House of David (2025) s1e08

This post is part of a series looking at Amazon Prime's show House of David (2025). There are some major spoilers in in what follows even though we all know the biggest one.

The difficulty for the makers of House of David is that its plot twist is arguably the best known of all time. The last 3000 years have witnessed stories, poems, paintings, sculptures, operas, plays and, more recently, movies and television series retelling a story that is referenced almost every time someone reaches for a metaphor for a little person/team/organisation taking on a big person/team/organisation. So while on the one hand adapting the story for the streaming age seems an enticing proposition, the challenge for this episode and, I suppose, the whole series is to fashion engaging drama out of everything that happens before that fateful moment.

At the end of the last episode, itself part 1 of a two episode finale, David, Mychal and Merab are all en route to the battle field where Saul, Avner, David's brothers and thousands of other Israelites have set up camp. Facing them is Goliath, the five Philistine kings and their army. But Jonathan and group of mercenaries are sneaking towards the Philistine camp in the hope of slaying Goliath while he sleeps.

Of course Jonathan's efforts fail miserably, thanks to a turncoat among his men who's received a better offer. It's actually this moment that provides the episode's best action sequence, as Jonathan, rather optimistically, tries to fight the whole Philistine camp single-handedly. No wonder he and David are going to be friends. The Philistines, who have tired of waiting for Israel to send someone out to fight their champion, begin to enact the second phase of their attack.

Having spared Jonathan, but killed his mercenaries. the Philistines first task is to pick off the Tribe of Zebulun, who decided at the end of the last episode to retreat home rather than stay and fight. As they trudge through a steep sided valley at night, Philistine archers appear on either side and pick off the tribe's army with flaming arrows. As far as I'm aware there's no real precedence for Zebulun – a largely unremarkable tribe descended from a not particularly remarkable patriarch – leaving the field early or suffering a significant military defeat aside from the other 12 tribes. Indeed Zebulun are not mentioned in either of the Books of Samuel. It does make for a spectacular scene though, with the arrows arching across the night sky and the fire from Zebulun's torches spreading as its army is gradually snuffed out.

Meanwhile Avner is also trying to put out a few fires, albeit more metaphorical ones. Saul's mental state means he's largely unaware of the problems he's facing, but not only has Zebulun left / been massacred and Jonathan has been captured, but now Adriel suggests he takes over if Saul is not fit to lead. Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to all of them Eshbaal (Saul's eldest son) has returned to Saul's palace to assume the crown.

Mychal and Merab's arrival at the camp works to restore their father and his spirits are further lifted when David arrives. David's fury at the lethargy and fear in the Israelite camp; his sense of Samuel's anointing and words of advice; and his surefooted confidence in God (they seem to have stopped using the name 'Hashem' in this episode) mean he puts himself forward to tackle the giant. An argument with his brothers, an unsuccessful armour fitting and a quick snog with Mychal later he's dashing on to the battlefield and we're back at the start of the first episode.

When we finally get back to it, the famous fight scene is handled pretty well. Martyn Ford's acting as Goliath has been on the weak side all series, and seems particularly exposed here. And the moment where the fight scene cut-off in episode 1, with David pinned to the ground by one of Goliath's spears, is milked a little too thoroughly. Otherwise, it's good scene. There's a nice wide shot with Goliath towering at the left hand side of the screen, with David on the far right. Samuel shows up on the ground high above the valley to add a sense of reassurance that things are going to go to plan. There's a nice slow motion shot as David dodges yet another spear while managing to fire off the celebrated shot, and a pause between Goliath getting hit (and the injury not being immediately apparent) and him finally falling. And then the Israelites charge forward while the Philistines fall into disarray.

The decision not to even get to the end of the battle is an interesting one. Now that the show has been given a second season, it will work really well with the structure of the next season: interest and familiar territory at the start, David getting to finally marry Mychal all of which can be going on while the story for the rest of the series is being developed. This matters because season 2 will inevitably be very different to this one. Here the audience has been drawn in by the familiarity of the well-known story bt that has presented a challenge in making it interesting. In contrast, season two will rely on having built up a committed audience and having developed the characters. The stories are less well-known, but handled competently there is plenty of material to make a great series. This season has been reasonably good – this final episode in some ways typifies the series as a whole – but much of how House of David is remembered will depend on subsequent seasons and the team's ability to get the pacing and structure right when it's down to a series of smaller decisions, rather than one major one as with these initial eight episodes. But certainly House of David has the potential material to make it work, has set good foundations to drive things forward and has now built a supportive a audience willing for it to succeed.

House of David (2025) s1e07

This post is part of a series looking at Amazon Prime's show House of David (2025). I'm trying to post them as soon as possible after the show airs, so keep checking back. There are a few spoilers in in what follows.

The penultimate episode of House of David's first season sees the stage being set for arguably the most famous fight in history. Goliath enraged by Doeg's murder of his mother unites the Philistines and heads up their army in a bid to defeat the Israelites. Saul, bolstered by past victories is confident Israel can overcome, until he spies Goliath.

The, um, big reveal, is a really nicely put together. One by one the kings of the four other groups of Philistines, ride forward and defiantly thrust their standards into the ground. Then there's a pause. Saul sees it as a good sign -- the Philistines are not even united. But we all know what, or rather who, is coming and it's not good news for Saul.

But that's not the only reason that Saul's confidence is misplaced. As viewers we already know Saul's mental health is making him unstable. He could slip at any moment and his grasp on his kingdom with it. We discover another issue for Saul in this episode though as well: he has never been that much of a confident fighter. Moments before going out to face the Philistines, he has a quiet word with Avner and has to beg him to give him a pep talk, just as Avner did in the past. He needs Avner to tell him what a great warrior he is before he can perform on the battlefield.

Naturally, the moment Saul spies Goliath his confidence, and his sanity evaporate. He falls from his horse and his crown portentously falls from his head onto the floor. This is not the moment of losing his kingdom which he has been haunted by, but the audience is privy to his inner world and it feels to Saul like that moment has come to pass.

The other major setting for this episode is back on Jesse's farm in Judah. David is now alone with his father and angry about his dad's reticence to explain why he won't let him fight. And then Samuel turns up, has a heart to heart alone with each of them and then leaves them so that they can reconcile. I won't spoil the details of why Jesse has been acting the way he has, but I don't imagine it will come as a great surprise to many. By the end of the episode David is heading off to the battlefront to bring supplies to his brother. Perhaps the most significant of Samuel's words, here, are that Hashem (God) chose David because of his passionate, free-spirited heart -- one that reflects Hashem's own. 

A couple of other moments of note in this episode. Firstly, as Saul flees back to his tent he makes some rash promises about how he would reward anyone willing to fight Goliath and, as per 1 Sam 17:25, includes the hand of his daughter in the list of potential prizes. In the Bible David and Mychal have not yet met, but here we know that they are already sweet on each other. As if David wasn't fired up enough it looks like there might be a way for him to be with Mychal after all.

Speaking of Mychal, when she hears of Goliath and her father's relapse she, in a deft pairing with David, realises she must do something despite a reluctant parent. Here, Mychal's mother has given up all hope in Hashem taking action to save Saul. She only seems to have faith in witchcraft, and not even much of that. So Mychal secretly heads off to the battlefield to support her dad as best she can, bringing along Merab for moral support and company.

I imagine she's also hoping to support Jonathan, but by the time she arrives he'll be long gone. Remembering Jonathan's earlier guerrilla victory against the Philistines (1 Sam 14) he again finds an elite group of champion mercenary warriors from the surrounding nations who will ride with him to find a way to slay Goliath off the battlefield. Given we more or less know how the David vs Goliath confrontation will pan out, this is the most intriguing part of the story. Will Jonathan's elite team have any bearing on the battle, or will they become another failure of the established dynasty to protect Israel. Next week's season finale should be a good one.  

House of David (2025) s1e06

This post is part of a series looking at Amazon Prime's show House of David (2025). I'm trying to post them as soon as possible after the show airs, so keep checking back. There are a few spoilers in in what follows.

Good news for House of David fans this week: Amazon Prime have confirmed that the show will be given a second series, according to a Facebook post on the show's official page. I'm pleased about this. It seems fairly clear now that the present season is only going to get to just after David slays Goliath. That means there's an awful lot of the story of David's life still to go (not to mention the fact that with the title being House of David it could go on into the reigns of Solomon right through to Zedekiah. I suspect it won't last that long. Nevertheless, it's could to have at least one more season.

Episode 6, Giants Awakened starts right back in Genesis 6:1-4 with the account of the Nephilim and how giants came to be on the earth. These scenes are narrated and shot in a different style to the rest of the programme, more similar in feel to the narrated opening of episode 1 and return the show to that more mythical fantasy genre-feel that the show launched with. It's apt, I suppose as this episode is going to be primarily about how come Goliath came to be on that battlefield in the Valley of Elah.

But before we get too far into that we switch to Saul's court again. He's even more troubled now, so much so that David has played his harp until his fingers are bleeding. This is presented as an insight into Saul's character (and to an extent it is) but it also gives us a glimpse into David's soul as well. He's far tougher, more determined and steely than he looks, particularly when he believes he's undertaking what he thinks his god is calling him to do. Saul however is concerned partly because he's mistaking David for Jonathan. For a while he talks to David as if he knows he's going to be king, only for his mix-up to gradually become clear. David's also having issues controlling his feelings for Mychal, not least after she tells him she knows about him being illegitimate, but he has now also declared his love for her. He keeps putting himself at risk like this so eventually he leaves the palace and returns home. Surprisingly Jesse is pleased to see him.

Jonathan has his own issues. His warnings to his father about the possibility of giants fall on deaf ears and then Saul's sorceress tells him he will never be king, so he decides to try and track down Samuel. Jonathan eventually finds him camping out on Mount Sinai with his wife. The two fight intially, as Samuel fails to recognise the heir to the throne -- the veteran doing a remarkable job fighting with such a seasoned warrior. Jonathan also has the vision of the deaths of he and his father, that Saul has had already. Samuel confirms that he has anointed another, "a king whose reign will know no end" a reference not only to DAvid, but also to Jesus.

But back to Goliath. King Achish makes a formal offer to Goliath and his brothers to join him which looks set to go ahead until Goliath's mother refuses his terms. When Achish says he can enable them to live like Kimgs, she responds "Kings? They are already gods!" Terms are refused and Goliath has to quit chucking Achish's soldiers around for fun and go back to their cave.

Goliath though is not happy with the decision. Then Deog the Edomite (Ashraf Barhom) stabs Goliath's mother leaving his Hebrew-style dagger in her chest and saying he's from the House of Saul, leaving her just enough breath to be able to pass that information onto her distraught son. He decides to throw his lot in the Philistines and soon their army is marching towards the Valley of Elah for a showdown, while Goliath casually kills a handful of unfortunate camping Hebrews en route.

This episode felt a little slow, and didn't cover much actual biblical material. That's not really a complaint, more of an observation. This episode has certainly set things up nicely for the double-episode season finale.

House of David (2025) s1e05

This post is part of a series looking at Amazon Prime's show House of David (2025). I'm trying to post them as soon as possible after the show airs, so keep checking back. There are a few spoilers in in what follows.

I spent quite a bit of time in my write up of the previous episode talking about how Saul's kingdom fractured (initially) after his death, with David becoming King of Judah and Saul's son Ishboseth/Ishbaal taking over the rest of the Kingdom ("Israel") until his murder seven years into his reign. So it's notable that the writers made this episode (The Wolf and the Lion) the one where they develop that theme a little further.

Saul's mental health is still a matter of some concern, and while Queen Ahinoam, Avner and other court officials are trying to keep it under wraps, or spin the story where it comes out, it's also making Saul paranoid. He finds himself worried about the threat from Judah: he's heard rumours of an anointing and is unsure how involved Adriel (Stewart Scudamore, pictured above left), the head of the tribe of Judah, is in what may or may not have happened.

The relationship between the two men is awkward, even without Saul's mental health deteriorating. Despite his humble origins, Saul is keen to distance himself from them, playing an ancient version of the self-made man fallacy. Now he is king he sees himself as above everyone else, and perhaps the security of his position (the first king in not only a new dynasty, but a new form of government for the nation) requires this: after all if he is no different than anyone else then why should his family get to be the ruling party? Saul actively looks down on Adriel, perhaps never more than when Adriel seeks to ingratiate himself to Saul.

But Adriel is hardly an overly compliant doormat. Yes he cannot risk losing favour with his monarch, but he's also proud of being the leader of the largest Hebrew tribe, and realises this gives him a certain amount of clout. He tries to ingratiate himself to Saul, but only so far and often he offers flattery as a way to get what he wants, which might be something like a scroll from Saul's extensive precious library which demonstrates that he holds some share of the power too. Plus he's aware that as the leader of the largest tribe, Saul needs him.

So there's plenty of tension, but Saul, in one of his more lucid moments, decides to adopt the Michael Corleone position "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". He welcomes Adriel into his palace and seeks to marry one of Adriel's sons to one of his own daughters. So they hold a big speed dating event after which the most promising combination gets a special prize of getting married, like some kind of reality TV show, Married at First Sight: Ancient Israel. 

This bothers David, who properly yearns for Mychal. She is heartbroken too, but everything seems to point towards her being the one who is going to get married knows her fate. Meanwhile her elder sister actually seems to hit it off with one of Adriel's son and somehow in the midst of this Saul realises a chance to both make her happy and to forge the political alliance he needs to firm up his kingdom.

And then the demon strikes. The calm, rational Saul goes and suddenly he becomes erratic. But in case you thought I used the word "demon" metaphorically I should clarify that I didn't. Because suddenly a diabolical figure in vaguely human form appears, seemingly seen only by Saul and starts to taunt him and draw his focus (see above image).

I think the visual depiction of this demon might be the show's first major misstep. So far the series has been a mix of epic, peplum, historical drama and family intrigue. This sudden use of horror tropes feels a little unwelcome. I get that it might be intended to be jarring: there are, after all, other flourishes in these scenes to help us identify with Saul's disorientation, such as the camera losing focus or reverb effects when people talk. But it doesn't feel terribly well executed. The character is hamily acted. The whitened-out eye, white blotches of face-paint and generally tatty appearance make him seem somewhat ridiculous. It's a big jump to leap from epic/family drama to horror. Even Mel Gibson, who used a variety of horror effects in The Passion of the Christ (2004), did so by starting with the conventions of the horror genre and gradually slipping into something more realistic. This is neither scary, or unnerving and it doesn't really help us identify with Saul's suffering. It's just a bit, well, silly.

On the plus side, though, most of this episode takes place in Saul's palace and it looks fantastic. I don't suspect it's particularly historical, but in this episode they do, at least, explain that before Saul it had been a Philistine palace, so that explains a little about how such an impressive structure could be built by a relatively new nomadic nation. But given that you have to admire the set design. Credit to Dimitris Ziakis and his team.

Not only is the design and the detail fantastic, but it's been created in such a way to give dramatic contrasts of light and shade. Furthermore, the design and the light is put to great effect by Simos Sarketzis's cinematography. I guess the obvious point of comparison is the kind of Baroque/Tenebrist art that is most associated with Caravaggio, and one of Caravaggio's most famous painting is his "David with the Head of Goliath". But another reference might be Rembrandt, who did a number of paintings related to David including " David Playing the Harp in front of Saul" (1630-31), "(Farewell of) David and Jonathan" (1642), "Saul and David" (1650s).

The final point I want to make on this episode is about its speed. Having covered a number of key stories in episode 3, the pace has slowed right down again. In terms of the pacing of the story, I don't mind it so much. However if, as I suspect, the series is only going to get to the battle between David and Goliath, then that leaves an awful lot of David life story still to be told. I hope that Amazon will stick with it long enough to allow it to come to a natural end, but longer-term David stories tend to get cancelled after a bit. Given the similar fates of Kings (2009) and Of Kings and Prophets (2016) then it will do well even to get commissioned for a second series, and those shows both had established actors in the cast (Ian McShane and Ray Winstone, respectfully).

That said there is hope. According to Forbes, the show has reached number 2 in Amazon Prime Video's ranking, and even in the UK when  checked my account it was at number 8. Hopefully this will justify a second season and perhaps a bit more publicity.

House of David (2025) s1e04

This post is part of a series looking at Amazon Prime's show House of David (2025). I'm trying to post them as soon as possible after the show airs, so keep checking back. There are a few spoilers in in what follows.

Having anointed David in episode 3, Samuel now finds himself on the run. This isn't something that is specifically mentioned in Samuel/Chronicles, but it's an interesting idea: Samuel's relationship with Saul ends dramatically after Saul's victory over King Agag and the Amalekites and Samuel's prophecy against Saul and his line. Indeed the passage ends saying "Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again" (1 Sam 15:35). Moreover, Samuel fades to the peripheries of the book that bears his name, appearing in only one other incident (1 Sam 19) before he dies unceremoniously at the start of ch.25. His final appearance is as a spirit in ch.28.

In addition to this Samuel remained a popular figure. When he dies, the text says "all Israel had mourned for him". It's reasonably likely, then, that someone so openly opposed to the king could only survive by going on the run. That said Saul also seems scared of Samuel, so perhaps he left him alone and hoped he would not stir things up further.

The idea of a prophet being on the run from his monarch have spoken truth to power in this way, also evokes another prophet from the Hebrew Bible: Elijah. I think the series will want to keep Samuel alive a little longer, for continuity purposes, so it'll be interesting to see if any more parallels are drawn between Samuel and Elijah as things continue. Samuel's fears are soon realised when his companion is murdered. He and his wife go into hiding.

Samuel is not the only one who fear's Saul's reprisal. Jesse is concerned, especially given the family's outsider status. But it's Eliav who truly realises the danger that Samuel's words have brought to David, and seeks to protect his brother. I like Eliav's portrayal in this series, he's in many ways a better father than Jesse, tough but sensitive and compassionate.

Meanwhile, David is being rapidly integrated into Saul's court. Saul's mental health is continuing to decline so his people are trying to find ways to soothe him. It's actually Queen Ahinoam who brings David in as a musician, though it's clear that Mychal has recommended him. The chemistry between them is still strong and they get a scene alone later on where Mychal reads him the words from The Song of Moses in Deut. 32. Here wish to have it made into a song soon comes true as David sets an-oldie-but-a-goodie to  a a new tune that not only impresses Mychal but also her dad, who calls it "beautiful".

Incidentally David's costume here is interesting. The blue sash over the white undergarment is something Jesus is often shown as wearing in religious art (most recently in The Chosen).

At the same time, Eshbaal, Saul's second son (apparently only 10 months younger than Jonathan) starts trying to help his father regain his popularity by suggesting a rather bread-and-circuses approach, only with less emphasis on the bread. No sooner has his suggestion been rebuffed when an elder of the tribe of Dan breaks into the throne room enraged because Eshbaal has "defiled" his daughter "Dinah"

This passage has stoked a bit of debate on the show's Facebook discussion group and there are a few different points here. Firstly, Eshbaal/Ishbaal is an alternative name for Ishbosheth, another son of Saul who briefly becomes King of Israel (but not, apparently, Judah) after Saul's death. Translations tend to choose one or the other, but there is a split with the more liberal/scholarly NRSV (and variants) going with Ishbaal and more conservative translations (KJV, NIV, ESV) going with Ish-bosheth. Given that the show seems like more of a faith-based/ evangelical film it's interesting to see it go with Eshbaal, because that version of the name is obviously some kind of acknowledgement to one of the Hebrew Bible's rival gods and its use here suggests Saul allegiance, on some level, to Baal.

It's fascinating how the Bible deals with Baal worship through the Hebrew Bible narratives. It's clear that at the time many works within it are being editing down, worship of God (Adonai or Hashem as the series prefers) is the dominant position and is in the ascendency, with God's proponents trying to exorcise worship of other gods entirely. Yet at the same time we see this tendency across hundreds of years of history. Perhaps it waxed and waned, but it's clear from the Bible that worship of Baal and other deities ran (to some degree) alongside worship of Hashem for centuries. This isn't something people are always keen to acknowledge, perhaps reflected in the translation choices, so it's interesting to see it play out here.

Another name that carries certain resonances is that of Eshbaal's victim (in the show), Dinah. For those not familiar with the murkier sections of Genesis, in the Bible Dinah is the daughter of Jacob who gets raped and has to marry her rapist, only for her brothers to kill him and massacre his tribes people (Gen 34). Some have worried this might be confusing, or just seems inappropriate, but personally I like this callback, deliberately connecting the two stories in viewers minds. I'm curious as to why they are trying to get people to recall the biblical Dinah story, though. Perhaps it's to subtly suggest that Esh-Baal has actually raped this woman. Perhaps all will become clearer as the show progresses

I also think it's great that Eshbaal is being developed as a character here because so often things are just presented as David taking over from Saul with a fairly straightforward transition, whereas that's not the case in the Bible. Ishbosheth is King of Israel for two years before David (who is simultaneously the King of Judah) takes over. There's actually a neat moment here where David & Eshbaal – unaware of their futures – pass each other on the road and acknowledge each other.

Is it significant, then, that Eshbaal is being portrayed as "the black sheep of the family", (and possibly even worse than that, a rapist). Making Eshbaal bad might make David's takeover of the northern tribes more acceptable, although David himself calls Ishbosheth "righteous" (2 Sam. 4:11) and executes his murderers, so somewhere along the line there may be some theological gymnastics. Surprisingly, there's little if any mention of any wrongdoing by Ishbosheth, in the Bible. His fate in this episode is also interesting. How will they resolve this?

House of David (2025) s1e03

This post is part of a series looking at Amazon Prime's show House of David (2025). I'm trying to post them as soon as possible after the show airs, so keep checking back. There are a few spoilers in in what follows.

If episode 2 was content to take it's time to build up the characters, the this third episode ("The Anointing", directed by Alexandra La Roche) is where things really get going. There are some of the key moments in this and La Roche's direction really delivers some great imagery to underline everything that's going on.

It all starts with Saul having nightmares about the fate of Jonathan. Of Samuel saying he won't be king and then a premonition of Jonathan being killed in battle. Even here there's a great moment where Saul's crown falls to the ground and he goes to pick it up, only for Samuels' staff to prevent him. Saul still half lost in his dreams throws a spear and kills a young servant. The family make up a story to fob his family off and to prevent news of Saul's madness from spreading, but they know they're in trouble.

Alternative religion

Keen to save her husband (and perhaps herself) from his demise, his wife Queen Ahinoam (Ayelet Zurer) turns to alternative spirituality. She speaks first to Abner, who we discover comes from Endor (a place whose name will be familiar to some as the place name attached to the witch Saul uses to try and contact Samuel later int he story) because his mother has been known to dabble in the dark arts. But Abner steadfastly refuses: Saul has banished religion other than worshipping the one true God.

Ahinoam, is tapping into the witch-wife archetype here, channelling other biblical wives such as Jezebel, (and perhaps Eve/Lillith) whose devotion to gods other than YHWH causes their husbands to wander from the true faith. And, of course, she soon wears down Abner. Despite his protestations that he has turned his back on all his prior association with other forms of religion, he manages to locate someone (another woman, never the men in these things!) who can help and pretty soon the three of them are indulging in a occult-cliche mishmash ceremony to undo Samuel's curse on Saul.

I'm in two minds about this scene. On the one hand we have very little idea about what actual ceremonies might have gone on in dark alleys and backrooms in ancient Israel. We know, from both archaeology and the Bible itself, that other forms of religion existed among the Hebrew people for centuries after when David was supposed to have lived. At times they were clearly rife and while the writers of Samuel-Kings and of Chronicles try and paint a world where everyone accepts that YHWH was the one true god, it's also equally clear that theirs is often a minority report: Kings keep popping p and not being faithful to God.

Yet on the other hand we do know a bit about Baal worship (and Baal is specifically cited here), but without really getting into the sources I'm not sure it looked much like this. I think this is forgivable though, because this ritual is not presented as in anyway mainstream, and it's just fictional elaboration. And seen in that light it's over-the-topness is kinda fun.

Goliath

The same could also be said about how we encounter Goliath in this episode. And, in a way (because we've only really seen him briefly in a flash-forward right at the start of episode one) this is our introduction to him. 

Tired of getting routed by King Saul and the Israelites, the five Philistine kings got together in the last episode and now we see one of them, Achish (Alexander Uloom), entering the Valley of the Giants to try and persuade the giants to join them. There are some striking visuals here. Here first as Achish and his companion stand atop the mountains before entering the Valley of the Giants, the scenery looks spectacularly rugged, huge and forbidding. Then as they approach the giants' fortress he passes a cone of skulls, perhaps a little too neat to be the handiwork of someone who rips bodies apart with his bare hands, but it's memorable nevertheless. Then the gated / walled entrance to the giants' lair which captures a little of the start of The Return of the Jedi (1983)* and then finally the moment when Achish finally meets Goliath. I was tempted for a moment then to write "comes, face to face with Goliath", but of course he doesn't because Goliath is roughly twice his height (as pictured above). There's some great lighting in this scene as well. I also kind of like the dialogue as Achish tries to enter the lair/fortress/cave, essentially if you really want to come in you can, but nobody ever really does.

The Anointing

As it happens, Achish is not the only one who is recruiting. Samuel has also heard from God and heads over to Bethlehem to visit Jesse's children. this is the first solidly biblical incident we've had for sometime, but the series has put a lot of backstory into making these scenes work. Firstly there's the way Samuel is viewed both with respect and fear. Secondly, Jesse being an outsider among the village elders because of fathering a son (David) outside of wedlock, and David being an outsider among his family, for being that son. It's an elaborate back story with little precedent in the text itself, but it does work to make the biblical story of David being left out of the original line-up make sense. Moreover, it doesn't do that by smoothing over the cracks and making everyone see heroic because they're faithful to God and in the Bible. Jesse is not, so far a good character in this. Yes the death of David's mother has hit him hard, but the show is not prepared to let him off for that and Samuel's unimpressed.

It's actually fairly rare to have a proper scene of Samuel anointing David. David's integration into the royal family is kind of awkward in the Bible. Is he brought in as a harpist to soothe Saul's moods, or as  boy dropping off lunch to his brothers who is so incensed by his people's inaction that he signs up to fight the giant? Plus also the part of the story that the filmmakers usually want to tell is elsewhere, so this disjointed start, often doesn't quite fit into a smooth story arc. Nor does the fact that David's most famous moment happens at the start of the story. So some filmmakers show the Goliath scene in flashback, or as stripped of the other part of David's origin story.

Here though, they have a whole series, which I suspect is going to end on the fight itself, which means that this season is really about how David gets onto that battlefield. Set in that context the multiple origin stories could kind of work.

Anyway, there was something about the way this episode, and indeed the programme so far, builds up towards this moment that really made me appreciate the contours of the story. David really is an outsider, he's a boy compared to his tall, warrior-king-like sovereign. The line about "man looks at outside appearance but God looks at the heart" (1 Sam 16:7) has both a spiritual resonance, but also a dramatic/literary one about the rise to prominence of someone who goes against the grain of previous post-holders. The long-overdue recognition of the person who has been rejected for so long.

The scene itself is interesting as well. Eliab as the oldest, most experienced fighter has been brought more into the spotlight by the series-makers than his siblings. We know that he, like his prince, is tough but fair. He's sometimes brusque with his kid brother, but he takes a shoulder to the arrow while trying to help him sign up. When Samuel sings his praises, it strikes me that this is how I feel about this character, to some degree at least. David's other brothers get a rather shorter shrift. Sons 2 & 3 get a mention and some suggestion that they've done OK, surviving in the army and so one. Son 4 though doesn't even get mentioned. When the camera briefly cuts to him I wonder if I've even seen him yet in this series. He looks like a cross between a male model and a Chippendale and Samuel skips past him as if he hasn't even joined the army yet as he's so busy on shooting assignments.

Anyway, by the time Samuel gets to the end of the line he realises that the one he is looking for isn't there. David is sent for and once we get to the moment we know the momentum slips a little, but this sequence did make me think, or at least, feel differently about this part of the story.

Wrapping up

There's another sub-plot that I won't go into here, but again we do see here how the show's strategy of leaving the worst of the violence to the imagination is really effective. Anyway, just as David is being anointed there's a bit of a surprise: Saul is back on his game again. While there's a hint to the viewer that perhaps he's not as well as he appears, he's now back, clothed in stately gear and striding through a crowd of his supporters in his courtroom. There are some anxious looks, but whatever Ahinoam and Abner have bought into seems to have 'worked', at least to some degree. The scene more or less ends with the above shot: Saul, on the throne, seemingly being endorsed by the light streaming through the windows. And so there's a parallel, or rather a conflict, being set up between the existing king and his chosen and anointed rival, though neither man has seriously considered their relationship to one another.

The final point I want to make is that in the original release (at least) episodes 1-3 were released together on the first night, and then one episode was release per week after that. I'm keen to know at what stage that decision was made, because the way these three episodes pan out perfectly fits that structure. At the end of this original trilogy the stage is set, we know who these characters are and how some of them think and feel and act, and groundbreaking developments have set the platform for the rest of the series. And while they are all quite good on their own, it's the way that these three quite differently-arranged episodes combine to work together, that really consolidates a good start to the season. It creates a suitable launching pad for the rest of the show as it now starts to arrive at the reduced rate of one episode per week.

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*There was another moment that seemed to evoke something of the original Star Wars films, but I can't remember what it was now.

House of David (2025) s1e02

This post is part of a series looking at Amazon Prime's show House of David (2025). I'm trying to post them as soon as possible after the show airs, so keep checking back. There are a few spoilers in in what follows.

Having given us a fairly good introduction to the major players in episode 1 of House of David, episode 2 ("Deep Calls to Deep") helps us get to know some of the other leading characters. We met Mychal (Saul's daughter), Abner (Saul's ...enforcer?) and Eliab (David's eldest brother) in the first episode, but all become a bit more prominent in this episode.

But before any of that, we are going back even further into the past, to be introduced to a new character, Nitzevet (Siir Tilif ), David's mother and to the time just before she was killed. Biblically-speaking even Nitzevet's name is from later sources, so this whole sequence is a combination of later tradition and imagination, but it's a good way to introduce us to what makes David (and to a lesser extent Jesse) tick. Nitzavet and David walk out to see an usual star configuration when a man starts rebuking her, so she tells him that her son's name will be remembered long after the man is forgotten.

This is one of two moments where Nitzevet is shown to be particularly in tune with God. Shortly after this prophecy she recites words that are familiar to many from the Psalms ("You knit me together in my mother's womb" Psalm 139:13-4). I find this interesting because it's a fairly consistent trope found in many Jesus films that his mother is shown teaching him some part of what will become known as his teaching, as the filmmakers are doing similarly with Nitzevet. 

We also find out that at least part of Jesse's anger towards his son is because it was David's disobedience that caused his mother to die at the paws of the lion (the one that David kills at the end of the opening episode). We then return to the "present" (or what sees to be the show's present) where David's heroics get a mixed reception when he returns to the house. Eventually though, David manages to persuade Eliab (Davood Ghadami) to help him become a soldier. And so the two of them go on a trek and find some time to get to know each other.

The only real biblical story we get here is Saul having problems with his mental health. This was actually one of the best bits of the David-related stories in the 2013 series The Bible. Here Saul's lack of wellbeing has been brought on by Samuel's words. Mychal (Indy Lewis, pictured above) is nursing him and she's pleased when he regains consciousness, but is clearly worried about the bigger picture.

Also worried is Abner (Oded Fehr) who suggests flexing the army to keep Samuel in line. But Saul knows the truth. As revered as he might be, Samuel, as Israel's former judge, is also popular and his words hold sway with the people too.We also meet Mychal's sister Merib, and Joav/Joab the soldier Mychal likes to flirt with

Lastly, we also get to see how the five Philistine kings react to news of Saul's unexpected victory over Agag. These scenes are interesting precisely because the biblical authors seem to have so little interest in them. The Philistines seem to have posed an existential threat over the Hebrews for several generations, but aside from the occasional moment of dialogue, there is very little for the screenwriters to go on.

For example, the council scene here, which is pure fabrication (not that there's anything wrong with that) could be a reasonable reflection of how these men related to one another. I'm reminded of the scenes with the five families discussing external threats in The Godfather (1972), or it might not resemble things even in the slightest. We just don't know.

I think the grand multi-storey buildings we see both in Philistine territory and in Israelite territory seems a little more built up than I would expect from a couple of nomadic nations. The seafarers turned settlers on the one hand, and the former slaves turned desert wanders on the other seemed to have quite quickly developed the kind of expertise to build such impressive architecture. And yes that's a very pedantic nitpick, and the show and its creator have been quite clear that they are trying to evoke something a bit more mythological, which means they deserve a degree of latitude, but also, I seemingly can't resist pointing these things out.

In any case, a show exploring these characters – barely even two-dimensional in the text, even if they might not get significantly more developed as the show progresses – has a lot of potential to see things from the other side. It's a blank canvas, of course, and it's difficult to know what created the vacuum that saw both the Hebrews migrating to the area from the south at a similar time as the Philistines arrived from the west, and how the Philistines might've viewed the Israelites. Certainly the presence of another group of warlike people trying to settle in the area will have caused some consternation.

There are two scenes that particularly cut through, both involve one of the lead characters entering into a walled city for the first time.

The first of of these is a wedding scene in Bethlehem. David is playing his lyre as part of the wedding band, but he does manage to speak to and enchant Mychal. The chemistry between them bodes well for the development of their relationship later. It's interesting too that Mychal dances here - in spite of Joav's protestations, yet soon she will object to David's dancing when the Ark of the Covenant enters Jerusalem. There's a couple of mentions in this scene of David being a musician and/or a poet. I wonder how (else?) the program will develop that?

The second such scene is Eliab and David reaching the desolate village that Jonathan investigated in part one. There's some nice paralleling between this scene and the earlier one: the sense of something dreadful having happened, the camera movements and shot framing creating a nifty call back to Jonathan's discovery of those same sights.

Speaking of sights, we get a couple of drone shots here of the scenery, which looks fantastic and somewhat different for a biblical epic. It turns out that rather than being shot at Atlas studios in Ouarzazate, Morocco or Capernaum studios in Forth Worth Texas, House of David is filmed in Greece (according to Variety). It's nice to see a different location used, particularly one as striking as this. I think the landscape also adds nicely to that mythological feel.

Overall then, the story doesn't move on greatly in this episode. Instead the episode spends time investing in the characters. This is a tricky job because there are a lot of them and we need to have a good sense of them before the action really gets going. So my hunch is that its worth investing the time here, even if it's a little slow. Hopefully the action, or rather the biblical scenes, will pick up a bit more in episode three.

House of David (2025) s1e01

This is the first in a series of posts exploring House of David
You can view them all here. (Image courtesy of Prime Video)

On Friday night I wrote a review of the first part of this series and then, just as I was about to hit publish, got struck by a Blogger glitch that magically deleted all your work in a way that means that you can't get it back. So apologies that this isn't very good, but I've now missed the slot I had to write this and the details are fading fast so this is a little hasty.

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Having recently acquired rights to The Chosen Amazon Prime have just released a new series on Jesus' most famous ancestor, King David. While this stands as an entirely separate production, the connections between the two go well beyond that. Series creator Jon Erwin, best known for a couple of relatively big faith-based hit films I Can Only Imagine (2018) and The Jesus Revolution (2023) is friends with The Chosen's showrunner Dallas Jenkins and even admitted to consulting with him on House of David in an interview with my friends Peter Chattaway. And The Chosen's Jonathan Roumie played The Jesus Revolution's charismatic leader. Meanwhile Erwin's co-director Jon Gunn is best known for another popular faith-based film The Case for Christ (2017).

Yet right from the start House of David brings in other creative influences as well. The show has a very different feel to The Chosen. In that interview with Peter Erwin also talks about the mythical elements of the story and I think he does well to capture that here. There's something about it that seems more, well Old Testament.* Goliath, for example, is not only a giant, but one whose height is significantly greater than the 9'9" mentioned in most translations.^‡ It's apt I suppose because there's a sense in which the characters here are all slightly larger than life. Characteristics and events are exaggerated, in a way that wouldn't work in something like The Chosen.

 

Another influence on the series, which also adds to this sense of the mythical, is the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03). There's a certain circularity here: Tolkein was influenced by the larger than life stories in the Hebrew Bible and the informed his novel, which informed the film adaptations, which is now back influencing this adaptation of David. Another moment that gives these opening sequences a more mythical quality is that some of the battle shots are shown as silhouettes against a coloured background, which was a technique Darren Aronofsky used in his mythic-feeling Noah (2014).

These influences show from the very earliest scenes. The series starts with the first part of the famous fight between David (Michael Iskander) and Goliath (Martyn Ford), before cutting back to David's days as a shepherd boy. This is quite a smart move. While you might imagine that much of the film's Christian audience would know and be interested in some of the other events of David's life, to the casual, less-acquainted viewer, they might only know the David and Goliah story. This potentially draws them in before going back to build the characters.

The story goes back to Bethlehem months earlier and finds David looking after sheep rather than planning on slaying giants. The biggest surprise here is that David is something of a social outcast (he's even defined as such in the opening narration). It turns out that while David is still the son of Jesse (Louis Ferrera) he is only the half brother of Eliab and the others. And while David's mother, Nitzevet (Siir Tilif) has been killed by a lion, that is not the reason he is only a half brother: He's called a "bastard" and described as "illegitimate".

This has been one of the show's most talked about points in the discussion I've seen, as it seems like a bit of a curve ball. It's something that comes out of passages in the Psalms (51:5 "in sin did my mother conceive me." and 69:8 "I am a foreigner to my own family") and was developed in Jewish tradition such that the Babylonian Talmud (Baba Batra 91a) to say Jesse and her were not married. You can read more on that here. The lion has returned to threaten both Jesse's stock and his household and David decides enough is enough and heads off to seek his revenge.

Meanwhile the reigning King Saul (Ali Suliman) has become popular with most (though not Jesse who complains about him in a similar fashion to Samuel's warnings about having a king in the text). He's just defeated the apparently cannibalistic Amalekites and their "blood drinking" King Agag (more larger than life exaggeration of the text). To Saul's mind the utter defeat of the Amalekites and way he has divided the spoils between his men constitute "destroying" them, as he was instructed. 

Unfortunately that's not how God sees things. On this occasion he's in follow-things-literally mode, so he instructs Samuel (Stephen Lang^†) to bring his word to Saul. I won't spoil the climax of the episode for those who haven't seen it, but it makes Samuel the most fascinating character in this opening episode. "Old Testament" in every sense of the word. We have no idea what Samuel would have worn or how he would have looked, but as he stands there with his long white plaited beard, blood-splatted face and defiant stare he makes quite the impression.

The other character who has a significant role in this opening episode is Jonathan (Ethan Kai), who's portrayed as a handsome but wholesome warrior prince. He's one of his father's most trusted military leaders, who Saul sends to investigate an apparent slaughter in an outlying village some way into Saul's territory. There's a pivotal scene here where we see both his tough side, and his sensitivity in how he treats a young boy who is one of the few survivors of the massacre. The scene also reveals a huge bloody hand-print a long way up a wall, foreshadowing the arrival of a foe who has apparently ripped apart some of the bodies with his bare hands.

It's interesting that the actual massacre itself takes place off camera. Partly, I imagine, this is down to budgetary constraints. Such scenes are expensive and complicated to film. But actually I think this aesthetic works well for the series. Back in 2016, I wrote a chapter about David in film for the book The Bible in Motion which I ended by looking at the (then) most recent on-screen David from 2013's The Bible. While the David episode of that series was not the most extreme example, the series seemed to go out of its way to introduce some fairly extreme gratuitous extra-biblical violence.

Now House of David is not made for kids, and people that don't like onscreen violence should be cautious, but I do think the violence that is such an integral part of this story (that Old Testament vibe again) is handled really well, in this episode at least. There is violence, and it's clear that it's a violent time and context, but a lot of the worst moments are kept off-screen or out of shot. The camera doesn't seem to dwell on the violence. It's reminiscent of the way Hitchcock shot the shower-scene in Psycho (1960) without ever showing the knife going into the body.

All in all, then, this is quite a positive first instalment, which actually makes me keen to see the rest of series. We'll see how that bears up as the series progresses, but hopefully it can build on the promise here and give this collection of stories the kind of treatment they really deserve.

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*Whilst I usually prefer the term Hebrew Bible, in the modern vernacular being a bit "Old Testament" has come to convey a sort of larger than life violence in some circles, so I'm using that term in the relevant places on this occasion.  

‡ Though the more reliable manuscripts suggest this was originally 6'9" a similar height to Saul.

† I assume this is not the author of "The Bible on the Big Screen", but it would be fun if it were.