“House of David” is hot.

Not “Heated Rivalry” hot, but the biblical series has been a surprise hit for Amazon MGM Studios. Season 1 reportedly drew 22 million viewers in the first 17 days; Season 2 begins airing on Amazon this weekend. 

The last year has also given us “David: King of Israel,” a four part series on Fox Nation, and the animated film “David” from Angel Studios. Indeed, it’s been a very good year for Bible-based drama. Chalk up another win for “The Chosen.” 

“House of David” brings classic streaming storytelling to a tale I thought I already knew. It begins with David’s showdown with Goliath, and then hits pause to give us the back story. Who is this young champion who takes to the battlefield when no one else will? He has nice hair, but he looks a little scrawny—could he really be God’s chosen?

I am a fan of “The Chosen,” but I have never been tempted to binge it. “House of David,” on the other hand, plays like a tamer but no less riveting “Game of Thrones.” Which may get things backward, since the biblical story of David and Saul has influenced every sword-and-sandals drama that has come after it. Seeing the original, executed with an Amazon-sized budget, makes for impressive watching, even if some of it was reportedly created using A.I. (The series was made in collaboration with Wonder Studios.)

Perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay “House of David” is that it sent me to the source material: first to Robert Alter’s translation of 1 and 2 Samuel, and then to a short biography of David by David Wolpe. Could all the show’s plot twists and turns really be true? 

Liberties have been taken, but much of the material is based in biblical fact. Before watching “House of David,” most of my knowledge of David pertained to Goliath, the Psalms and a bathing Bathsheba. It turns out there is a whole lot more to this story. 

Wolpe calls David “the Bible’s most complex character,” “as wily as Odysseus and as tortured as Lear.” Does “House of David” convey this complexity? Not really. But that’s mostly because this is the story of young David, beginning with his days as a shepherd, tending sheep and playing his lyre in the fields of his father, Jesse. You can see why his brothers are gobsmacked when the prophet Samuel anoints David as Israel’s next king. This guy? He’s a singer, not a fighter.

There is a lot of singing here—David is recruited to play for King Saul at the palace—but you get little sense of the man who would be king. The real drama lies with Saul, God’s formerly chosen one. David may not be fully fleshed out (yet), but Saul is a hot, human mess.

Played by the Palestinian actor Ali Suliman, Saul gets put through the wringer. You feel for the guy. Here he was, God’s chosen king, winning battle after battle thanks to divine intervention. And then, suddenly, the prophet Samuel tells him that God has withdrawn his support and will anoint another. God has his reasons; Saul was getting full of himself. But to go from God’s chosen to just another man would mess with anyone’s head.

But Saul’s downfall does not happen right away. It takes time to unfold. Here is where television has an advantage over the original text. The Book of Samuel gives us the bones of the story. “House of David” allows us to see the slow unraveling of Saul’s state of mind, even as those around him still revere him as king. Human drama plays out in unexpected ways.

David’s story also surprises. Even when he defeats Goliath—a sure sign of God’s favor—his future remains unclear. He joins the house of Saul, but how long can that last? The people love him, but Saul grows wary, and the vultures start to circle. Even God’s chosen one must face the uncertainty and suffering that life brings.

The principal lesson here, for Saul and eventually for David, is about the perils of power. When Saul learns he is no longer God’s chosen, he could ask for mercy. Instead he doubles down, threatening Samuel with retribution if he doesn’t re-anoint him as king. Eventually David too becomes a target of his wrath. It’s straight out of Shakespeare—I’m getting this backwards again—and a grave warning to any narcissistic leader who surrounds himself with sycophants. 

Saul’s most heinous act—the murder of the priests in Nob—plays near the end of Season 2. By that point David is on the run, his life turned upside down. In a departure from the original story, David falls in love with Saul’s daughter, Mychal, and hopes to marry her. (In the original text, David marries Mychal, but there she is one of many wives, and Wolpe argues David never really loved anyone.) But they cannot be together, not yet. As David sets out for the Philistine territories, his men follow him. Joab and Jonathan emerge as his loyal defenders, while Saul’s days seem to be numbered. 

Reportedly there are just three seasons planned for “House of David.” The focus will remain on young David, not the king who went on to unify Israel. Which is a shame, because that’s when things get really interesting. David’s affair with Bathsheba; his decision to send her husband to his death; the coverup—all of that is to come, along with the revolt of David’s own son Absalom.

One life, so much drama: Has any other figure in recorded history seen so much? The temptation when telling the story of David is just to replay the highlights. But it’s in the full arc of his story, particularly his on-again off-again relationship with God, that his humanity shines brightest. 

“He is great because of his complexity, not in spite of it,” Wolpe writes. “We see ourselves in this man, and we see this man in ourselves.” 

Capturing that man will take more than just one streaming series. May the stories keep coming. 

Tim Reidy joined America’s staff in October 2006 and served as online editor for several years before moving into his current role as the deputy editor in chief. Tim oversees America’s newsroom, directing its daily news coverage as well as working with the editorial leadership team to plan each print issue. Tim also edits the magazine’s Ideas section, where he contributes book reviews and essays. Before joining America, he worked at the Hartford Courant, a newspaper in Connecticut, and Commonweal magazine. In addition to writing for America, he has contributed to The New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review and the Princeton Alumni Weekly. He has been interviewed about the Catholic Church on WNYC in New York, ABC, Bloomberg TV and other media outlets. Tim also serves on the board of directors of Jesuit Refugee Service USA. He lives in Bronxville, N.Y., with his wife and two children.