A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Season 1)

⭐ 9.5/10

This is everything good TV should be. 30 minute episodes, week to week, beautiful to look at, fun, full of great characters and dialog and action and emotion. From the first 5 minutes I was in love, as it literally takes a dump on the stoicism I associate with what Game of Thrones became (mainly House of the Dragon). It embraces the nastiness of Westeros, all from the view of an actually good person! They are so so rare in this world, and it is refreshing to have one, and that they didn't warp this story to try to squeeze it into the contours of the other shows.

We have all the classic medieval story beats, a tourney with jousting, but also conspiracy, royals misbehaving. Aside from that we also have a lone wolf and cub story, a trope that has been used a million times in things I love but is done so well here. Dunk is loveable and kind and noble, Egg is fun and sweet but also has a secret. The Targs are pathetic and annoying except the one who isn't. The guy running the tournament is horking everywhere. There are a million small details that make this world vibrant and real, I just can't get over how well they pulled this off.

The story is incredible, and its probably because it sticks so closely to the original novella, which I love. There is a direct correlation across all these shows between quality and following closely to George's written words. The idea of a true knight, what it takes to live with honour in a world as broken as Westeros. The people in power show no love for the kingdom they rule, and the knights sworn to protect that kingdom only seem to protect the monsters. Throw a true-hearted dunce into that role, its pure genius.

Half a point off for the flashback in episode 5. It actually enraged me, going from the best scene of the show in episode 4 to the rush of battle, only to yank us back in time and tell us of Dunk's trauma. It added nothing to the story, in fact I think it weakened it. There is a girl he is love with that oddly looks like the girl he just protected, which is a connection that is super weak but impossible to imagine they weren't trying to make it. It also ends in grisly violence, where it felt like someone in the writer's room was like, this is Thrones, we gotta use all the blood bags in the props department. I thought it was a pretty shameless way of padding the runtime of the series, and I'm going to choose to forget it exists going forward. It was a crutch that lesser shows would lean on.

Aside from that, perfection. Give me more of this right now. And they will, it's back next year! None of this bogus 3 year wait between seasons so that effects departments can work 20 hour days making something that doesn't even look good. They built a beautiful set, hired a bunch of extras, and filmed this thing in a field for a fraction of the cost, and it looks incredible. What a miracle of a show. It had me thinking of Andor, taking this IP that has an established tone and goal and doing something unique with it. Even the music in here, the main theme is this whistling tune that is whimsical but also fits the world! They don't recycle the iconic theme like House of the Dragon did (that made me very angry during that first season), but let me tell you, that theme hits like a ton of bricks when used at the right time! There are so many wild musical choices that land because they aren't trying to copy anything that came before.

I could go on and on, I loved this show, and frankly we should be getting more of this everywhere. Empower people to make good unique things, don't shut them in a box and tell vomit out universe-consistent IP crap - you know who you are! There are too many of you!