Rating: 9/10
The ending of “Game of Thrones” remains one of the most expensive snafus in 21st-century television, with $90 million and eight years of cultural relevance going up in draconic flame over a mere six weeks.
A lack of solid source material is the generally accepted excuse for these shortcomings, but the show’s tremendous scale was more a hindrance than a selling point by the end of its run. When each episode had to outdo the one before, expectations ballooned, and the critically panned series finale “The Iron Throne” became a cautionary tale for showrunners and fans alike.
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is HBO’s third series based on author George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” franchise, and maybe its best yet. Adapted from the novella “The Hedge Knight,” the six-episode season is a relatively stripped-down entry in the streamer’s catalog.
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Pivoting from the grandiose warfare of “Thrones” and “House of the Dragon,” the show focuses on the common people of Westeros, eschewing dragons and warfare for arrogant princes and tournament jousting.
This smaller-stakes approach is an appropriately unassuming vehicle for main characters Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall and his wily squire Egg. Respectively played by newcomers Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell, the pair’s unlikely friendship is the beating heart of the show. As Dunk grapples with his newfound knighthood in an indifferent realm, the brainy Egg brings an impish, unpredictable quality to the knight-errant’s tale.
The genres of fantasy and buddy comedy seem about as diametrically opposed as one might imagine, but the wry humor of showrunner Ira Parker steers the show away from cliche and into a more grounded, earnest tone.
While almost entirely presented from Dunk’s point of view, his chance encounters with royalty and peasantry flesh out the cast at large and slowly bring together a cohesive ethos for the show at large. For every stereotypically noble prince Dunk comes across, there’s a peanut gallery of sniveling tyrants and irreverent drunkards to balance it out. The backwater town of Ashford is as real a place as you’ll see on screen this year, and every episode is a simple, understated snapshot of Martin and Parker’s vision realized.
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” depicts the medieval lifestyle as unflinchingly and dryly as possible, as Dunk and Egg sleep under the stars one night before watching an ugly and gory joust the next morning. There’s a sort of charm to the show’s quiet realism, a far cry from the overly-CGIed dragon battles and thousand-man melees of its predecessor series.
The show’s first season is based on but one of a potential 12 novellas, and the format of the show so far lends itself wonderfully to a robust, year-by-year release. There’s no telling where Dunk and Egg are off to next, but audiences are in good hands with simple pleasures like these.
