As of today, half of the total eight hours comprising season one of the Old Testament drama House of David are available on Prime Video. It's Bible-based, to be sure, but is it suitable for families?
First, some background on House of David
The seven-episode series is the first product of the creative partnership between Amazon MGM Studios (the corporate sibling of Prime Video) and the Wonder Project, an independent studio co-founded by Jon Erwin (of the filmmaking Erwin Brothers of Lionsgate’s Kingdom Story Company).
Although he’s not directly involved in this production, The Chosen creator Dallas Jenkins is both a shareholder and an advisor to the Wonder Project.
And, as I recently reported, The Chosen has also found an exclusive streaming home on Prime Video.
Shot in Greece and Calgary, Alberta, with an impressive scale and well-done special effects, House of David may not rival the budget or scope of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, but it starts on a much higher pitch than the first season of the Gospels-based The Chosen.
But like The Chosen, it takes a Biblical narrative and spins it out, retaining the basic spine of the story and expanding on it with additional characters and plotlines.
House of David also weaves in elements from extra-Biblical traditions and legends, including ones about the parentages of David and the giant Goliath (and as you can see from the trailer below, he is a proper giant).
Egyptian-born Michael Iskander plays David, leading an international cast that includes American actor Stephen Lang (Prophet Samuel); Israeli actors Avelet Zurer (Ahinoam of Jezreel) and Ali Suliman (King Saul); and British bodybuilder/actor Martyn Ford (Goliath).
As of today, House of David is the number two series on Prime Video's Top 10 list, only bested by a the third season of fan fave series Reacher.
I recently had a chat with Jon Erwin. Asked about the time the story strays from, or embellishes on, the Bible narrative, he says:
If you want to read ancient words that you can instantly relate to, that will move you, that will change your life if you let ’em read the Psalms of David. And for this king to write these incredibly authentic and honest words is pretty amazing. And as a dad, I have a hard time getting my kids to be interested in the Bible at all.
So what I tell people is, this is not the source material. This is not sacred. This is a TV show, but it is a love letter to the source material. And the goal is to create the most entertaining show possible, but that honors the themes that honors the story anytime that there is something.
Here's the whole conversation:
But, should your kids watch House of David?
Yes, and no, depending on the age and maturity level of the child.
While the show echoes Game of Thrones in some of its larger themes and structure, it's vastly less violent and explicit than that HBO series. In those areas, House of David is closer to Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which features battles and evildoing, but without excessive gore or sexual content.
In House of David, there's plotting and violence and hints of the supernatural (including a queen who employs black magic), so it earns its TV-14 audience rating. The Old Testament can be a wild ride, and while House of David doesn't overdo the battle scenes or the sensuality, they are present.
But, as Christianity Today points out, House of David does sand off some of the Bible's rougher edges:
As a faith-based project aimed at a mass audience in general and a family audience in particular, House of David can’t help sanitizing some of the more adult parts of its story. As far as we can tell, the Saul of this series has just the one wife, Ahinoam (Daredevil’s Ayelet Zurer), not the harem alluded to in the Scriptures (2 Sam. 3:7; 12:8).
The narrator tells us Saul was told to slay the Amalekite king but doesn’t mention that Saul was told to kill every Amalekite man, woman, and child too (1 Sam. 15:3). Saul’s younger son Eshbaal (Snowpiercer’s Sam Otto) is portrayed as a hedonist, always drinking and flirting—but so far, at least, his debauchery is depicted in very PG terms.
Also, I found the series to be dense and very slow, so it will definitely try the patience of younger viewers (and a few older ones).
Then there's the stuff that's not in the Bible ...
While the extra-Biblical elements are grounded in lore and legend -- like Goliath being the offspring of a fallen angel -- they are not from Scripture. So, they might offer an opportunity to return to the source (as Erwin wants) and discuss the difference between what's actually in the Bible, and what's not.
For Catholic parents in particular, this is a useful lesson, since the Faith has accumulated many legends and folk customs -- about Biblical figures and saints -- over its 2,000+-year history. They tend to blend together in a lot of people's minds, but it's helpful to be able to sort one from the other.
While House of David presupposes familiarity with the subject material, that's really not something we can count on these days. The show doesn't have the intimacy and spark of The Chosen, but it's a good way to get back into a book that is not only foundational to Christian belief but to much of Western culture and literature.
Here's a peek behind the scenes:
Reprinted in part with permission from Kate O'Hare's Pax Culturati blog.
Image: Michael Iskander as David in House of David/Prime Video
Kate O’Hare, a longtime entertainment journalist, is Social Media Content Manager and Blog Editor at Family Theater Productions.
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