Critics get honest about 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms'

In the realm of the Game of Thrones universe, another series is set to drop, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. With days to go before its release, critics have weighed in on how it fares.

To begin with, Rotten Tomatoes has pegged the series at 83% on the review aggregator. In comparison, Game of Thrones' first season and House of the Dragon garnered 90% scores.

Writing in Screen Rant, critic Jordan Williams writes, "Energizing the franchise, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms maintains its focus on the often overlooked smallfolk, behaviorally unconventional lords, humble livelihoods, and occasionally repulsive aspects of the lives of those born outside nobility."

Similarly, reviewer Kaiya Shunyata for RogerEbert pens, "This show makes it clear that fantasy television can still surprise you, and when it comes to the genre, bigger isn't always better."

Echoing the previous reviews, writer Meghan O'Keefe reviews in Collider, "It's a story that doesn't need the pyrotechnics of dragon fire because it has plenty of human heart, soul, and heroism."

However, not all reviews praise A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

"It's only in this final spell that A Knight starts to feel more like Game of Thrones; up to then, it feels utterly separate, operating in some sort of bizarre tonal otherworld," The Independent's writer Louis Chilton opines.

Likewise, critic Kelly Lawler in USA Today writes, "Knight might have been airy and fun but is instead torturous and drab, a pointless exercise in franchise-extension that scratches none of the original itches nor creates anything particularly exciting and new."

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuts on HBO on Jan. 18.