Must Watch reviews: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Seven Dials

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Scott Bryan and Hayley Campbell review A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Seven Dials.

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of them?

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a prequel to Game of Thrones. It's based on three novellas by George RR Martin, telling the story of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg, otherwise known as Dunk and Egg. It's all set about a century before Game of Thrones, and about 100 years after the beginning of House of the Dragon.

Scott says this one's "a good watch, but it’s not a must watch.”

“It starts, unlike all of the other shows, which would normally start with a big bloody scene, people fighting, but instead you’re seeing a main character having a poo. It sets the tone of this series as being distinctively different than the other two.”

“Episodes are very short, only 30 minutes. There’s only six episodes so it’s easy to digest and I think the fandom will gobble it up.”

“The big question is, because Game of Thrones ended so bad, this feels a bit like an afterthought that is fun and fine. Will it be remembered? Not really, because of sadly, the overwhelming negative legacy of the main show.”

Hayley says "it’s like Game of Thrones had all the blood drawn out of it and then we have this comparatively anaemic sexless kids show, despite the fact that the openings to episodes one and two are quite rude.”

“It feels incredibly light compared to how heavy and convoluted Game of Thrones was.”

“If you’re not that interested in this one guy, you probably won’t get on with this show.”

Both Scott and Hayley agreed this is not a Must Watch.

The first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is on the streaming service NOW TV.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a new spin-off of the sci-fi franchise, Star Trek, currently celebrating its 60th anniversary. Set in the 32nd Century, this new series follows a new class of Starfleet cadets as they train to become officers on the USS Athena.

Scott says "some parts of it work while some parts really don’t work.”

“It feels very much like Harry Potter’s sort of wizard school, but of course as a Trekkie, set in space.”

“It is just pretty dry. The main characters very much have a sort of big sob story attached to them that you sort of have a sense of inevitability that it’s all going to end up being OK.”

“It doesn’t really feel particularly special in regards to the plot or the overall feel. It just kind of feels like a normal offshoot of any sci-fi series like this.”

Hayley agrees saying she "felt no desire to watch what I was watching. It was just basic Star Trek to me and not in the kind of fun Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner way.”

“The show itself, I thought, was a weird mixture of performances that lean into the theatrical silliness of it and then these other ones that are entirely dead on their feet.”

“I think I’m going to probably be watching it, but skipping to Paul Giamatti’s bits.”

Hayley and Scott say this one is not a Must Watch.

The first two episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy are available on Paramount+ with new episodes available every Thursday.

Seven Dials is an Agatha Christie adaptation on Netflix. Set in 1925, a prank during a party ends up with someone dying. After a detective turns up and destroys most of the evidence with his own incompetence, the lady of the house decides to take on the investigation herself.

Scott said this one was "a bit of a letdown.”

“This was a ride that I wanted to get off. The pacing of it is so all over the place.”

“There wasn’t much depth to all of the characters.”

“It was a real, real drag for me… it just didn’t really seem to spark any imagination.”

Hayley says "this one feels incredibly dead to me.”

“Every bit of dialogue was mostly just plot moving forward and it wasn’t even that interesting."

“It’s one of those shows you can watch with like half your brain on.”

Both Scott and Hayley agree this one is not a Must Watch.

All three episodes of Agatha Christie's Seven Dials are available to watch on Netflix now.

Listen to the full reviews of all three programmes on BBC Sounds.

Why not contact Scott and Hayley with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or both on [email protected].

We used AI to transcribe and summarise our Must Watch feature. This article was then written and reviewed by a BBC journalist. More on how the BBC uses AI.