A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms review: Game of Thrones gets funny

Though House of the Dragon tells a different story than Game of Thrones, there are enough tonal similarities to make the spinoff feel more like a remix of its predecessor than a show with its own distinct voice. That’s part of what made it a little hard to get excited when HBO first announced that it was producing yet another Game of Thrones prequel focused on digging into the annals of Westeros’ bloody history. But unlike House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes a unique and very refreshing approach to fleshing out the details of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books. It even has a sense of humor.

At just six episodes long, the new show’s first season is much shorter and smaller in scale than what Thrones fans are used to. But each episode is a shining example of how exciting this grimy world of swords and sorcery can feel when it’s being explored from fresh perspectives. And while A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms might not go on to be the next Game of Thrones-level cultural phenomenon that HBO wants, it feels like exactly the kind of show the network should be making if it plans to keep this franchise growing.

Based on Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas set about a century before the events of Game of Thrones, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms tells the story of Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his young traveling companion, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Because Dunk is a hulking mountain of a man armed with a longsword, people are loath to pick fights with him as he journeys through Westeros’ countryside. But the man’s clumsiness and soft-spoken nature make it easy for others to dismiss him as a simpleton when he tells them that he’s a knight of the realm.

The shabbiness of Dunk’s armor and his perpetually filthy clothes makes it readily apparent to everyone that he’s actually an impoverished hedge knight with no lands, titles, or any real claim to glory. Few people really appreciate how wholeheartedly Dunk has embraced his dead master Ser Arlan of Pennytree’s (Danny Webb) teachings about how knights are meant to live with honor and a sense of justice while protecting the weak. But in Dunk, Egg — a precocious boy with a knack for mischief — sees an opportunity to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a squire.

Those kinds of motivations — as opposed to, say, wanting the Iron Throne or to rally the whole of Westeros to fight an army of the undead — make A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms feel like a more tightly knit series than either Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon. The show frames Dunk as a large but mostly ordinary man who wants little more than to make a name for himself by winning an upcoming jousting tournament. The competition is a huge deal for smallfolk like Dunk, but it’s completely uninteresting to elites like Prince Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel) and Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings).

As A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms brings more lords and ladies into focus, the show starts to illustrate how much of the drama and blood this franchise is known for is caused by the nobility’s scheming. Things are far more lighthearted when the show is focused on Dunk and Egg trying to scrounge up some breakfast before figuring out how, exactly, they’re going to get into the tournament without any money. Though Dunk finds himself in a few gruesome brawls, his adventures with Egg give you a sense of how much easier people are able to live when winter is recently behind them. And because all-out war is the last thing on any of its characters’ minds, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has the freedom to lean into a much more jovial tone that feels like it’s poking fun at the series that came before it.

Rather than trying to dazzle you with magic and large-scale mayhem, showrunner Ira Parker is more intent on punctuating A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms with bawdy and often scatological humor that’s especially funny when the show’s leads are playing off of one another. Claffey and Ansell deliver dynamic performances that showcase how Dunk and Egg bring the best out in one another and how much more there is to the duo than other characters assume based on their looks. Dunk is a bit of a guileless oaf, and Egg is a mouthy brat who has no business running around battlefields with swords twice his size. But the two make an unexpectedly good team as knight and squire, and their bond takes on new depth as this season races toward its finale.

In its second half, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms loses some of its whimsy as details are revealed that steer the show in a very classic Game of Thrones direction. Those looking for palace intrigue and bone-crunching battles and won’t find themselves disappointed — the show features some of this franchise’s most nauseating deaths. But those moments really drive home how much more compelling this story is when it isn’t trying to echo the beats of HBO’s other high fantasy projects.

Because A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms cleaves so closely to the self-contained arc of the first book in the Dunk and Egg series, this season wraps up with a pleasant tidiness that makes it feel like it easily could have been a one-and-done miniseries. With House of the Dragon set to end after its upcoming fourth season, though, HBO clearly wants this new show — which has already been renewed for a second season — to keep the Westeros hype going. And if the network doubles down on the things that make A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms such a delightful change of pace, that plan might just work.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms also stars Finn Bennett, Tanzyn Crawford, Sam Spruell, Edward Ashley, Henry Ashton, Youssef Kerkour, and Shaun Thomas. The series premieres on January 18th.