A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Season 1 Spoiler-Free Review

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuts Sunday, January 18 astatine 10:00 p.m. ET/PT connected HBO and volition beryllium disposable to watercourse connected HBO Max. New episodes volition debut connected consequent Sundays.

Although House of the Dragon mostly stemmed the wide instrumentality disappointment caused by the last seasons of Game of Thrones, it has inactive generated its ain stock of frustrations that person kept it from being a afloat instrumentality to glory for HBO’s flagship franchise. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms doesn’t aspire to beryllium the franchise’s redeemer. Still, it is the astir purely enjoyable and heartfelt excursion to Westeros successful immoderate time, and 1 that tin service arsenic an introduction constituent to the franchise for viewers who whitethorn consciousness they are excessively acold down connected each the lore to articulation now.

Set astir 100 years earlier the events depicted successful Game of Thrones and based connected The Hedge Knight, the archetypal introduction successful George R.R. Martin’s novella bid Tales of Dunk and Egg, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows the towering, dim-witted Dunk (played with lovable oafishness by Peter Claffey), the squire to a precocious deceased hedge knight. Dunk travels the backroads of Westeros arsenic helium looks to vie successful a jousting tourney truthful that helium tin go a knight.

Along the way, Dunk encounters Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell, tiny of stature but commanding successful surface presence), a precocious bald kid who wants thing much than to go Dunk’s squire. These 2 oddballs soon transverse paths with an assortment of rough-and-tumble characters bearing immoderate of Westeros’ astir legendary surnames.

Dunk initially rebuffs Egg, suspecting the mouthy kid is conscionable a thief, but helium yet sees much of his younger aforesaid successful this unusual lad who’s determined to beryllium his squire. The insolent Egg is mysteriously omniscient successful the ways of knighthood and successful however things successful Westeros run for reasons that volition not go wide until aboriginal successful the archetypal season. Dunk and Egg are 2 young radical conscionable trying to find their mode successful this gloomy, life-is-cheap satellite wherever the disparity betwixt the haves and have-nots could not beryllium more, ahem, stark.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms doesn’t necessitate 1 to cognize the past Game of Thrones shows, to person work immoderate of the root material, oregon to person immoderate extended cognition of the franchise’s phantasy lore. While dragons stay a not-too-distant representation successful this play and the Targaryens inactive clasp the Iron Throne, this is simply a Westeros without magic, White Walkers, oregon immoderate of the genre trappings galore viewers whitethorn person travel to expect and admit from the franchise. (There whitethorn not beryllium immoderate dragons, but A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms inactive offers the whoring, violence, acheronian humor, and occasional full-frontal nudity the franchise is besides notable for.)

While that deficiency of phantasy mightiness look similar a shortage to some, this grounded attack recenters viewers’ attraction connected the precise quality characters inhabiting this peculiar clip and spot successful Westeros.

Rather than going the sword & sorcery route, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms alternatively blends aspects from underdog sports movies, rites of transition sagas, and archetypal badass and kid pairings that the likes of Lone Wolf and Cub, Logan and X-23, the T-800 and John Connor, and the Mandalorian and Grogu person each employed to large effect. (Dunk, though, is acold from being the badass immoderate of those characters are.)

Dunk is an Everyman looking to marque his people successful a tract dominated by the Great Houses; each helium has going for him is his size and sheer unit of will. He is simply a Rocky-like palooka who tin endure a beating and support going, arsenic evidenced by the show’s convulsive jousting tourneys, realized with a grimy brutality not seen since Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel.

Thanks to its compact storytelling – Season 1 is conscionable six episodes, with astir moving astir 30 minutes long, the archetypal 3 directed by Owen Harris and the second 3 by Sarah Adina Smith – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms ne'er feels bloated oregon similar it's spinning its wheels waiting to get to immoderate large payoff the mode that House of the Dragons and Game of Thrones sometimes did. Some flashbacks aside, the archetypal play takes spot implicit conscionable a fewer days, truthful it’s beauteous adjacent to a real-time escapade successful Westeros, wherever friendships and rivalries are forged rapidly but profoundly owed to life-or-death circumstances.

Smaller some successful standard and ambition than its predecessors, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms ne'er rather plumbs the motivation depths – and wholly forgoes the dragon-riding phantasy highs – of the erstwhile 2 Game of Thrones series. Still, it provides the spectator with halfway protagonists 1 tin stay emotionally invested in, thing the wide franchise has occasionally mislaid show of successful favour of spectacle.