The age old first world struggle of finding a new show on Netflix to watch had me taking a risk on a show that looked like a foreign production period piece. But to my pleasant surprise it had the same quality of production one could expect from Vikings. Knightfall brought a level of excitement that one does not simply stop binging. So while the bulk of this review will focus on season two, this review will encompass the entirety of the show’s run to date. Spoiler Warning as I make no promises otherwise.

This show did to me in season 2 what Dexter did in the final episode, raising bigger issues about risks with storytelling. Dexter famously had a happy ending that they took major logical gaps to subvert. A happy ending, in Dexter, would have brought a finality to the series, but once they killed Deb off randomly in order to subvert the ending, the self-imposed exile and pity was an irrational turn of events that gave the series a famously bad ending. In subverting a happy ending, the show ending with an ending that as final as the ending for any other season. Knightfall does the opposite in a bad way. They take a perfectly good somber ending and add an entire episode that came out of a script written by the Game of Thrones writers.

The first season of Knightfall is fifteen years after losing the Siege of Acre 1291 and what they thought was the Holy Grail. The show begins with the death of a temple master which leads the protagonist, Landry, on a quest to uncover a mystery that leads to the location of the true grail. But Landry is no hero. In fact, having lost his faith after the siege, he has descended into an adulterous affair with Queen Joan, all while being good friends with the King whom he is cuckholding. It’s worth emphasizing that the Knights Templar is a monastic order. So our unworthy hero, Landry, has a renewed purpose in life which contradicts his fornicating. Meanwhile the seed of his treachery has consequences, becoming conspicuous. This ultimately leads Landry to alienate much of the Templar order including Gawain, his best friend who departs the order to work with De Nogaret, the Iago-like figure advising the King. The first season ends with great battle sequences and Landry’s final decent into darkness.

While the first season is about the fall, season two was about the repentance. Having betrayed the Templars, Landry must atone, working hard to earn back his standing with the order. It’s truly rare to see the atonement part of a story be so gritty, every bit of progress feeling earned to the viewer. But, alas King Phillip has a vendetta against the Templars and will have them destroyed. Landry then is forced to confront Gawain leading the charge against the Templars. But after defeating the Templars, Gawain is unable to reconcile working for an evil king, and is imprisoned with the Templars. Episode seven was the best episode in the series by far, featuring a diverse array of medieval torture instruments. The climactic episode is where Landry and Gawain face each other and the Templars, in facing death, choose to forgive Gawain reciting the Lord’s Prayer. The episode ends with a fire pitching as the main heroes begin to burn at the stake.

Episode seven should have featured five more minutes where Landry and others burn to death. Episode eight should not have been made. Instead, the heroes escape death. Instead they escape search.

A note on historical fiction

This story is fiction but uses real life figures as characters such as King Phillip IV The Fair, De Nogeret, Pope Boniface, while the Templar characters are inspired by the actual Templars, Landry not being a real figure. That being said, we should not judge the show by its historical accuracy rather we should judge this period piece on realism within the confines of the time period the story takes place.

Bad Ending

The escape, coincidentally timed without foreshadow and wholly dependent on the mistakes of the villains, was just some bad television. I dreaded watching this cliché turn of events. This turn of events was disappointingly passable because of how predictable it was. The overall ending of the season was garbage. The boss fight at the end featured a student-master dynamic that Knightfall established as evenly matched in season 1. Yet, this boss fight was extremely onesided, despite Landry being wounded, exhausted, and magically appearing in a place he had no business being in. Garbage story telling. A better ending would be starting the next season with new protagonists who take revenge on the King and Pope who according to legend were summoned in a tribunal before God by the late Templar Grand Master because both died a year or so after the Friday the 13^th, 1307. That would be daring and good story telling.

The first season of Game of Thrones kills Eddard Stark in episode nine, according to the book. This was a plot twist as every character expected Ned Stark to live as planned. This twist set up only by the cruelty and idiocy of King Joffrey, was effective storytelling that enabled the plot to move forward. In contrast, Knightfall has little to move forward to, other than killing off King Louis X, moving onto Philip V, and then Charles IV. The events take place prior to the Hundred Years War, as alluded to in season one with the marriage of Isabella to Edward II. There is very little foreseeable plot for Landry and the Templars surviving to cross paths with the King of France. So either way, replacing one set of characters was inevitable, so they should have gone the more realistic path.

Final Judgement

As a Christian, I am unopposed to being catered to by entertainment wanting to produce high quality content sparing me from feminist and intersectional BS. The show has 92.5% accomplished this. It’s incredibly rare to see a show depict people wrestling with faith, forgiveness, and repentance. It’s even rarer for these concepts to be wrestled with in storytelling in an overtly Christian way. While History Channel is not a Christian organization, the higher ups are still willing to cater to a Christian audience. I would love to slap a huge recommendation on this show, but its season finale prevent me from doing so. It’s all too common for showrunners to go out of their way to maintain a level of normalcy that undermines a superior story. Knightfall is an instance of good that could have been great.

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After doing a video for Bring Your Bible to School Day for Focus on the Family, Drew Brees earned a fatwa from Rainbow Jihad. With an interest in canceling the all star NFL quarterback for his views, a reporter attacked him for associating himself with the renowned Christian organization. Here is the video above.

As you can see, the video is completely benign. But that wasn’t enough for the cancel culture we live in.

Drew Brees addresses his “National Bring Your Bible To School Day” video that appeared on Focus on The Family platforms.

He said he was not aware of the group’s anti-LGBT views. He says hate goes against everything being a Christian is all about. pic.twitter.com/Jjhexqljo0

— Amie Just (@Amie_Just) September 5, 2019

Drew Brees proceeds to set the record straight to end the “negativity” surrounding the situation.

Hopefully this sets the record straight with who I am and what I stand for. Love, Respect, and Accept ALL. I encourage you not to believe the negativity you read that says differently. It’s simply not true. Have a great day. pic.twitter.com/4RdTahE7EZ

— Drew Brees (@drewbrees) September 5, 2019

In setting the record straight, Drew Brees said that he lives by love God and love your neighbor as yourself which to him means loving, respecting, and accepting all people. But he still denounced Focus on the Family and squandered an opportunity to spread the Gospel.

A docile Christian is exactly what Satan wants, if he can’t have your eternal soul, and that is how Drew Brees acted. When put under slight pressure to defend your faith, we cannot respond with such an inaccurate depiction of Christianity. These people hate God and will be unconvinced if we give them the verses that poll well, a verse he doesn’t seem to comprehend.

Jesus says in John 15

18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. – John 15:18-21 NASB

Jesus says that they will come after you. In fact, they will come after you because it’s easier than going after Him directly. But I guess because Drew Brees was experiencing negativity, he can just acquiesce when having to answer for his actions as it relates to his faith. He can ride the bench while Focus on the Family takes all of the blows for taking faith a little more seriously. We can’t have star quarterbacks feeling uncomfortable for following Christ.

Balls

Drew Brees could handle all sorts of pressure from defenses but a little negativity from outrage mob is his kryptonite? In contrast, Dave Chappelle, a black Muslim, went toe to toe with these same people with far more conviction. Instead of parroting the Popularity Gospel at them, citing a verse with a high approval rating, he should have dismissed the reporter’s question from the beginning telling her to “get out of here with that nonsense question.” and move on.

A Christian contrast is Israel Folau whom I wrote about back in May. He came under fire from Rainbow Jihad, stood strong in the faith, and lost his job as one of Australia’s star rugby players. Athletes could learn a lot from Israel Folau when it comes to facing persecution in the form of cancel culture. And let’s not forget the former quarterback now baseball player, Tim Tebow.

Final Thoughts

There is no satisfying these people without going apostate. Not even Chris Pratt going to a Hillsong entertainment arena was enough to satisfy these people. His defense was also really bad for much of the same reasons. I don’t presume to know Brees’ heart; in fact I knew nothing of his faith before this incident. If I believed him to be fraudulent in his faith, I would have stated he was a hypocrite(fraud), not a coward. But this message to Brees is a message for us all: they will come after you because they were so daring enough to crucify the Son of God.

We need to know scripture. We need to be able to defend our faith on the premises of the Bible, not on the premises of postmodernism if we are to have a real impact. If Drew Brees is a true man of faith, he needs to do better than this.

We are currently forming the American Conservative Movement. If you are interested in learning more, we will be sending out information in a few weeks.

Professional Hollywood radical progressive activist Alyssa Milano has taken her war against conservatism and common sense to the gun arena as she’s now their leading gun control advocate. At least that’s what one can glean from her recent Tweets. Her vision of how she will run the country when she’s finally in control has shifted over the years as she’s gone from #MeToo headmaster to open borders spokesperson, from proud double-abortion princess to her current position as lead interrogator in the fictional NRA trial.

She’s even attacking Bible-believers for their defense of the 2nd Amendment.

Can someone cite which passage of the Bible God states it is a god-given right to own a gun? This guy is unbelievable and is clearly owned by the gun lobby. #NoRA https://t.co/PxVV1RoV2Z

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 1, 2019

Did someone say “Bible” and “guns” in the same sentence? Cue Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) who happens to be a devout Christian and Constitutional scholar. His 10-Tweet reply was a master’s course on why you shouldn’t try to attack the Bible with the Constitution and visa versa:

2/x The right to self-defense is recognized repeatedly in the Bible, eg Exodus 22:2: “If a thief is caught breaking in at night & is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed.” (Note, though, verse 3 says it IS murder if during daylight (ie, not self-defense).

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 1, 2019

4/x And, for that reason, the Second Amendment provides “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, SHALL NOT be infringed.” It wasn’t to protect people’s ability to hunt, or to shoot target practice, but to defend their lives, their homes & their families.

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019

6/x St. George Tucker, one of the most important scholars in early America, explained the reasons behind the Second Amendment as follows: “This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty. . . . The right of self defence is the first law of nature….”

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019

8/x That’s also why, post Civil War, disarming Black Americans was a critical objective of the KKK, and was memorialized in countless Jim Crow laws—to strip African-Americans of their God-given right to self-defense from violence.

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019

10/x Playing politics w/ these deranged crimes—and trying to use them as an excuse to violate the constl rights of law-abiding citizens—won’t make anybody safer. Forcible gun confiscation (as some 2020 Dems urge) won’t prevent mass-murders. But it would weaken our self-defense.

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019

There is plenty of criticism that can be laid on those who improperly use the Bible to defend our rights, not because our rights are not God-given but because the arguments are often counterproductive, as Dana Loesch noted earlier today:

Re the “God given” trend today, it’s easy to diminish the actual point of the idea for political jabs on Twitter. Basically, Founders declared certain rights were natural not civil rights, granted by the divine, not given permission to people from other people via courts …

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) September 1, 2019

That said, reducing a complex and nuanced discussion to something along the lines of “God-given guns” is not constructive or remotely in good faith. It also ignores all the other important rights that fall into this category.

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) September 1, 2019

But as I countered, albeit while agreeing with her, defending our rights by invoking the Bible is a challenging notion because many who are opposed to these rights do not hold the Bible as an authority at all, let alone the highest documented authority on Earth. Therefore, one must be very careful when using Christian theology as grounds for defending Constitutional rights.

There are times when it is important to maintain a Biblical high ground such as when making an argument for the faith. But legal matters, even when decreed by our founders as God-given, are not subject to this high ground. Any right can be taken away by misguided lawmakers.

— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) September 1, 2019

Senator Cruz doesn’t need to be careful, as his grasp of the Bible and Constitution are extremely high. He understands that the fact these rights are given by God as Natural Rights and documented as such by the founding fathers to put them above reproach of men is the foundation for proper arguments supporting the 2nd Amendment and other liberties we, as Americans, must protect.

Milano was terribly outmatched in this particular debate. She asked a question and she received the proper answer.

Our rights are above the machinations of authoritarian politicians, their mainstream media lapdogs, and Hollywood’s endless flow of radical progressive virtue signalers. Ted Cruz’s defense of the 2nd Amendment should be memorized by every patriotic American.

We are currently forming the American Conservative Movement. If you are interested in learning more, we will be sending out information in a few weeks.