eliminated in last night’s debut episode, setting up a double elimination next week.
Maher said her goal for the show is to expand people’s perceptions about what strong, muscular women can do. “I think I just want to show like, again, some nice athletes, female athletes, rugby players are put into a box and totally have to be one thing,” she said. “And I have never liked that. I felt so many more things.”
Since the Olympics, when Maher became a social media darling, she has capitalized on her newfound fame. She was on the red carpet at the Emmy Awards earlier this week, and she’s been making the late-night-talk show circuit and posing for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
But, while she was excited with her final score, Maher says it wasn’t her best performance.
“Next week, you just watch,” she said. “I’m going to get better. But So I think to be in this environment where I can really showcase so many different things: my beauty and femininity and gracefulness, I just think it’s another avenue for girls to see they can be so many great things.”
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