What Makes a TV Show Feel Real? These 3 Things

I’ll admit pretty readily that I had fairly low expectations going into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I remember how Game of Thrones didn’t exactly stick the landing, and prestige TV tends to be hit-or-miss these days. I haven’t read the novella and didn’t know what the show was even about.

But as the opening episodes unfolded, and I realized we were going to stay with mostly one struggling knight as he tried his luck at a single tournament, I remember feeling so excited and refreshed by the premise. Keeping it small and contained? In a Game of Thrones spinoff? Revolutionary.

That’s exactly the word creator Epic Sell used in a recent video, too. The show seemed totally new. That’s because we’re in a landscape of plenty now—so much TV, so much to watch, everything fighting for noise.

And every once in a while, something cuts through not because it's radical but because it's doing the basics well. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is that show right now.

Epic Sell points to three elements that make A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms feel so authentic, and they’re things other writers and directors can easily focus on, too. Watch his video here.

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What Is “Authenticity”?

"Authentic" is one of those words that gets used so often it can start to lose its shape. In the context of television, it tends to get deployed as a compliment without much explanation, and it just means “this feels real.”

I’d say in genre TV, especially, it means a full commitment to the premise and world while also creating relatable characters. So even in a high fantasy like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms , the characters “feel real.”

Epic Sell's video essay takes a swing at actually defining its parts. Authenticity isn't a tone or an aesthetic. It's not a budget level or a shooting style. It's the result of specific decisions made at the writing stage about who your characters are, how much time you give your story to breathe, and what your narrative actually believes in. So it’s about character, buildup, and purpose.

These show up in the shows people keep coming back to (think Andor , The Bear , Slow Horses), not just prestige fantasy.

Get these three things right, and audiences feel it, even if they can't name what they're responding to. It’s encouraging, too, because it means authenticity is something you can learn and develop.

Authentic Characters

The video points to a scene early on in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms where Dunk, after fumbling through an awkward exchange with a woman, turns to Egg (a 9-year-old he only recently met) and asks how he thinks it went.

From this interaction, which is really just a few lines, we can see contrasts between the characters. Dunk is naive, uncertain, seeking reassurance. Egg is more perceptive, intelligent, but also careful in his response. They both open up to each other by seeking connection in this scene. Egg admits he’s small and has doubts about his ability to one day be a knight.

The scene ends with Dunk trying to assert some separation between them when he feels the conversation getting too personal, and it’s a comedic beat, but the subtext of the scene remains rich and reveals a lot about their dynamic and who they are, although a casual viewer won’t know Egg’s true lineage at this point.

The reflex in a lot of TV writing, especially pilots, is to tell us who a character is rather than show us. You’ll get that clunky dialogue that lists a person’s job title and fatal flaw, one after another. Someone says the thing the show is about out loud. It might be efficient, but it’s not realistic. One might even say inauthentic.

Character-driven writing works when behavior does the heavy lifting. Dunk doesn't explain that he's a good man who doesn’t know much about the world. He just keeps making the harder choice when the easier one is right there, and bumbling through it most of the time. Authenticity is about letting the audience learn who characters are through action, because that’s usually what happens in real life, too.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Credit: HBO Max

Authentic Buildup

Hey, remember that McConaughey/Chalamet conversation that went viral a few weeks ago? There was a tidbit that got kind of lost in the noise that Epic Sell brings up here.

During their talk, McConaughey says, “Are we losing attention? And patience for act ones? Because it's the first thing that gets cut.”

He adds, “I'm seeing act two more and more start on freaking page 12. I'm seeing series that, a 10-part series that bam, act one's over 32 minutes into the opening episode, and you're off on the on the conflict right away.”

What he means is that conflict is front-loaded, and the setup is treated as a problem to solve rather than an opportunity. The worldbuilding can feel rushed.

Showrunner Ira Parker's approach with Knight is not like this. The show takes its time setting up storylines. On the production side, they utilized physical sets with a painstaking attention to detail.

Andor is the other example (and you know I’ll take any opportunity to talk about Andor). The production value of the series was extremely high. It did receive some criticism, especially in Season 2, for being slow in its first three-episode set-up, although it was vindicated by its finale.

When the audience has been earned, the stakes feel real. The Trial of Seven works because we've spent five episodes learning to care about Dunk and his unlikely friendships. Slow-burn storytelling doesn’t mean boring. You just have to focus on that first thing (characters) so audiences will go along for the ride, no matter how long it takes.

Authentic Purpose

Epic Sell's argument that this show, at least, is landing partly because of the moment we're in, and I’d agree. Again, I remember being so surprised by the premise and the episode lengths, because other shows just aren’t doing the same thing right now.

Parker and his room chose to keep things simple. One POV, one story, one moral question. It doesn’t all have to be family dynasties feuding for a throne and engaging in a war. Sometimes it’s just a guy trying to do the right thing, and that will be something that resonates with audiences tired of dealing with complications of actively unfolding world history or politics or the job market or whatever is currently stressing us out.

Learn more about writing a TV pilot. And consider, what does your show believe in? Who is your character when no one's watching? Does your first act earn what comes next?