House of David (2025)

With Season 2 only improving on the first season, the future of House of David looks bright.

Even though House Of David will likely appeal to faith-based audiences, it still hasn’t been able to make its Biblical characters into people 21st century audiences can connect with.

The series would benefit from investing more in each character's agenda to make the story arcs a lot more compelling. From a "Christian universe" standpoint, though, House of David is a leap forward that has the potential to burst out of its faith-based bubble.

The show isn’t preachy; it just depicts characters deeply concerned with God’s intentions, as makes sense for their time and place. (The Kingdom as depicted is not based in much verified history and does not correspond precisely to the modern state of Israel, though the timeframe is about a millennium before the birth of Christ.) It is, however, wooden and cheap-looking, humorless and dull.

This has some strong elements. Very interesting story, deeply classic - obviously. The performances seemed fantastic. The first episode was pretty good. It was unfortunately marred early with critical script failures like revealing a giant and his tension building forshadowing out of order. ( I.e.reveal big bad THEN show his handprint high up on the wall to build a sense of dread - dumb dumb dumb ) Also unforgivably stupid was the direction of the depiction of violence. Here was a real opportunity to thematically show the horror of historically accurate combat and instead we get barrel bottom martial arts slop. A real missed opportunity. For anyone with brains and interest the combat scenes are immersion-breakingly stupid. Sadly they begin to pepper them throughout, apparently in an effort to masculinize the show and it seriously detracts from the production. For future, to anyone making a show with these themes in which violence shouldn't be romanticized : scenes of violence need to be very brief and very horrifying. Scenes of war need to be awful, grating and grueling. Extended shots of pushing, legs cut around shields, stumbling over bodies, mud, dust, burning hair. Injured men stabbing people in the back after being passed over etc. Not this hero anime slop. People using swords on one another try really hard not to do it face to face. They are used like knives, any way BUT face to face fencing. If fencing happens it is a jump scare. Watch real fencing. Short swords like the ancients are even dirtier and faster fights than rapiers. Anyway I couldn't make it past episode 3 sparring scene, had to turn it off as the not serious people in production showed their hand full.

This, this is one of the best shows I've seen in years. The story is beautiful. The screenwriting. The acting. The casting. Everything comes together.

This is what I would describe as a near perfect biblical adaptation given the fact that it drives home a central point: a wisdom that seems to have been lost to the ages. It is that wisdom that urges mankind to judge one not by outward appearances but by the content of their character and their heart. It urges us to look inward at our souls and reminds us all that we are all capable of being David in a world seemingly overrun with Goliaths. With God as our inner light and guiding force, all things are possible. Aside from its flawless storytelling and entertaining action, this show does not overstay its welcome. It does not drag us through the sludge of meaningless filler episodes. Nearly every character serves an essential purpose to the overall story. There is far more than just a story guiding towards a central purpose. This is a deeply emotional tale that tugs at the heartstrings and resonates deeply with the audience. We are not just witnesses to this epic biblical tale. We are connected to these characters in a way that makes us feel as if we are living out their lives. I highly recommend this show. It's one of the few programs out there that managed to resonate with me deeply and I suspect that it will do the same for Christians or those who need a reminder of the importance of faith. As they say, it's always darkest before the dawn.