The title of this review and commentary on last night’s newest drama from NBC is more accurate than you know.And from the looks of the ratings its seems that almost none of you were ‘watching Kings’ last night, and that’s a shame, because this show just might grow into the best new drama on television.It’s certainly already won the award for the most original and the most poorly marketed in my opinion.
Officially speaking, Kings is ‘a riveting new drama about a modern day monarchy. A contemporary re-telling of the timeless tale of David and Goliath. This series is an epic story of greed and power, war and romance, forbidden loves and secret alliances – and a young hero who rises to power in a modern-day kingdom.’
That is actually a pretty good, face value summary of the show, although not a single preview that I saw on NBC clearly gave that same message, instead making it seem more like some weird Wall Street knockoff.The star of the show is Ian McShane (Deadwood) who plays King Silas Benjamin, the well-entrenched king of Gilboa, whose flag bears the symbol of the divine butterfly (monarch – monarchy…get it?).Shiloh is the brand new capital city where the king lives and makes his all important decisions, many of which have to do with a lingering war with their nearest neighbor, Gath.The set up for the series is that the King’s oldest son, who is serving in the military, is taken hostage.Against orders, and against all odds, a young man named David takes it upon himself to save the hostages.At the time of his daring rescue he isn’t aware that he is saving the heir to the thrown of Gilboa.
After the rescue, young David is swept up to the city because of his popularity with the people of Gilboa, and the King’s thankfulness for David saving his son.Only now David, a young farm boy, is getting pulled into the greed and rivalry like he’s never known or imagined before, and he’s becoming a pawn in everyone’s game.
The two-hour premiere never lost me, not once. However, the story did begin a little slowly, and spent almost the entire first hour building up to what I’d call the good stuff.As frustrating as some viewers might find this, I actually enjoyed getting to know these characters a bit before we were thrown into the extenuating circumstances that propelled the remainder of the show.During the second hour we begin to learn of the many lies, double-crosses, and hidden power struggles that exist within Gilboa.
Kings didn’t fair so well in the ratings for its 2 hour premiere.The show drew in approximately 6 million viewers and earned a 1.6 preliminary rating among adults 18 to 49.Only a week earlier a Saturday Night Live clip show and the first half of Celebrity Apprentice brought in more viewers than Kings premiere.Despite the low beginnings, Kings wasn’t worse off than just about every other new show that has premiered on NBC this season.This could buy the show a little more time to find its audience and build its ratings.In addition, Kings has received a lot of critical acclaim which could also help word of mouth spread in time for viewers to tune in and discover the show.
Not to get on my typical rant about where broadcast television seems to be going these days (which to sum it up is down the shitter), but it saddens me that a show of this quality and caliber had to end up on NBC.Although I’m trying not to compare Kings to Battlestar Galactica, it would certainly make a fantastic replacement for BSG on the Sci-fi (newly renamed SyFy) Channel.Let’s just say that while it’s no BSG quality series yet, the potential is all right there, laid out in front of us.If the writers take this show in the right direction, and more importantly, if NBC sticks behind this show long enough (extremely doubtful) then I have no doubt that it could be a huge critical and moderate ratings success.So if you haven’t watched it yet, give it a shot.
I still can't believe I missed that – it was on my "Must See" list for the spring replacements.
Glad to know it looks promising.
I still can’t believe I missed that – it was on my “Must See” list for the spring replacements.
Glad to know it looks promising.
I just finished it — fabulous. I agree it does start a bit slowly, but the setup is done very well. But the deftness with which they playing with the tools of English playwrights and literature really blew me away. I don't really expect something like that on cable television. Much better than 'The Tudors,' in my opinion. Here's hoping NBC doesn't trash it too soon!
I just finished it — fabulous. I agree it does start a bit slowly, but the setup is done very well. But the deftness with which they playing with the tools of English playwrights and literature really blew me away. I don’t really expect something like that on cable television. Much better than ‘The Tudors,’ in my opinion. Here’s hoping NBC doesn’t trash it too soon!