A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Review | Filmpolitiet

The simple seems to be the best in the return to one of the world’s biggest serial universes.

Let’s make it clear right away: “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is completely different in tone from both the parent series “Game of Thrones” and its predecessor “House of the Dragon”.

Forget the sex, violence and incest buffet the previous two are known for.

This TV spin-off is first and foremost a cheerful, philosophizing road trip story, although this too is soaked in blood.

The only dragons appear in puppet shows, and power plays are as distant to the main character as soap and clean clothes.

Slow narration

Table of Contents

Slow narration
Knight action
Pee, poo … and food
Charming duo
- Explanation of restart, remake, precursor, sequel and offshoot
Medieval boy vibe
- About the series

The series takes off like the jovial horseman it is about. Our Cinderella, Dunk, played by Peter Claffey, has just buried his tutor, the stray knight Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb).

Dunk says Arlan knighted him before he died, and his dream is to participate in a tournament. But to do that, he needs to find a knight or noble who actually remembers Ser Pennytree.

On the way, he meets a young boy, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), who dreams of being a squire in the tournament.

After initial reluctance, the two become an uneasy pair of dreamers trying to maneuver the often harsh reality of Westeros.

Knight action

In time, we find ourselves between “House of the Dragon” and “Game of Thrones”. The dragons are dead, but the Targaryen family is still in power. There is a break between wars, but discontent is murmuring in the population.

There is certainly action in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”, mainly in the form of combat exercises in the knight’s tournament, where we get a close-up from behind the visor.

But the series probably has so much of Dunk talking to his horses, or Egg, or people he meets with familiar “GoT” family names.

The conversations are often humorous, but with a good dose of simple life philosophy (Dunk and Egg have, among other things, a good conversation about morality and value in a song about a sex worker known for anal stimulation).

Pee, poo … and food

The series also sets the tone early on by including a longer scene in which there is shit by a tree. This comes right after the title music of “Game of Thrones” is briefly referenced.

In fact, scenes of pissing, farting, snot-raking and puking abound throughout the series. There should be no doubt where the humor lies.

Those who have read any of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series know that George RR Martin is fond of interspersing scenes with food.

Dunk, or Ser Duncan the Tall as he is called, is a big man with a great focus on getting food and drink.

In “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” there are no gourmet meals on the menu, but we get to see the characters bite into fish, tear into thighs and fry goose eggs.

Charming duo

The landscape is almost “Lord of the Rings”-beautiful, but with less wealth of detail.

We see the photographers’ challenge in capturing the 1.95-metre-tall Dunk and the perhaps just over a meter-tall child in the same frame.

Explanation of restart, remake, precursor, sequel and offshoot

It’s easy to get confused in an age where Hollywood is constantly creating new movies and series that are connected to familiar concepts. Here is a brief explanation:

Start (reboot): You start a familiar concept or franchise again. Then completely new actors, new stories and new characters are often used, but within a universe the viewers already know. Often a new continuity is established.

Examples: “Star Trek”, “Fargo”, “Dynasty”

Remake: A new version of a well-known film or series. Mostly completely new actors, but the story is mostly almost the same. Often, separate remakes are made in different countries – such as the TV series “Broen”, which received both an American and French-British version or a remake.

Eksempler: «The Thing», «Road House», «The Crow»

Prequel: As the name suggests, a film or series that takes place earlier in time than the original. Often an origin story.

Examples: “Prometheus”, “Red Dragon”, “Wonka”

Sequel (sequel): A film or series in which the plot chronologically follows the original and often has at least some of the same actors.

Examples: «Top Gun: Maverick», «Blade Runner 2049», «Terminator 2: Judgment Day»

Offshoot (spin-off): A film or series that is only (distantly) related to a known concept or franchise. The story can take place many hundreds of years before or after the original, and is often about completely different genera or other parts of the known universe.

Examples: “House of the Dragon” (from “Game of Thrones”), “Frasier” (from “Cheers”), “Better Call Saul” (from “Breaking Bad”)

OBS: Some of the terms are partially overlapping, as with “The Godfather Part II”, which can be considered both a precursor and sequel to “The Godfather”. “Mad Max: Fury Road” can be considered both a sequel and a reboot, and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is both a precursor and an offshoot.

Peter Claffey is good at bringing out Dunk’s naive but honorable approach to life. He is more of a natural follower than a natural leader. His stories are not always true to life. But his heart is good.