--- title: "House of David" year: 2025 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/house-of-david" fi1m_id: "house-of-david" imdb_id: "tt30955673" tmdb_id: 243881 wikidata_id: "Q130485111" fi1m_score: 53 critics_reviews: 2 published: "2026-09-24T12:20:04.538412+00:00" updated: "2026-09-24T12:20:05.106946+00:00" region: "FR" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # House of David (2025) Created by Jon Erwin · Drama ## Identity House of David - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/house-of-david - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** house-of-david - **IMDb ID:** tt30955673 - **TMDB ID:** 243881 - **Wikidata ID:** Q130485111 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30955673/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/243881, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q130485111 **Fi1m score: 53** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* King Saul has a family to worry about; David mostly has a title to live up to > *House of David* finds some life in King Saul’s family, but struggles to make David equally interesting. Ali Suliman has the stronger material, while the thin central character and uneven spectacle make this hard to recommend. ## Synopsis David (Michael Iskander) begins to rise as King Saul (Ali Suliman) faces the decline of his leadership. The question of who leads next also concerns the people around the king, whose family has its own pressures to contend with. Queen Ahinoam (Ayelet Zurer), Mychal (Indy Lewis) and Jonathan (Ethan Kai) are among the figures in this wider drama, alongside Abner (Oded Fehr) and Mirab (Yali Topol Margalith). Saul’s family life runs alongside David’s emergence as the story follows a change in leadership. ## Review Jon Erwin’s *House of David* is a mixed drama about a change in leadership, with an awkward shortage of interest in the man who gives it its title. Its scale suggests a programme determined to make the struggle matter, and there is some pleasure in that determination. Yet King Saul and his family hold our attention more securely than David does. The problem becomes difficult to ignore whenever we are asked to care about David simply because he is David. Michael Iskander has the harder assignment as David, whose characterisation offers too little to sustain the attention being paid to him. We found him frustrating, because the writing leaves so little for us to discover about him. The teleplay credits include Jon Erwin and N.D. Wilson, and the scripts need to give their leading figure more personal detail before expecting us to invest in his growing importance. Asking for doubts, habits or contradictions is hardly asking the programme to abandon its subject. Ali Suliman’s King Saul benefits from the stronger material. The family drama gives leadership a recognisable human cost, and makes the people around the king worth attending to in their own right. Ayelet Zurer plays Queen Ahinoam, and this part of the programme has more of the friction that the David material needs. The programme becomes easier to care about when a change at the top also means a change for the people around Saul. The spectacle supplies another reason to persist, although it is an unreliable one. The giants are striking to look at, and their sheer size shows why this story might benefit from a production willing to think on a large scale. But the effects are conspicuous enough to make us notice the work of assembling the image when we should be thinking about the creature itself. There is ambition here, and some visual pleasure, but the artificiality keeps interrupting it. Against the demands of a drama about power, the writing is too easily satisfied with the importance of its central figure. Such a programme needs to give us reasons to care who leads, beyond the fact that leadership is changing hands. Saul’s family comes closer to doing that, because its relationships give us several people whose lives might be affected. More spectacle cannot solve that difficulty, however much care has gone into making the programme look substantial. There is enough in the Saul material to make the weaknesses disappointing. A smaller emphasis on display and a more searching interest in David might have brought the two sides closer together, without requiring the series to become a different kind of drama. We would leave this to viewers already drawn to the story, and even they should expect to spend some time waiting for Saul. *Fi1m score 53, published 24 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is House of David worth watching?** *House of David* is hard to recommend beyond viewers already drawn to its story; we score it 53 out of 100. Ali Suliman’s King Saul and the pressures within his family give us reasons to care, but David’s thin characterisation and conspicuous effects make the wider drama less involving. **Where can I watch House of David in France?** *House of David* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in France. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is House of David, and is it suitable for children?** *House of David* carries a US TV-14 certificate and has no UK certificate supplied, so we would not treat it as suitable for younger children. That rating indicates material that may be unsuitable for under-14s; the giants have an imposing scale, but we cannot give a precise account of violence or frightening content. **How does House of David compare to The Prince of Egypt?** *House of David* is the weaker choice beside [*The Prince of Egypt*](https://film.one/film/the-prince-of-egypt), which we recommend for biblical spectacle with clearer character motives and songs that earn their place. Saul’s family gives the series some worthwhile drama, but David remains thinly written; the film makes its central relationships matter more, despite formulaic songs and comic priests who disrupt its serious tone. **What should I watch after House of David?** After *House of David*, try [*The Prince of Egypt*](https://film.one/film/the-prince-of-egypt) (1998, Fi1m 74): Biblical spectacle with clearer character motives and songs that earn their place. Then [*Ran*](https://film.one/film/ran) (1985, Fi1m 92): Another failing ruler, with family loyalties examined in far greater depth. ### Reviews we read (2) - **Variety**, Alison Herman (20/100, inferred): Herman finds the series wooden, dull, and unlikely to have staying power. She singles out the giants as neat to behold, but criticizes the hokey effects and shallow characterization. [Read](https://variety.com/2025/tv/reviews/house-of-david-review-amazon-bible-1236321976/) - **Collider**, Erick Massoto (7/10): Massoto finds the series bold and visually impressive, but says it lacks depth where its characters matter most. He especially praises its epic scale and Saul’s compelling family drama, while criticizing its limited interest in David. [Read](https://collider.com/house-of-david-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Jon Erwin - **Creator:** Jon Erwin - **Director:** Jon Gunn, Jeff T. Thomas, Lynsey Miller, Jon Erwin - **Writer:** Jon Erwin, Bekah Hubbell, Jon Gunn, Jonathan Lloyd Walker, N.D. Wilson, Laura Kenar, Nathan Andrew Jacobs - **Story:** Jon Erwin - **Teleplay:** Jon Erwin, N.D. Wilson - **Cast:** Michael Iskander as David; Ali Suliman as King Saul; Indy Lewis as Mychal; Ethan Kai as Jonathan; Oded Fehr as Abner; Yali Topol Margalith as Mirab; Davood Ghadami as Eliab; Ayelet Zurer as Queen Ahinoam - **Release (France):** 27 February 2025 - **Genres:** Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luTHd0QrBdE ## Where to watch in France - Amazon Prime Video: streaming, uhd *Checked 2026-09-24.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Prince of Egypt* (1998), Fi1m 74: Biblical spectacle with clearer character motives and songs that earn their place. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-prince-of-egypt.md) - *Ran* (1985), Fi1m 92: Another failing ruler, with family loyalties examined in far greater depth. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ran.md) - *Wolf Hall* (2015): Court politics made tense through conversation, calculation and the fear of dismissal. - *The Gospel According to St. Matthew* (1964): A plainer biblical drama that trusts faces more than grand displays. - *The Last Kingdom* (2015): For divided loyalties and struggles over power, with more room for character. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/house-of-david