HBO’s New Formula Will Make A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms The Most Bingeable TV Show Of All Time

HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set up to become even more bingeable as time goes on. Season 1 is already a smooth and pleasant binge, given its short seasons, short episodes, and simpler premise. If you weren’t previously a fan of the Game of Thrones franchise, this new TV show might be worth giving a shot anyway. Even if you don’t like it, the worst you lose is the 3.5 hours it takes to watch season 1. It’s low risk with a high likelihood of reward.

Of course, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is still only one installment in. The Game of Thrones show is based on George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg series, which currently includes three novellas. The TV show will continue for at least this long, adapting each book into its own season, and showrunner Ira Parker has expressed a desire to go far beyond that. If he has his way, we will watch A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) grow to adulthood on our screens.

A 12-or-so-season TV show might hinder that bingeability aspect—or so you would think. The very idea of a fantasy TV show of that length would sound to anyone but dedicated diehards of the genre like an absolute yawn. However, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is, perhaps, the only TV show in the genre that could pull it off. In fact, with HBO’s new formula, a long-running adaptation like this could become the most bingeable series of all time.

HBO’s Game Of Thrones Spinoff Has Revolutionized The Fantasy Formula

Fantasy is notoriously complicated. Not only is there a lot of lore to learn, but movies and TV shows set within this genre will jump rapidly between anxiety-inducing intensity and maddeningly endless droning. Overall, fantasy—especially high fantasy—isn’t built for casual or easy viewing.

HBO has completely tossed this idea out the window with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. There is lore available for those who want to learn it. However, the complex political worldbuilding isn’t at the front and center. Instead, this is a show about a humble knight and his squire, plain and simple. On top of this, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will take an anthology approach as it continues, so each season will introduce a new story and batch of supporting characters. It’s all part of that winning formula.

Just imagine settling in on a rainy weekend to watch episode after episode, season after season, of this type of high fantasy.

Everything from the characters and music to the episode and season lengths in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms screams of quaint simplicity, and it’s this that makes it such a smooth and easy watch. Then there are those measured moments of thrilling intensity, which keep us moving forward. This obviously worked well for season 1, but the genius of this formula is that it will only get better as the show goes on. Just imagine settling in on a rainy weekend to watch episode after episode, season after season, of this type of high fantasy. It will be a wonderfully unique experience.

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ Unique Charm Only Works Within A Larger Franchise

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is certainly unique within the high fantasy genre, but its success essentially guarantees that other similar TV shows will pop up in the coming years. Future projects will attempt to capture that chill, quaint vibe set within a wandering fantasy world. However, it won’t be as simple as that. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms wouldn’t be nearly as effective as a high fantasy series if it didn’t have the broader Game of Thrones franchise to back it up.

The whole of season 1 and its episodes could afford to be so short because A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms had to do very minimal worldbuilding. The bulk of high fantasy shows is often dedicated to setting the stage, but HBO’s new series got to skip right over all that. This serves viewers who really couldn’t care less about world-building to begin with, while the overarching Game of Thrones franchise is there to establish the solid foundation that diehard high-fantasy fans require.

All of this comes together to demonstrate just how great a position HBO is currently in. Not every established fantasy franchise has room for a quaint and uniquely bingeable spinoff, and new worlds won’t be able to expand into stories of this type for years, maybe decades. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the first of its kind, and, unless circumstances align just right for another franchise, it may be the last.