The second Game Of Thrones prequel is a very different beast from the first. House Of The Dragon is driven by dynastic intrigue and political machinations but A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms is a smaller story, speckled with slapstick humour and some very salty dialogue. Discussing the Machiavellian first family at the centre of George R.R. Martin‘s mythical world, one character reckons “the only honourable thing a Targaryen can do for this realm is finish on his wife’s tits.”
Based on 1998’s The Hedge Knight, the first in Martin’s series of Tales Of Dunk And Egg novellas, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms is a relatively slight affair. Even though the six episodes clock in at around 30 minutes each, it still takes a while to find its feet. The second half of the season is stronger than the first but even then, there are wobbles. The dramatic penultimate episode is padded with an exposition-heavy flashback that really saps its momentum.
Fortunately, the show’s two lead characters have real potential. The statuesque Dunk (Peter Claffey) is a lowly, lumbering hedge knight – essentially a soldier-for-hire with no fixed abode or guaranteed patronage – who travels to Ashford Meadow to make his name at a jousting tournament. On his way there, he crosses paths with Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), a diminutive child squire/lackey who attaches himself to Dunk through sheer belligerence. Is he lonely, desperate or both?
Dunk desperately wants to improve his standing but when he arrives at Ashford Meadow, no one seems to remember his late mentor Ser Arlan Of Pennytree (Danny Webb). Surreal flashbacks reveal that Ser Arlan wasn’t a constant pillar of chivalry, so Dunk has to soup up his backstory to strengthen his own claim to knighthood. He’s a likeable outsider trying to elbow his way into a snobby and slightly toxic boys’ club.
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms gains pace when Dunk clashes with an especially spiteful Targaryen, Prince Aerion (Finn Bennett), who unwittingly gives the young knight a foot in the door. But before things get bloody in typical Game Of Thrones fashion, there’s a lot of silliness. When a stirring speech on the jousting ground is undercut by a fart joke, it prompts an eye roll rather than a laugh. More troubling is the glaring lack of female characters. Hopefully witty puppeteer Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford) will get more to do in season two, which has already been ordered.
By the end of this first season though, the relationship between Dunk and Egg has developed into something genuinely sweet. You’ll find yourself rooting for Claffey’s klutzy knight as he tries to prove his virtue as well as his mettle. Considering that Dunk’s defining achievement in episode one is defecating athletically from behind a tree, that’s no mean feat.
‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ will be available from January 19 on Sky and NOW