TV Review: "House of David" (S1, Eps. 1-3)
The first three episodes of the new epic biblical series from Amazon are a bit uneven, but there's a lot of potential for it to have strong appeal for the faithful and laypeople alike.
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I’m a sucker for biblical stories, particularly those of the Old Testament. There’s just something rich and melodramatic and powerful about these tales of bloodshed and a vengeful God, of the scrappy Israelites managing to survive periods of enslavement and bondage in foreign courts–those of Egypt and Babylon–and yet still managing to forge a kingdom and a monarchy from the hills and mountains of Judaea. Of all of the figures in this period, arguably the most important is David, who rose from humble beginnings as a shepherd to become a mighty king, slaying a giant along the way and overthrowing the established king. This is the type of story that seems tailor-made for a prestige TV series (and it certainly provided a lot of fodder for classical Hollywood, as the film David and Bathsheba demonstrates).
Thus, I was actually kind of excited for House of David, the new Amazon series focused on the political rise of David (Michal Iskander) from humble shepherd to monarch. When the series begins the waifish David is something of an outcast in his father’s house, being the progeny of Jesse’s liaison with a foreign woman. In the space of three episodes he not only spars with his brothers but also manages to take down the lion that killed his mother and savages the flocks. While all of this is going on, the Kingdom Judah and Israel continues to flex its muscles and show its power, thanks in no small part to King Saul (Ali Suliman), who consistently shows that he is a formidable warrior, capable of bludgeoning his enemies into the dust. Unfortunately, he’s also arrogant, and it’s his hubris that sets him on a collision course with Samuel (Stephen Lang), with consequences for everyone.
I’m ultimately of two minds about this series–or at least the first three episodes that I watched this past week. On the one hand, there are some moments of genuinely strong drama, particularly the plot dealing with Saul, his descent into madness, and the attempts by both his wife and his son to hold the kingdom together. On the other hand, the moments in the episode featuring David and his interactions with his father, Jesse (Louis Ferreira), and his brothers–as well as his fateful confrontation with a particularly terrifying lion–leave a lot to be desired.
This was,as the series makes clear, a pivotal moment in the development of the Kingdom of United Monarchy. The first few episodes make it clear that Saul, as the anointed of God, is almost solely responsible for the creation of the monarchy, but this has led him to think that he owes no allegiance of gratitude to the deity who has given that victory into his hands. As so often in the Old Testament, pride goeth before a fall, and so it is with Saul. Both Lang and Suliman do a great job of capturing these two titanic personalities, one the agent of God, the other a man who has wandered far afield and become a power unto himself. Their scenes together crackle with intensity and rage, the primal emotions that are central to so many Old Testament narratives.
Jonathan, soulfully portrayed by Ethan Kai, feels the great weight of his father’s madness and incapacitation weighing on him. He is the one, after all, who will be the heir to the throne, particularly since his younger brother is a bit of a drunken sot and libertine more interested in sleeping around and slurping down wine than he is in learning the arts of statecraft. As Saul’s descent into madness becomes ever harder to ignore, the young prince’s anguish is written large on his face and, for those who know the biblical narrative, it’s only going to get sadder once his path crosses with David.
Equally fascinating is Saul’s wife, Queen Ahinoam. Memorably portrayed by Ayelet Zurer, this is a woman who is not to be trifled with and will do anything she can to protect her family and their hold on the crown. Even though witches have been banished and repressed, the desperate queen turns to just those who have been exiled in an effort to break the God-inflicted madness currently driving her husband to greater acts of instability. There’s a steely grace to Zurer’s performance that’s quite captivating and, while she might be a villain, she’s one whose motivations are understandable. She knows that the royal power is a fragile thing, and it often falls to women to maintain it. As time will reveal, however, there’s nothing that can protect Saul from the wrath of the God on whom he has turned his back.
Less successful, however, are those scenes in the country, where David is an outcast from his family. All too often these scenes feel a bit like an illustrated Bible story rather than a piece of prestige television storytelling. I’m not sure if it’s because of the costuming–Jesse in particular often looks like one of those illustrations that you often see in children’s bibles–or just because the drama there feels so trite compared to the political drama. Either way, I found myself just kind of hoping for these scenes to be done as soon as possible, at least until the conclusion of the third episode, when Samuel finally appears to change David’s life forever.
Speaking of Samuel, I did find the anointing of David to be one of the emotional highlights of the first three episodes. Seeing this boy look up in awe–and perhaps a little fear–at this man who has come to transform everything he thought he knew about himself is really quite a well-executed scene. It’s one of those moments that gestures to the greatness that the series itself could possess if it was a bit more willing to eschew a bland piousness for something more spiritually stirring and satisfying. A lot of credit goes to Iskander, who does have a great deal of screen presence despite his newness to the screen. (I also thought that his scenes with his elder brother were quite well-done).
There’s obviously a whole lot of season left to go, with the titanic clash between David and Goliath to come (we’ve already seen the monster recruited by one of the kings of the Philistines), so it’s always possible that the show might find its footing and really dig deep into the psychologies and complicated personalities of its characters. There’s more than enough raw material for them to draw on, after all. I just hope that they eventually jettison some of the cheesier elements–such as the cloying voiceover from Saul’s daughter Michal (Indy Lewis). If the rest of the season is willing to take a few risks, this could very well be a quite compelling bit of biblical television storytelling.