Cersei selected violence. Rhaenyra commandeered dragons. However the protagonist of HBO’s new “Sport of Thrones” spinoff, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”? Don’t anticipate vengeful wildfire or shouts of “Dracarys!” Wanna-be knight Dunk is earnest, light and enjoys sleeping beneath the celebrities.
There aren’t any magic spells, dragons or main wars in Dunk’s (Peter Claffey) timeline, which is ready about 100 years earlier than the occasions of “Sport of Thrones,” and roughly seven a long time after 2022’s spinoff, “Home of the Dragon.” However there’s nonetheless mud. A number of mud, blended with blood and guts, as a result of what’s Westeros if not a queasy swill of muck and bodily fluids? Right here’s to consistency between sequence.
However there’s an issue. It seems that sitting by means of scenes replete with diarrhea, snot, vomit and bashed brains isn’t all that tolerable with out the payoff of royal feuds, sociopathic personalities, supernatural phenomenon and above all, a narrative that guarantees to go someplace larger.
Based mostly on the “Tales of Dunk and Egg,” novellas by creator George R.R. Martin (he wrote “A Tune of Ice and Hearth,” the novel sequence that impressed “Sport of Thrones”), “Knight,” premiering Sunday, takes a humble highway into the realm, basing its story round a easy, low-born wanderer who desires of changing into a knight.
His story unfolds over six episodes that happen over the course of some days, which is kind of a change from the huge timelines of “Sport of Thrones ” and “Home of the Dragon’s” debut seasons. The tighter scope and folksy method — from a rating with extra spare acoustic guitar than sweeping orchestral numbers and an abundance of drab peasant rags over plush regal garb — is refreshing, at first.
Dunk, a.ok.a. Ser Duncan the Tall, is a strapping however awkward younger man with little confidence and few abilities. We meet him upon the pure loss of life of his mentor and adoptive father or mother, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb). The outdated man was a hedge knight, that means he wandered about Westeros renting out his protecting companies to monied homes and, sometimes, these in want. One such charity case was younger Dunk, whom the older knight saved from a thief’s knife earlier than taking up the boy as his squire.
Now on his personal, Dunk aspires to change into a hedge knight too. On his technique to show himself at a jousting event, he meets a intelligent, bald-headed boy who calls himself Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). The kid is as sensible and crafty as Dunk is thick and guileless. They repeat historical past when the kid turns into the wanna-be knight’s squire, and collectively they put together for a match that Dunk is wholly unsuited to win.
Created by Ira Parker, along with Martin (“Sport of Thrones” co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had no involvement), “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is a David and Goliath story, with a considerably predictable final result.
Granted, nothing will ever be as grandiose, addictive and stunning because the fantasy universe that introduced us White Walkers, the Crimson Queen and the Faceless Man, however to drag out the magical realism, then fill the gaps with Dunk’s sincerity and honor-above-skill ethos shouldn’t be a successful technique.
One of many extra profitable points of the sequence is the efficiency of Ansell as Egg. The boy squire shines vivid within the in any other case drab surrounds of the tourney campgrounds. His wits and ingenuity versus the knights’ brutality and violence is a worthy match.
However, the bloodiest types of fight determine the day on the tourney, be it by mace, battle ax or bludgeon. The gore all through this drama is on par with a number of the extra violent and ferocious scenes from earlier HBO sequence set in Martin’s world. However with out the potential of a narrative that rises above Dunk’s slog on the bottom, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” stays caught within the mud.
