Kings premieres. Does anyone care?
16 March 2009
by R.A. Porter
I don’t have a lot to say about the premiere of Kings right yet; it was ambitious and interesting and I’ve saved a season pass for it, but I don’t really know what to think. It could easily degrade into a soapy mess, more 90210 than The West Wing, but Michael Green’s pilot managed to hold the line. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s got Ian McShane and Eamonn Walker around to recite some of his Jacobean dialog. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s willing to write such stylized dialog.
Unfortunately the ratings were…poor. Which is a shame, because unlike other high-profile, heavily hyped shows that have premiered lately (*cough* Dollhouse *cough*) this one deserves a chance to fly on its butterfly wings. Sad that someone who played Vamp #3 in some episode of BtVS or another didn’t make an appearance. Maybe the Whedonverse faithful would have tuned it to this with some of the passion they’ve been wasting on that Friday night abortion.
If you didn’t watch the pilot, go online and give it a chance. It’s available on the NBC website and Hulu. If you did watch, pipe in below with your opinion/thoughts on the episode. Did you like it? Will you be giving it a chance? Should we be reviewing it?
posted by R.A. Porter in → Discussions
March 19th, 2009 at 1:03 am
I saw it onllne, actually after reading the script (that was linked to from the Wiki page for the show). I thought it was pretty decent and I'll see it through the run, however long that is. (I'm not sure what was up with the promotion — the TV ads I saw didn't give any idea of what was interesting about it.)
What I liked was the world-building, the writing, and the lead actors. (Not having HBO I have never seen Deadwood and so never seen Ian McShane — it's clear why everyone was so excited about him in that show. The changes between the script and what aired were interesting. The script started with a war scene, and led you slowly into the idea that this 21st-century country has an absolute monarch. On air they added a prologue from two years before the main action, with the King's unification speech. They took a couple of f-words out of the script, and made the lost tech item a cel phone instead of a blackberry.
Heather Havrilesky at Salon raved about the style, and she had a good point. The way this place was upper-crust NYC, like the places where much of Eyes Wide Shut happened, and yet was also somewhere quite different — that worked for me. They put a lot of effort into the clothes, and it showed.
I wonder if any actual Bible-thumpers are interested in this? It's a very serious attempt to transpose the story from the Bible, without skimping on the actual divine intervention. I suppose if they get explicit about the love between David and Jonathan/Jack surpassing all man's love for women, they'll lose that demographic, but so far they're keeping the sex, violence, and double-dealing on a par with their source material as best I can tell. And they've got many more places to go, what with David marrying Michal/Michelle and then her being forcibly married to another man by Saul/Silas when the struggle for the throne heats up.
March 19th, 2009 at 3:46 am
Dave, great thoughts. I've been a fan of McShane's for, geez 20 years now? He starred in a cute little British show that A&E used to air called Lovejoy where he played a crime-solving antiques dealer. Yeah. I know. But he made it work.
The world-building on display here was impressive. I'd say on a par with BSG or the upcoming Caprica, but made more impressive by using NYC as the base instead of Vancouver. Maintaining that consistently isn't cheap, however. I'm saddened by the ratings; with the poor showing and the cost of production I have serious doubts about its future.
I was also really impressed by the willingness to embrace divinity. It's a tough sell to produce something that's simultaneously divine and avoids the pablum of Touched by and Angel and its ilk. I respect that from the creators and am surprised by NBC's boldness. I just hope it at least manages a full season.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Please, can you PM me and tell me few more thinks about this, I am really fan of your blog…
January 24th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
I’m agree with you, i’m glad you’re enjoying it.