A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Review: Making Game of Thrones Small Was a Bad Idea

From the opening scene,A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms shows you what to expect of it. HBO's Game of Thrones prequel from creators Ira Parker and George R.R. Martin starts as the newly knighted Ser Duncan the Tall, aka Dunk (Peter Claffey), buries his master, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb). While Dunk says words of farewell over Arlan's grave, the show quick-cuts, Family Guy style, to Dunk's many memories of Arlan smacking him in the head. Then, as Dunk ponders his future as an itinerant "hedge knight" and the noble, heroic things he will do, the familiar Game of Thrones music swells, and then abruptly stops with a cut to Dunk squatting behind a tree, blasting through a bout of explosive diarrhea. We see the poop coming out of his butt. The scene makes it very clear that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a different kind of Game of Thrones show — more overtly comedic, and down in the muck instead of up in the sky. There are no dragons here, or elaborate schemes to take control of the Iron Throne, only people trying to survive long enough to find out who they really are. If you like Game of Thrones for its grandeur, you will be disappointed.

Everything about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is smaller than Game of Thrones and fellow prequel seriesHouse of the Dragon. It consists of six half-hour episodes (a second season is already in the works). It has only a few regular cast members, takes place at one location, and has minimal special effects. And it feels that small. The stakes are mostly low, and very little happens in the story. It's slow and dreary. It's hard to imagine anyone outside of the most devoted A Song of Ice and Fire superfans enjoying it, because it feels so far removed from the epic, exciting storytelling of Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones had bodily functions, but it wasn't about them.  

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is an adaptation of Tales of Dunk and Egg, a collection of three novellas by Martin. Season 1 is based on The Hedge Knight, the first novella. It follows young, low-ranking knight Dunk as he sets out on his own. A chance encounter in a tavern leads to him acquiring a squire of his own, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), a boy with a curiously bald head and a know-it-all demeanor. Dunk is kind of oafish, but he's honest and valiant, while Egg is very smart but doesn't know how to behave, which makes them well matched. As Dunk tries to enter a tournament where he'll attempt to demonstrate his skills against knights from high-born houses — familiar names like Targaryen, Baratheon, and Tyrell show up — his connection to Egg leads to unexpected occurrences. 

4.0

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

at HBO

Like

• Decent performances
• Some appealing cinematography

Dislike

• A lack of scale
• Slow pace
• Strange narrative choices

Through the first three episodes, the show moves as slowly as a horse-drawn wagon through deep, wet mud. The real story starts at the end of Episode 3, which is too late to introduce the main plot in any show, but is especially egregious in a six-episode season. It's put in motion with a revelation that anyone with an even cursory knowledge of Tales of Dunk and Egg will know about going in. The second half of the season is more exciting than the first — barring a lengthy and unnecessary flashback in Episode 5 — but the show still never fully shakes off the torpor of the early episodes. It's a slight story that maybe could have worked in a two-hour movie but is overly stretched to fit even a shortened TV season. 

A lethargic plot can be somewhat offset by compelling characters, but unfortunately Dunk and Egg aren't interesting enough to carry the show. The key to Game of Thrones' success was the complexity of its characters, but Dunk is no brilliant Tyrion Lannister or nobly conflicted Ned Stark; with Dunk, what you see is what you get, and that's a dumb guy with a good heart. Egg, meanwhile, is a little kid, and there's only so much that can be done with him. Claffey and Ansell do their best with what they have to work with — Ansell in particular shows impressive range within his tight parameters — but Dunk and Egg just don't have the dynamism of the franchise's best characters. 

It's hard to find much of a reason why A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms exists beyond franchise extension at a lower price point. It's more Game of Thrones to try to appease the fans, and it's cheap enough to make that it doesn't have to be a Game of Thrones-sized hit to justify its budget. But House of the Dragon is already a smaller version of Game of Thrones, and shrinking it even further risks removing the things that make the franchise special — its scale and ambition. It would be one thing if A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showed us something we didn't already know about the world Martin created, but it's more of the same thematically. Targaryens are unpredictable, life is hard for smallfolk, etc. It's the same story told from a lower angle. 

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The difficulty of what Parker and Martin are attempting by trying to fit the Game of Thrones style into a smaller container must be acknowledged, and it's admirable that they even tried to do it all. It's hard to imagine anyone else doing it much better. It might be impossible to make a miniature Game of Thrones that still feels like the best parts of Game of Thrones. But if it is possible, they'll have to try a different way than A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. 

Premieres: Sunday, Jan. 18 at 10/9c on HBO and HBO Max
Who's in it: Peter Claffey, Dexter Sol Ansell, Finn Bennett, Bertie Carvel, Tanzyn Crawford, Daniel Ings, Sam Spruell
Who's behind it: Ira Parker (House of the Dragon) and George R.R. Martin
For fans of: The Game of Thrones extended universe
How many episodes we watched: 6 of 6