I’ve now finished the House of David series on Amazon Prime that I blogged about recently. I was a little cautious of it then and I remain that way now. Compared to the biblical account, it covers from about 1 Samuel 15:7 to 1 Samuel 17:51. That isn’t a massive chunk of scripture for 8 hours of television although I can see the logic in framing the series around the critical encounter between David and Goliath.

My problem with it is not that the script writers have chosen to pad it out but that they have chosen to pad it mainly with folklore and supposition. There is some biblical material alluded to but there could have been much more. For example rather than the story of Samuel’s miraculous birth being relegated to a few lines in one of the final episodes (#7, I think), the story of that, his role as a judge of Israel, the failure of his sons and the people’s subsequent demand for a king (who turned out to be Saul) could easily have filled an episode. Another example would be Ahinoam, the wife of Saul. She is mentioned once in the Bible, simply as his spouse, but House of David turns her into Lady Macbeth. It could done with have downplaying the “behind every powerful man is a corrupted woman who makes a series of fatal mistakes” fantasy subplot and perhaps made time for David’s grandmother, Ruth, who gets a whole book about her story and is truly significant compared to what the series gives us of David’s imagined mother.

I feel a little conflicted as I still enjoy and would recommend The Chosen, which also makes plenty of free-wheeling “artistic” choices. However, I think that pulls towards faith while House of David pulls towards pure fiction, a borrowed setting for something that is as much like Game of Thrones as the biblical story. I wouldn’t flag the series as “avoid” but it certainly isn’t going to persuade me to stretch my Prime subscription out past the free trial.