Kings is on, and it looks like the first show I have seen in a long time that might be really interesting.
Kings
by John Cole| 57 Comments
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Kings
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.
This really is a full service blog.
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.
We still have time to mess this up!
Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.
if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.
Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.
Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard
You cannot shame the shameless.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?
No one could have predicted…
Technically true, but collectively nonsense
I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.
The revolution will be supervised.
An almost top 10,000 blog!
Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.
Impressively dumb. Congratulations.
Peak wingnut was a lie.
ed
I’ll agree if and only if Ian McShane has carte blanche to say "cocksucker."
jp2
Such a believable premise…should be on Sci-Fi Channel maybe.
chadwig
Dexter is where it’s at.
How can you beat the "serial killer with a heart of gold" premise?
Brandon T.
That’s the beauty of it–it doesn’t have to be a believable premise. It’s in an alternate universe.
jp2
Yeah but it’s based on some 2000 year old book. Who would believe it?
Punchy
In order of the awesum — Forensic Files, Mythbusters, TDS, Family Guy, NHL on Versus.
King this.
Hawes
McShane=Interesting
Does anyone remember his turn in "Sexy Beast"? Terrifying.
I’m TiVo-ing Kings to see what’s up. It has a great premise, in that it almost seeks to replicate Shakespeare’s historical plays in a contemporary setting, like that rather good Richard III that came out a few years back with Gandalf in it.
In the past when a show came out with an edgy premise you could usually count on it shitting the bed after five eps. But BSG, Lost and other shows give me hope that maybe interesting ideas do have a home on TV.
D-Chance.
No "Comedy Central Roasts Larry the Cable Guy" open thread?
kommrade reproductive vigor
I thought of watching it but I don’t pay the sat. bill and someone has to watch Extreme Home Makeover [eyeroll].
Bets: Which reichwing wanker will be the first to suggest America might be better off as a monarchy?
I’m putting my money on K-Lo, complete with gushing over the idea of King Mittens.
Andy K
Really, John? An adaptation of the Old Testament might be really interesting? I’ll take Nova, Frontline…and 30 Rock.
TheFountainHead
I watched the shuttle launch then turned the TV off. Might watch some Bones on DVD later
tom.a
Looks promising, but a lot of shows look promising and turn out to be a big suckfest these days it seems. I’m glad it’s not on Sci-Fi, we need more sci-fi and fantasy shows on more mainstream stations, only way we’ll ever push out all the reality show crap.
WereBear
Good luck, and I mean that.
It is hard for me to trust TV when they invariably yank shows I’m fond of. In fact, I suspect them of doing it on purpose.
Not me, specifically. Just that TV seems on a crusade of dumbing down all shows, because it’s harder to sell things to smart people.
How many times have they pulled a show for poor ratings when it was eagerly watched by everyone you know? That’s the kind of thing that makes me cynical.
Though I do like Ian McShane.
MikeJ
Paris Je t’aime is on Sundance.
John's Minyuns
Wow, Al Swearingen’s really come up in the world..
John
Really, John? An adaptation of the Old Testament might be really interesting? I’ll take Nova, Frontline…and 30 Rock.
Go masturbate to your own good taste somewhere else.
(ETA: wanted to clarify that I am not John Cole)
The Other Steve
I liked it. Interesting premise, although it was a bit over the top.
Narcissus
I thought it was really good. It managed to hold my attention for two hours, at least.
It did remind me of early reimagined Battlestar Galactica in that there wasn’t a lot of genre-nerd-wankery; it sort of just threw you into the story and said "yeah, it’s a monarchy, now here’s the storyline".
The Other Steve
Interesting. Ron Silver just passed away… cancer.
It’s sad that the last memory he left with the world was in defending GW Bush’s war adventures.
MikeJ
In the spirit of if you can’t say anything nice…..
He was believable as a right wing fuckwit on West Wing.
The Other Steve
Good point. I just didn’t care for the butterflies at the end… thought that made it too obvious what’s gonna happen.
Chet
I don’t see how it can be true to the Bible unless David turns out to be gay.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Speaking of David: I saw Watchmen last night and while there were some neat elements, I hated hated HATED the use of Hallelujah on the soundtrack. They took that lovely little song by Leonard Cohen, already repeatedly abused by tv and movie people since Shrek, and killt it dead. Fuckers.
MikeJ
Really more bi than gay. He had Jonathon AND Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba.
demkat620
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse: Absolutely, the soundtrack was really off kilter and coulda done with less ubiquitous blue penis.
demkat620
I am been in moderation. I said the p-word.
Fulcanelli
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse: I enjoyed the Watchmen flick and I agree Hallelujah was a really poor choice of a song for that moment in the film.
Nine Inch Nails’ "Animal" would have been so much more appropos.
However, My Chemical Romances’ take on "Desolation Row" over the credits frickin’ rawked!
Comrade Jake
I’m kind of enjoying the second season of Breaking Bad on AMC.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
I liked most of the soundtrack actually — can’t go wrong with a heaping helping of Dylan and Philip Glass — but could they just have used a song I hated for that scene?
I have no problems with blue penises on screen. In real life, a blue dick suggests something is seriously wrong, unless you’re a Pict, I guess.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Oh, THAT p word puts you in moderation.
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by My Chemical Romance. Video here.
Aaron Baker
Liking Ian McShane a great deal, I wached the 2-hour premiere, and it wasn’t bad. It (inevitably) pretties up the Biblical account somewhat. You’ll remember that Samuel told Saul he’d been rejected by God for his failure to kill every single one of the Amlekites.
Hawes
Shit, I was hoping they would go Shakespeare, rather than, literally "Kings". Not that the book doesn’t have some fine debauchery. Of course, they’ll round off some corners and change parts of the Biblical version. It’s not an adaption if they don’t (OT: That was my main quibble with "Watchmen", it felt largely redundant, as the book was essentially the storyboard for the film).
This is clearly a show that needs a built in expiration date. Set an arch for, whatever, 20 episodes and stick to it. Shows are better when they are building to an end.
I haven’t read "Kings" since junior high. Who was the Dylan Baker person supposed to be?
Andy K
@Hawes:
I watched it. It needs a lot more than that. It needs writers. It needs to be something other than a prime time soap with tanks and jets.
Ninerdave
The Amazing Race….
…the only reality show worth watching. Cold Case after that which is, as teh kidz say…da bomb.
Mike in NC
Total maggot asshole. Sorry I can’t say anything more.
Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole
My heart’s with "Damages," these days. Besides, my inner snob asks, how good can "Kings" be when they put it on at 8:00?
CaseyL
I liked it (Kings). Well, I like anything Ian McShane is in – I’ve had a crush on him for most of my adult life – but I liked the rest of it, too.
It was also a kick to see Wes Studi play a military hardass villain, for a change, instead of a Native American warrior villain :)
I thought Kings was a going to be mini-series, though, not a full-fledged series series; ending with David taking the throne. I guess we’ll be seeing his reign as well? If they keep to the Biblical source material, that boy’s gonna change a LOT from innocent farm boy/soldier hero. I hope the actor has some fun with that. He played Young Heroic David with so much repressed emotion he was nearly without any affect at all.
TWoP identifies Susannah Thompson, who plays Queen Rose, as also having been the Borg Queen in ST:Voyager. That’s a real hoot, because I know her mostly as Gibbs’ love interest in one season of NCIS. She has a luscious voice. I’d love to hear her and McShane talking dirty to each other. My god, that would be hot.
gopher2b
I seriously think I’m going to get laid off this week (sigh). Not at all relevant to what everyone is talking about here but I needed to say it.
Pooh
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:
Yeah, I really liked the movie, but the Hallelujah thing was too much.
Dan
You want to know where Pacino got his worst acting habits and affectations? Watch anything with Ron Silver.
A Mom Anon
@gopher2b:
I’m sorry,that’s an awful feeling. I hope it works out that you don’t get laid off.
argh
The idea is to get teh People used to the idea of having Kings again. It is given a Biblical twist to rope in the fundies who are already there baby, already there.
Oh but that is silly. It’s not like we have torture porn on teevee and suddenly people are advocating it. That would be tinfoil-ish!
People is stoopid. Yes we want kings again. And they will oblige. Don’t listen to me, though: no one does. Watch away your freedom, peasants-in-waiting. Watch it all away.
Of course it is on at 8:00. EVERYONE is to be exposed, ‘specially the chilluns.
Matthew Hooper
Um… argh?
Not "Kings" as in "have some kings". "Kings" as in "Book of Kings". The Bible? Maybe you’ve heard of it?
Honestly, this is a series that I can see left and right liking a good deal. Right, because it’s retelling one of the most ripping adventure stories in the Bible (and there are several good adventure yarn in there; it’s good literature independent of the religion thing); left because, well, it’s a ripping good adventure. And there’s nothing saying we can’t appreciate the Biblical angle, too.
Who caught the bit where Samuel anointed David on the head with oil? That was damn cute.
I’m in love with this thing – "Saul" is a tragic hero, not a villian; David is a compelling character; God is present, but not obnoxious; it’s really really cool. "Heroes" ought to be this good. And yes, there is a distinct story arc and ending implicit in this show. Awesome. Looking forward to at least three or four more seasons.
YellowJournalism
Why watch Kings when the crazy is getting amped up on "Big Love"?
BenA
I think the description on IMDB pretty much sums up why I have no interest in watching it: "A modern-day soap about a hero who rises to become the King of his nation, based on the biblical story of King David."
Just doesn’t do it for me.
John PM
I did not see Kings last night and had no interest from the ads, which did not tell me anything. However, after having gone to the site and read the synopsis of the first episode, I think that I may need to make this requird viewing now that BSG is going off the air.
P.S. – Perhaps Mr. Cole might be kind enough to do a final BSG theard this coming Friday? Pretty please?
Mike in NC
@gopher2b
Good luck. I have an interview tonight. Been six weeks since I got laid off and it’s mighty boring to hang around the house all day.
Kent
TV has had a ton of good shows over the past several years. Mostly not on the networks, but that’s what Netflix is for. Just to trot out a smattering of the generally acclaimed shows (and rightly so IMHO):
The Wire
Six Feet Under
Deadwood
Dexter
The Sopranos
Weeds
Firefly
Buffy
Entourage
Mad Men
The Shield
South Park
Arrested Development
30 Rock
House
Pushing Daisies
Not to say that you haven’t found another winner in "Kings," but it would be another in a pretty long line of winners, not something new and unusual.
Yes there’s a ton of dreck on the teevee these days. But there’s a bunch of really, really good stuff too.
MazeDancer
Decent acting in very, very ordinary material. Lot of money on the screen production wise. Should have spent more on writing. If it hadn’t been an alleged retelling of David & Goliath it would never gotten made. Because on its own it was dull. I love a good soap opera. I love a good Sci Fi drama. Both are best when they’re intricate in plot lines and snappy in dialogue. This didn’t have that. Will give it another chance next couple weeks when it doesn’t have the pilot exposition burden, but something original and compelling needs to appear.
Krista
I enjoyed it — I do thought they gave away a bit too much in the first episode, which makes me wonder how they’re going to stretch the story out over multiple seasons. But, it’s better than much of the mindless dreck that’s on, and I always applaud any efforts to put something on TV that isn’t a reality show.
memory bank
I watched about one hour.
The David and Goliath incident was so lame. You see, another nation has seized two soldiers as captives, in an international incident. The captors keep those captives in a scarcely guarded tent about forty yards from the front line. One soldier can sneak through a line of Goliath tanks (that are scarcely guarded by an infantry screen), cut a hole in the tent, free the captives and run with them back to the other side, despite machine gun and cannon fire. Only one tank, out of the dozens of tanks spaced about every twenty yards, fires its cannon and machine gun at the running captives at near point-blank range, and all it does is kick up dust. Then the soldier destroys the mighty new weapon, the Goliath tank, with a simple shoulder-held rocket launcher.
I hung in a little while longer, through lots of long silences and close-ups of pretty people.
Brachiator
@Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole:
Hmmm. To talk about TV and snobbery seems to me to be a contradiction in terms. But I think that although the premier of "Kings" was at 8:00, it’s regular place in the line-up will be 9. Some of the show’s themes are decidedly adult.
I thought the show was OK, redeemed by fairly good acting. But I would have preferred historical revisionism without the religion. David as a fraud of a hero (or a semi-pacifist) just seems wrong, and misses how the biblical narrative whitewashes David’s ruthlessness. Equally stupid are the lapses into King Jame’s English, especially since Hebrew poetry (even in English translation) has its own majestic rhythms.
In fact, now that I think about it, Christopher Egan’s David is kinda lame. He should be more charismatic and have a greater potential for deviousness. They could also do more with Michelle, the king’s daughter, who is pretty much a cipher in the biblical narrative. But of course, my model for re-telling a mythic narrative is John Boorman’s often wild retelling of the Arthurian myth in "Excalibur."
I’m with you here.
She also had a hot, wet kiss with Terry Farrell in the "Deep Space Nine" episode, "Rejoined."
JimPortlandOR
meh
I dutifully watched the show (and googled for reviews etc.) and the artificiality doesn’t work for me. It’s like they took some stories from the OT and tried to see how to make it look modern (and sexy). We have the military-industrial complex (MIC) funding the government? Isn’t it the other way around? And Saul owing his Kingship to the MIC which produces Goliath’s (tanks instead of big people?)
The NYT promised this wouldn’t be a religious series – but WTF are butterflys doing crowning the potential future king? And the faith minister saying DOG was going to withdraw his support from the current king?
Did anyone notice that the totally ruined Shiloh was rebuilt with some buildings from the 19th century?
Incoherent! Boring! Predictable (didn’t ya know that the Kings son Jack just HAD to be gay and therefore not a good successor?)
The original story had lots of plot problems, and the Kings crew just larded more belly fat onto that.
Gath should put Shiloh out of its misery, quick.
The Populist
So far, I will give this show a chance. Bryan Fuller has been a good writer on a lot of very good shows.
Brachiator
The future does not look bright for the monarchy:
This also does not bode well for a projected NBC series which updates the Arthurian legend of Merlin.
And so it goes.
Tony J
When I came across a promo-blurb for Kings a few months ago I thought it was going to be a subversive alternate-history scenario where the USA was either born as a monarchy rather than a republic, or became one early on, and the fun would be had noting that not an awful lot about its history would change.
But a retelling of the OT story of Saul and David transposed to a modern-day setting? Where’s the drama going to come from? Since everyone already knows – more or less – what’s going to happen each episode.
Meh. I think I’ll give it a miss when it reaches these shores.
Cal Gal
How interesting in concept and trailers!
How strangely boring in execution!
As we were watching, we did a running critique. The droning soundtrack — that didn’t help it.
I thought about 15 minutes into it that it was from a novel, because it kept leaping from plot point to plot point with no real character development that could have made it interesting.
Good acting, good art direction, but just exactly what WAS it that made it so bad?
Screenplay, maybe, I thought. Or direction. Obviously direction, I suppose but probably a lethal mixture of both bad direction and bad screenplay to begin with.
With good shows cancelled (Arrested Development, anyone? Even the cute Aliens in America) how can just plain crapola like this make it beyond pilot to actual series?
British made? You know, there is a lot of crapola on TV in Britian. We only see the good stuff here.
Anyway, we were sorely disappointed, as we’re big Ian McShane fans.