Crime
Adolescence
In Netflix’s Adolescence, 13-year-old Jamie Miller is accused of a violent murder. And the motive behind this alleged crime haunts the people around him.
Ask a Christian for the biggest names in the Bible, and it won’t be long before you hear about King David.
The powerful story of David and Goliath—where David, through the power and providence of God, saved Israel from its enemies with a sling and stone—is so well known that even secular audiences use it to describe an underdog situation.
But ask that same secular audience about the rest of David’s life—his rise from shepherd to prophet-anointed king; the long years he spent fleeing from King Saul in the wilderness; his terrible fall into sin and the lifelong consequences he faced as a result—and chances are they won’t be as well-versed in those events.
House of David may be their—and your—entry into learning the rest of that story.
Of course, you can’t tell David’s story without telling a few others—most notably, King Saul’s. House of David’s first moments picture the aftermath of Saul’s battle with the Amalekites (found in 1 Samuel 15). Saul has disobeyed the commandment of God, and the prophet Samuel tells him that God has rejected Saul as king.
It’s a solemn warning that Samuel had given years before: “Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king” (1 Samuel 12:24-25).
And as Saul turns away from God, He is raising up an unlikely man to take Saul’s place: David, the youngest son of Jesse, born of a different tribe than Saul, who’s busy tending to the flocks while his brothers fight in the war. By any metric, what man would choose David to succeed Saul? But, as a scene in House of David reminds us, the Lord does not see as man sees. For while man judges by external appearances, God looks on a man’s heart. And so, as an evil spirit from God torments Saul, the Spirit of God rushes upon David.
Saul is determined to maintain his power. But God has determined that David will reign—no matter how much resistance Saul brings.
On its surface, House of David is a political thriller. Saul doesn’t accept God’s decree, so he (and in this adaptation, his wife, Queen Ahinoam) instead dives deeply into political conspiracy and threats. And as they quickly devolve from being passively resistant to the changes in the kingdom taking place to being actively hostile to them, we see that it’s not just David they’re scheming against; soon, it’s the prophet Samuel. And then, it’s even their own, God-fearing, son, Jonathan.
But dive a little deeper under the surface, and you’ll find that every move in House of David is deeply spiritual. Viewers would certainly expect this from David’s side of the story, of course; the man “after God’s own heart” comes from a less-than-regal background, and it’s only by a working of God that he could ever hope to take the throne. But in every action taken by Saul and Ahinoam, too, we see not only their movement away from God but also their embrace of pagan practices. Every political decision, then, is intrinsically a statement about how the characters view the God of the universe.
Christians know that the story of David goes well beyond his God-given victory over Saul and Goliath—and we know the grime that comes with the rest of his life, too. It’s grime that the show, so far, isn’t afraid to put to screen—an attitude not always present in typically sanitized Christian media. In House of David, when people die in combat, for instance, they bleed, and in no small trickle, either.
But merely depicting the strict biblical text telling the story of David’s life does not a TV series make. After all, that’d be an awkward watch, what with the books of 1 and 2 Samuel covering approximately 150 years of history. That’s why viewers will find that House of David takes some extra-biblical liberties with its storytelling. It’s a concern that may be best described by the same words we used to describe The Chosen, Dallas Jenkins’ creation which covers the life, death and resurrection of Jesus:
“It’s fiction, in other words—fiction that was inspired by and embraces Scripture, but fiction that nonetheless feels free to remove and (mostly) add elements as the story—not theology—demands.”
Most of those added elements seem harmless. If David writes dozens upon dozens of the Psalms, it makes sense to watch him practicing on a lyre. Other elements seem to be inspired by various Midrashic texts (Jewish rabbinical commentaries on Scripture). For instance, the show follows a midrashic reading of 2 Samuel 21 in depicting Ruth’s sister-in-law, Orpah, as the mother of the giant Goliath.
But viewers could take issue with other creative moments—such as when, in the opening moments of the first episode, Goliath’s javelin strikes David, leaving him bleeding on the ground and struggling for a stone.
Still, I think viewers can take some comfort and may be willing to extend grace to the show knowing director Jon Erwin’s comments on the subject.
“I love the material,” Erwin told Plugged In. “I feel like the material is life-changing, and so you want to try to really honor the themes of the story while making a dramatic television show. … As a parent, I find it so hard to get my kids aware of or interested in the Bible at all in this visual generation they live in, and so, if all we do is to start a conversation about the material again, so people reengage with the Bible, we’ve succeeded.”
House of David streams on Prime Video.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
At the height of his power, King Saul is confronted by the prophet Samuel and told that his kingdom will be taken from him and given to another.
The show opens with the confrontation between David and Goliath, as Goliath taunts David (1 Samuel 17:43). Notably, we don’t hear David say his famous speech in vv. 45-47, though given that this scene merely foreshadows the confrontation in a future episode, it may be that David will speak those words at then. Instead, David prays “God, give me this ground.” And, speaking of Goliath, someone quotes Genesis 6:4 regarding him, describing him as one of the Nephilim.
Someone references Joshua 1:9 (or Deuteronomy 31:6-8) – “Be strong and courageous,” though that person doesn’t mention the second half of the verse, “for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Instead, the quote ends with, “For fear is the enemy,” (a phrase not found in either passage of Scripture).
David says that he hears God speak to him when he’s alone in the hills.
Saul constructs a monument to the greatness of his house (1 Samuel 15:12), a decision that causes son Jonathan to ask if it’s for the greatness of God. “Our greatness is His greatness,” Saul responds. When Jonathan warns Saul that Samuel said not to keep any spoils from the Amalekites, Saul says that Samuel’s time has passed. Now, since Saul is God’s anointed, he says that God can speak to him instead.
Meanwhile, Samuel laments Saul’s choices (1 Samuel 15:11). He confronts Saul about his disobedience (v.14) and quotes God’s judgment from verse 11: “I regret that I have made Saul king.” A great storm appears as Samuel speaks the judgment, and Saul accuses Samuel of being a sorcerer. We hear vv. 22-23 of the chapter quoted, and Saul admits his mistake (v. 24), but Samuel tells Saul that he will be given to a “twisted power and your own torment; your mind will be cursed,” (1 Samuel 16:14).
Later, Samuel confronts King Agag, and Agag asks why “the gods” have come to him. Samuel corrects him: “The God of gods has come.” Then, he turns to the Israelites around him, telling them that God is not mocked. There’s a reference to Samuel’s disobedient children from 1 Samuel 8.
God removes His Spirit from Saul, causing Saul to go into a sort of shadow realm, illustrating his descent into madness. Someone describes Samuel as the “last of the great seers.” In reference to an attacking lion, someone asks, “Why does God judge me? A demon attacks my home!” We hear a reference to Moses and the parting of the Red Sea. One character also mentions Moses leading Israel through the wilderness for 40 years and dying with them there: “Disobedience comes at a cost, even for a great one like Moses,” a man says.
Goliath chucks javelins at David, and one strikes David in the side, causing David to collapse to the ground as blood heavily pours out of him. We see the Amalekite battle of 1 Samuel 15, which involves sword fights. Some of them die, bleeding as they fall. We see the burnt corpses of victims struck by flaming arrows. One corpse is stuck in the ground via a large spear. A boy watches his father die. Saul stabs an enemy in a battle. Men fistfight.
After the battle, we see a chained and blooded King Agag, the men of whom are described as “cannibals and sorcerers.” To that end, we see King Agag drawing in the sand while speaking in whispers, apparently casting a spell on a nearby woman. Samuel stabs Agag to death and spits on his corpse.
Someone suffers injuries after fighting with a wild animal. A lamb bleeds from the wounds of a lion’s bite. We hear of four dead sheep, and we see a lion with bloody mouth after killing a sheep.
An intoxicated man praises Saul for giving them the wine of their enemies. Others drink wine, too.
Saul kisses his wife on the forehead. There’s a shirtless man.
As Saul descends into madness, David questions why he can’t join his brothers in battle.
We see the relationship between David and his mother, Nitzevet. She takes him to see the stars aligned “just as they were during creation.” The show posits that Nitzevet was a seer who could foresee that David would become great. She tells David that he, too, will hear God “in the still and quiet.” And when David wonders if he was a curse (more on that in a minute), Nitzevet tells him that he is “fearfully and wonderfully made,” implying that she inspired David to write that line in Psalm 139.
Someone describes David and Nitzevet as people who “defile the name of Jesse.” This comment is likely based on a story from Midrash: Because David’s father, Jesse, was descended from Boaz and Ruth (the latter of whom was a Moabite), he doubted that he was truly an Israelite. And if he wasn’t a true Israelite but rather a Moabite, it would be forbidden for him to be married to Nitzevet (based on an interpretation of Deuteronomy 23:3-6). Because of this, Jesse sought out a Canaanite maidservant so he could create a “pure” offspring. However, unbeknownst to Jesse, Nitzevet switched places with the maidservant (à la story of Leah and Rachel in Genesis 29). Nitzevet conceived David, but Jesse and his sons believed her pregnancy to be the result of adultery, and the two were despised by their family.
Michal, Saul’s daughter, reads about the account of the Bronze Serpent from Numbers 21. As she considers the passage, she asks her father, “Why will God not heal you?”
David talks with someone about the sons of Anak referenced in Numbers 13. David describes them as “giants made when the sons of God descended and had children by the daughters of men.” They also discuss the Exodus, and when the man says that Moses drowned Pharoah’s armies, David replies, “Hashem [a modern Jewish replacement for YHWH] drowned the army. Moses was His vessel.”
An enemy of David asks if his God will save him, just before David’s brother protects him. David prays that God would show him who he is meant to be. The title of the episode references a line from Psalm 42.
Jonathan prays that God wouldn’t turn His back on his family because of Saul’s sins. “Show me your purpose,” he prays.
Samuel’s power is described as being “not of this world.” A Philistinian man prays to pagan gods, and he says that he plans to “summon new gods.” Someone describes an Amalekite blade as cursed.
Many men die after being stabbed or having their throats cut. One man dies after being stabbed many times. People are pierced with arrows. Someone perishes after being attacked by a wild animal, and we see the bloodied body. We also see a charred and speared corpse. Queen Ahinoam seeks to hires an assassin to kill the one whom Samuel anoints. David bleeds following a fight. Jonathan dodges a sword-wielding attacker.
People drink wine. A man acts intoxicated.
As men compare their battle scars, someone jokes, “being Hebrew gave me this,” and he points down at his crotch, referencing his circumcision. He also points to his neck and mentions a woman with pointy teeth. We see a shirtless man.
As Saul’s madness becomes harder to conceal, his family must deal with his outbursts. Meanwhile, Samuel seeks to find a replacement for King Saul.
David prays that God would save someone’s life.
Samuel grieves, explaining that “the LORD asks me to commit treason” against Saul. However, his wife reminds him that God is the Great Author, so it would only be treason if Samuel didn’t listen to God. Later, Samuel jokes regarding a man about to have his first child: “I advise you to get plenty of sleep now; I prophesy that you will need it.” And as Samuel considers God’s commands, he chuckles to himself, saying, “God is funny.”
We see Samuel approach Bethlehem, and he speaks with the fearful elders regarding his intentions (1 Samuel 16:2-5). He offers a burnt offering to God, and he approaches each of Jesse’s children to determine that they aren’t the one that He has anointed. Samuel notices that one son is missing, and he tells Jesse that God asks why he is ashamed of what God intends to magnify. “Why do you hide a great light?” Samuel asks. When Samuel touches David, they both sees flashes of visions, and Samuel calls David the “lion of the tribe of Judah” after anointing him with oil. The scene generally follows the events of 1 Samuel 16:6-13.
Queen Ahinoam expresses doubt that God speaks through Samuel. Jonathan warns his family that God rules their house, and they cannot turn their back on Him.
A pagan man says that he serves his own ambition over God. “If He is real, which is unlikely, I invite Him to show me His wrath, because here is my truth. He does not see all, and He does not see me,” he says. Someone goes to a priestess of Baal to see if she can cure Saul of his madness. She utters a spell and places an effigy in a pot, burning it, exclaiming that the act brought forth the vision of a lion.
Someone meets with Orpah, who is said in a midrashic reading of 2 Samuel 21:15-22 to be the mother of giants. When a man desires to speak to the father of the giants, Orpah responds that he then must speak “to the gods.”
Saul is tortured by a voice. He sees visions and dreams of his wife cradling his baby. “He will never be king because of you,” the vision says. He also sees a battlefield where he is stabbed and then struck by an arrow while watching Jonathan die—a likely foreshadowing of their future deaths in 1 Samuel 31. Finally, Samuel approaches Saul in the dream, telling him to let go of the crown—though Saul refuses, chucking a spear at the apparition instead.
When the vision fades, Saul finds that he’s speared a male servant to death. A man begins torturing someone with a knife. One person suffers through the process of having an arrow removed from his body before someone cauterizes the wound with hot metal. A character gets knocked unconscious. Someone kills a rat. We see hundreds of human skulls.
We hear that Jesse no longer sits with the elders of his village since “he fathered a b–tard child by the daughter of an enemy.” We see a shirtless man.
This episode revolves around two primary events: David is summoned by King Saul, and Saul’s house deals with a serious allegation.
David’s oldest brother, Eliab, doubts Samuel’s competence based on his age. It causes David’s father to defend the prophet, saying, “So, your loyalty to this king is greater than your loyalty to the One True God?”
David has a vision. In it, he touches water, which turns into fire. Later, he has a vision in which a masked man telekinetically pushes him to the ground. When David asks Samuel about these visions, Samuel tells him it’s because the Holy Spirit rests in him now.
David and Mychal (Saul’s daughter) discuss Scripture together. When David admits to being unable to read, she recites a portion of the Song of Moses to him (Deuteronomy 32:1-43). Mychal worries that God has abandoned her family, but David reassures her that he can feel God’s presence there.
There’s a reference to the story of Samson and Delilah. We also hear an allusion to a pagan god, causing David to say, “Forgive me, my queen, but I serve no god but Hashem” (a modern Jewish replacement for YHWH). A pagan woman claims that David carries “not just light; I sense darkness as well.”
We see the burned body of a torture victim, burned down to the bone. It’s evident his blood was used to trace symbols on a rock, too. Some men and horses die offscreen from arrows, and we later see their bodies on the ground.
Eshbaal is accused of “defiling” a woman—specifically, that he and a virgin woman had consensual sex. The woman’s father demands that Eshbaal follow the Law of Moses on that matter and marry her (Deut. 22:28-29), or else they’ll stone him to death. However, Queen Ahinoam counters that the Law of Moses would require both Eshbaal and the girl to be stoned to death (perhaps referencing Deut. 22:23-24, though, in context, this is in reference to two people having an affair and wouldn’t apply to the specific situation).
Instead, Queen Ahinoam banishes Eshbaal to En-dor, which she claims is a refuge city (though, in Joshua 20:7-8, it is not listed among the refuge cities). She quotes Joshua 20:2-3 to support her case, though in biblical context, refuge cities are specifically used to shelter alleged murderers until a trial can occur rather than sheltering a man who refuses to marry a woman with whom he’s had sex (Numbers 35:9-34).
Saul’s son Eshbaal (also called Ish-bosheth) attempts to console his father by telling him about a tavern filled with wine and women. When Saul reminds Eshbaal that he is married, Eshbaal quips that Saul can still look at the woman.
In order to secure an alliance with the tribe of Judah, King Saul organizes a wedding ceremony between his daughter and a son of Adriel, an elder of Judah.
The episode seems to act as an intermission between 1 Samuel 16 and 17, though its elements may be inspired by portions of 1 Samuel 18:17-19. However, in the biblical account of that story, Adriel the Meholathite is from the tribe of Issachar rather than Judah, and Mirab (“Merab” in Scripture) is married to Adriel rather than one of his sons. In this regard, the episode seems to reimagine that section of Scripture entirely for dramatic effect.
David reads a section of Judges 21:25: “In those days, Israel did not have a king.” Someone reads part of Jacob’s blessing from Genesis 49, and King Saul interrupts to quote the portion regarding the tribe of Benjamin.
Someone wants to remind citizens of “God’s sovereignty” by using Saul’s military in a show of force. When questioned about his illness, Saul responds that he’s “only human. Anointed by God, but human.” And when Saul suffers from his madness, he sees and hears the dead King Agag speaking to him, stirring up paranoia in him—a condition which improves following David’s playing of the harp (1 Samuel 16:23).
King Saul offers David a chance to sit on the throne to see how it feels, but David responds that such an action is only “for the Lord’s anointed.” However, after Saul leaves, David decides to sit there anyway.
A man criticizes how King Saul was presented before the people amidst carvings of pagan gods, and another man responds by stating they’ve etched those carvings away as they convert the Philistinian fortress into Israel’s capital. A pagan woman suggests using dark magic to heal King Saul of his madness.
People refer to God using the term “Hashem,” a modern Jewish replacement for YHWH.
A man makes a sly reference to men comparing the size of their anatomy. Adriel tells Mychal that he finds her lovely, and were his wife dead, he would marry her himself. People describe David as a “bastard” child (a midrashic interpretation we’ve previously explained in our summary of the show’s second episode).
Saul forcefully grabs his wife by the throat before letting her go.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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