New Series - Kings

shawkins · Mar 17, 2009

NBC just started a series about an alternate history north america that's broken up into kingdoms. The pilot ran Sunday, 03/15/09. The kingdom is in a war and a PFC named David blows up a tank with Goliath painted on the front. The king is impressed with him and soon young David is embroiled in the shenanigans of court.

It had a couple of HBO veterans in key roles. Ian McShane (Al Swearingen from Deadwood) plays king silas and Eamonn Walker (Kareem Sayeed from Oz) is sort of the pope. Writing was well above average except for the last 20 minutes of the premiere, when heroic young David gave a cringeworthy speech.

You can watch the full episode in streaming video on NBC.com. I'll admit I'm a sucker for religious undertones, but on the whole I thought it was pretty good. I am instructing my TiVo accordingly.

Anyone else watching this?

Kitty Pryde · Mar 17, 2009

I've DVRed it and I'm looking forward to checking it out. I read online that it got AWFUL rankings--no one turned up to watch it apparently. The piece I read said not to get too attached to it, cause it will most likely get canceled early. Sad.

Here in LA they did a really cool marketing campaign for it at the beginning of the year: lots of bright orange posters pasted up among pasted-up posters for concerts, cds, events, etc, that had that butterfly logo and read "POST NO BILLS BY ORDER OF THE KING".

shawkins · Mar 17, 2009

Kitty Pryde said:
I've DVRed it and I'm looking forward to checking it out. I read online that it got AWFUL rankings--no one turned up to watch it apparently. The piece I read said not to get too attached to it, cause it will most likely get canceled early. Sad.

Drat. Well, I guess I'm not stunned. I heard about it back in September or thereabouts and I've been keeping an eye out ever since, but I totally forgot it was starting Sunday.

mdin · Mar 17, 2009

I watched the first half before my wife usurped the television to watch Desperate Housewives.

I also like subtle religious undertones in drama, but this was more like getting hit by a 2x4. It's so much the story of King David it's going to be too predictable, I think. I love the premise. I love Ian McShane and Sayeed from Oz. Everything about it seems cool, but it didn't really hold my interest enough for me to not protest the channel being changed.

shawkins · Mar 17, 2009

Fair enough. It was not unduly burdened with subtlety, no argument. Personally, I was pleased that they have resisted the temptation to use that "Hallelujah" song in the soundtrack. Thus far, anyway.

Kitty Pryde · Mar 17, 2009

shawkins said:
Fair enough. It was not unduly burdened with subtlety, no argument. Personally, I was pleased that they have resisted the temptation to use that "Hallelujah" song in the soundtrack. Thus far, anyway.

LOL! But, it's a law of television that all series which have poignant scenes must use some version of 'Hallelujah' at some point. It's called, umm, Leonard Cohen's Law. Yeah, that's the ticket.

mdin · Mar 17, 2009

Ha. Or Smashmouth's "Rockstar." They could've used it when he was blowing up the tank.

dragonjax · Mar 17, 2009

I recorded it; will be watching either tonight or Thursday.

shawkins · Mar 17, 2009

Kitty Pryde said:
LOL! But, it's a law of television that all series which have poignant scenes must use some version of 'Hallelujah' at some point. It's called, umm, Leonard Cohen's Law. Yeah, that's the ticket.

XThe NavigatorX said:
Ha. Or Smashmouth's "Rockstar." They could've used it when he was blowing up the tank.

Is that the same law that mandates Orff's "O Fortuna" whenever burly dudes with swords start hacking at each other in slow motion? It would explain a lot.

It's my thread. I can derail it if I want.

shawkins · Mar 23, 2009

I'm really starting to like this show. Queen whatsername to her daughter: "Desire for comfort replaces desire proper very quickly, and the chairs here are very comfortable. I picked them out myself."

Also Ian McShane talks cooler than regular people.

maxmordon · Mar 23, 2009

Can't see it on the offical website since I live in Venezuela, pity, it sounds quite interesting.

Mr. Anonymous · Mar 23, 2009

Watched the first ep. Was interesting, but the military aspect of it didn't seem particularly well though out to me. If I were a general, and I had tanks, and all the enemy had was infantry in a trench, well, I'd advance. And you know what? Chances are very, very good that I'd win. Not only that, but where the hell were the butterfly kingdom's tanks? They have squadrons of fighter jets but can't afford to set their ground troops with tanks + artillery?

shawkins · Mar 23, 2009

Mr. Anonymous said:
Watched the first ep. Was interesting, but the military aspect of it didn't seem particularly well though out to me. If I were a general, and I had tanks, and all the enemy had was infantry in a trench, well, I'd advance. And you know what? Chances are very, very good that I'd win. Not only that, but where the hell were the butterfly kingdom's tanks? They have squadrons of fighter jets but can't afford to set their ground troops with tanks + artillery?

Well, OK. Yeah. But the dialogue is frequently quite good.

ETA: This show isn't going to last long, is it?

MacAllister · Mar 23, 2009

shawkins said:
Well, OK. Yeah. But the dialogue is frequently quite good.

ETA: This show isn't going to last long, is it?

It's really, really not. It's not quite surreal enough to appeal to the arty intellectual types, and it's not violent or sexual enough for the guy crowd...at least not yet. The actual book of Kings gets pretty surreal, sexual, and violent, in various places. I'm not sure how well that's going to translate to TV, though.

New Series - Kings

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

mdin

The late, the great XThe NavigatorX

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

mdin

The late, the great XThe NavigatorX

dragonjax

I write stuff and break boards.

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

maxmordon

Penúltimo

Mr. Anonymous

Just a guy with a pen & a delusion

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

MacAllister

Tired and worried.