Knightfall season 1

The television series Knightfall launched on the History channel in 2018 and looked similar to Black Sails, taking a popular period in history and turning it into an action series with a strong focus towards fiction. Here, the series follows a group of templars who lost the Holy Grail along with the holy land many years ago and are now settled deep within France tackling new problems from outside and within.

Black Sails was ultimately very disappointing as it had the making of a strong show but was watered down with dreary sub-plots and characters I found very hard to engage with. It eventually came to the point where I would fast-forward certain scenes to get back to the characters I was interested in, and I wondered if Knightfall would have the same problem. The story follows the noble templar Landry (Tom Cullen) trying to protect the Templars in their new home but scheming from the King of France and his men starts to threaten their position while they are quickly losing allies. The once strong  organisation of warrior monks must prove it has a place but when their leader is assassinated, things start to look dire for the brotherhood.

The story starts well even if some elements reveal a tight budget, but nonetheless Knightfall had the makings of providing some light if very loose historical entertainment and that is exactly what the show is. History buffs will scoff at much of what happens, and the love story between Landry and the Queen of France really made me question if the show would be worth my time but the ten episodes fly by and provide enough entertainment to hold my interest. The cast are mostly unknowns, with a few familiar faces dotted about, but they work well with a decent script to keep the story moving.

With that said, the first series did lag around the middle and became a chore in places but the show is a good example (and I mean this in a nice way) of background entertainment. I was able to jump in and out while doing other things so Game of Thrones this is certainly not but for anyone in search of some templar action, Knightfall will certainly do the trick. The action is also a lot of fun and there were a few surprises to keep it engaging, and surprisingly solid final episode was enough to now see me enjoying season two with Mark Hamill.