‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ review: A refreshing ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel

TV review

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” HBO’s charming, playful, frequently crushing new “Game of Thrones” prequel, is a fantasy epic in miniature. Though it’s set a century before the events of the original series, follows a new main protagonist (the towering himbo with a heart of gold, Ser Duncan) and is more confined in its scope, don’t mistake this show for being slight. 

Where previous adaptations of author George R.R. Martin’s fantasy stories centered on the bloody battles between various families struggling for power in the lands of Westeros, this one finds plenty of silly and surprisingly emotional new ground by looking at the world through the soulful eyes of a humble hedge knight trying to find his place despite all who’d rather cast him aside.

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What he, and we along with him, see is a painful world often defined by death and cruelty. After all, this is still very much “Game of Thrones.” However, this time around, there is a deeper care given to those who would otherwise be on the margins in the main series or the other recent prequel, “House of the Dragon.” We come to see their dreams and desires as well as their flaws and fears, ensuring all the darkly funny comedies and agonizing tragedies that befall them carry a weight that is right up there with the most memorable moments of “Game of Thrones” at its pinnacle. It’s got plenty more cheeky and cleverly self-effacing gags, but it also brings a sincere, shattering sense of compassion for the ordinary characters who are stumbling through the chaos of the story. 

Even as said story occasionally stumbles and can feel like it’s still finding its pacing, it offers a welcome new perspective on the already well-trodden world. Instead of looking down from dragons flying high above or castles up on a hill, this sturdy little show gets down in the mud, looking up from the ground level with all the small slivers of gentle beauty and the overwhelming brutality of humanity unfolding before us. 

This all begins with the death of a knight. This is not a knight who was famous for his victories in battle or who had songs sung about him. He was just a knight, nothing more and nothing less. He was an older, often drunken man who sustained a simple yet deadly wound he couldn’t treat and died under a tree with only his loyal squire (played by a pitch-perfect Peter Claffey) to bear witness to his final moments. We’ll soon learn more about how both of them arrived here, but for now, said squire is truly alone in the world. 

Initially known only as Dunk (a wonderfully goofy yet fitting name for the fellow), he decides he’ll try to take up the mantle of knight by traveling to and then entering into a tournament. Though a mountain of a man, Dunk is no The Mountain, the cruel killer from “Game of Thrones.” When Dunk encounters a young boy named Egg (a delightful Dexter Sol Ansell) and takes him on as his own squire of sorts, the two form an earnestly sweet bond. Unfortunately, the duo soon get caught up in a conflict that extends beyond their story. It’ll provide a great chance for Dunk to make a name for himself, but not in the way he intended. 

Based on Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” becomes increasingly effective in how it teases out the tension between the grand sweeping narratives in Westeros and the smaller story of Ser Duncan. Like the one he served, he is but a hedge knight, seemingly without anything special to him. He’s just a person trying to live the life he thinks he’s meant to. We come to care about him not because he’s connected to the Iron Throne, but precisely because he isn’t really tied to any of those things. 

In Claffey’s wonderfully earnest and wide-eyed performance, we see how, even though he might not seem it, he’s a complicating character who shakes up an already complicated world precisely because of his ordinary compassion. He’s able to carry a great weight on his shoulders, but we can see there is much pain buried deep within him that’s dragging him down. This means, when we build to an eventual battle that’s one of the most devastating and well-directed any “Game of Thrones” show has created to date, it’s not on some grand battlefield where the stakes mean everything for Westeros. It’s pointless and petty, though still life-or-death for a man like him. 

Other potent reveals further complicate this story, but they only work as well as they do because of the mirthful, melancholic core the show builds around. While it boasts only six episodes running approximately 30 minutes each, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” offers something refreshingly expansive and new for “Game of Thrones.” It’s funny in the small moments, ferocious and fearsome in the bigger ones, carving out room for whimsy as characters threaten to carve each other to bloody pieces. Ser Duncan may not be the hero who seems like he’ll have songs sung about him in the grand halls of Westeros, but if this initial verse, full of visceral grace, redemption and an eventual bittersweet triumph, is any indication, his may become the most beautiful ballad of them all. 

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”
The series premieres at 7 p.m. Jan. 18 on HBO and HBO Max, with the remaining five episodes releasing weekly through Feb. 22.

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