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"KINGS" - Sunday, March 15th, 8pm (ESt)

post #1 of 46
3/14/09 at 4:59pm
Thread Starter 
It'll be good to see McShane back on the tube. I have a personal interest in this show (kid brother is a staff writer on the show) - I won't hide that as a reason for wanting to see this succeed. But that said, it still looks awesome. I dig the "Rome" meets "Battlestar Galactica" vibe.

http://www.nbc.com/Kings/
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post #2 of 46
3/14/09 at 6:38pm
I saw the pilot a couple of weeks ago. It's pretty solid. I'm going to totally steal Sepinwall's line here, but I agree: at the moment, it's more interesting than good, but it is interesting. All the references to the Biblical story of David are cool. And there's some good shots in it. And McShane is a blast with is theatrical monologues and quotes to his scribe. I'm sure it will be canceled before May, but I'll watch until it is.
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post #3 of 46
3/14/09 at 6:44pm
So they're playing a King David parallel with this. Sounds interesting.

The claim of it being from a Heroes writer has me less enthusiastic.
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post #4 of 46
3/14/09 at 11:03pm
There's a lot of little touches that are nice, like the anointing of oil and David taking off his armor before fight Goliath and some are just a bit too on the nose, like David's last name is Sheppard.

Also, and I guess this is a spoiler but whatever. The king's son, Jonathan (can't remember his name in the series) is not BFF with David. I figure they'll pull some political thing with him pretending to be buddies. I don't know. I don't think they could entirely parallel David's story, but it's interesting nonetheless.
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post #5 of 46
3/15/09 at 12:39am
Thread Starter 
Here's an interview I did with my brother (staff writer) with details about the show and the cast:

http://chud.com/articles/articles/18...HEY/Page1.html
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post #6 of 46
3/15/09 at 2:24am
Thread Starter 
Salon.com loves it. Great review.

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/iltw/2009/03/15/kings/
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post #7 of 46
3/15/09 at 11:24pm
I have to say I enjoyed it. It had what I have been missing from BSG: the Shakesperean politics and intrigue.

It reinforces my really wanting to see McShane as Lear.

I am with it for now.
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post #8 of 46
3/16/09 at 2:35am
I liked it, and I'm really intrigued by how they're using God. God seems to be very real in this world, apparently having a direct speaking relationship with the reverend, but also communicating through signs and portents to everyone else. I'm wondering how the writers are going to keep that up without alienating a chunk of the audience, or if they have some trick for what exactly God is that they're going to pull later on.
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post #9 of 46
3/16/09 at 4:29am
A lot of people are talking about "New York as Shiloh" (including the pitch!) But I'm actually wondering if it in fact, takes place much more inland. (Or logically should) The desert/mountain surroundings of the battlefield, the farmland, and the propensity of rain makes me think...maybe Idaho? Somewhere between the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains? Something that would be close enough to desert areas that we'd get the Israel parallels, but close enough to forested areas to support a large population. (And the lush areas we see at times)

The thing is, around Idaho (Which is right above Utah) is the "Mormon corrider". Back in the days of the wild west, mormon settlers imagined the land around them as a huge nation known as "Deseret", which means "honeybeer", and bees made up much of their imagery. (As the butterfly seems to here) One should note the Church of Latter Day saints is all about old school Israelite names and traditions.
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post #10 of 46
3/16/09 at 4:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mediumdave View Post
There's a lot of little touches that are nice, like the anointing of oil and David taking off his armor before fight Goliath and some are just a bit too on the nose, like David's last name is Sheppard.

Also, and I guess this is a spoiler but whatever. The king's son, Jonathan (can't remember his name in the series) is not BFF with David. I figure they'll pull some political thing with him pretending to be buddies. I don't know. I don't think they could entirely parallel David's story, but it's interesting nonetheless.
Jonathan and David not being BFF would be a larger deviation from Samuel. The way they going are with whole Jonathan story is a large deviation. Jonathan is one of the most noble Characters in the bible. He was not some party boy and he was very heroic. His only real flaw was he would not choice David over his father, when the law and tradition said he should. Ancient Jews took the whole blood brother thing very seriously.

Also Saul and Jonathan were giant they were head and shoulder taller then everyone else. They were both great warriors. That in the end this is what make Saul try to kill David. On David wedding day when David enter the city the crowd chant Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands. This the last straw and is more then he could take and he start to plot David death.

So when do they get in to the polygamy? Polygamy plays key roles in both David and Solomon stories.
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post #11 of 46
3/16/09 at 7:42pm
Don't expect this to be around for much longer. A pity.
http://scifiwire.com/2009/03/nbcs-ki...oorly.php#more
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post #12 of 46
3/16/09 at 9:33pm
Aw crap, that sucks. That was some good television.
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post #13 of 46
3/16/09 at 11:17pm
I was really shocked at how good this was. Mainly because NBC did such a crap job of selling it.

They clearly decided to push it as a network Sopranos, ignoring the fact that the last 5 or 6 shows to be pushed as network Sopranos failed miserably (Kingpin, Cane, a couple of others whose names escape me). Had I been calling the shots, this thing would have been virally marketed to churches. Quietly (no press releases, you don't want to scare off the secular audience), but thoroughly. I mean, you've got a show that takes the idea of God and the Bible more seriously than anything in recent memory, you don't hide that from an audience that would eat it up.
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post #14 of 46
3/16/09 at 11:20pm
I liked it a lot and I hope it gets a chance to flourish and show off these idea's and thoughts they've hinted at in the pilot. One question though, why did Silas have that one Government member killed? I couldn't figure that one out.
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post #15 of 46
3/16/09 at 11:32pm
He was the guy who told him they couldn't negotiate for his son's release. And he stood up too soon at the other session.
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post #16 of 46
3/17/09 at 3:31pm
Ahh thanks. Also, King Silas didn't look amused when David got the crown of butterflies, wonder if he's reconsidering the bullet option.
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post #17 of 46
3/17/09 at 3:44pm
You don't fuck with Magua.
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post #18 of 46
3/19/09 at 12:52am
Wow this is such an original show, i'm really surprised by how enjoyable the first episode was, even though I don't really know much about all the biblical allusions, hopefully good word of mouth will improve ratings.
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post #19 of 46
3/23/09 at 12:01am
Anybody catch the second episode? I thought it was pretty solid, although having David once again be the savior at the last minute is something they need to avoid for a bit or else it's going to become a little much. And holy shit Brian Cox!!
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post #20 of 46
3/23/09 at 1:16am
Second episode was good, I thought. But you're right: Let David do his stuff without so much press for a bit. David was brought in to make Saul feel better about things (in the bible) and it strikes me as being a little more interesting if we see King McShane (holy shit have I missed him) find that the cocker spaniel is a better companion/consultant than the major guys he's been surrounding himself with.

time will tell, I suppose. Hope the ratings improve.
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post #21 of 46
3/23/09 at 1:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
And holy shit Brian Cox!!
AND Jesus Christ Mark Margulies...

AND what the fuck Miguel Ferrer...

This show is starting to grow on me.
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post #22 of 46
3/23/09 at 2:12am
I really liked this episode, hopefully it won't get canceled (but probably will).
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post #23 of 46
3/23/09 at 1:52pm
I hope...Kings gets the greenlight for, a 2nd season. It truly seemingly has it all...great drama, good to great acting, especially...Ian McShane as King Silas. Allison Miller as...King Silas' daughter is...Stunningly beautiful, and I definitely want to see more of her. Christopher Egan as...David, possibly...King David, is excellent as well. I love the fact that...Goliath is the name of the enemy...Tanks. The producers even found room for combat, against said the Goliath Tanks. In no way should RDM's Battlestar Galactica, or The Soprano's, be compared to...Kings, they are not in...King's league. RDM's Battlestar Galactica is the...Worst tv series, in the history of the medium. I am happy to see it cancelled, and with a bad ending to the series, even worse than the pilot episode of...Galactica 1980, where the top scientist of...Earth was...Mike Brady Sr. The Sopranos is definitely good...but once the producers featured more of...Tony Soprano's Home Life than his career, it got alot less interesting.
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post #24 of 46
3/23/09 at 3:50pm
Just watched the 2nd episode. I really really like ths show. It looks wildly expensive though so I'm hoping people get on board before its cancelled.
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post #25 of 46
3/23/09 at 4:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lima Oscar Lima View Post
AND Jesus Christ Mark Margulies...

AND what the fuck Miguel Ferrer...

This show is starting to grow on me.
Not to mention Wes Studi. Jesus, this has an awesome cast.

The first two episodes are great, but I can see this getting cancelled. The marketing on this was terrible. I thought this was going to be dumb and more of a simple "David and Goliath" story until I read the praise it was getting.

The character complexity is great, and it's nice to see Ian McShane getting good roles rather than doing paycheck films like The Dark is Rising.
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post #26 of 46
3/23/09 at 4:51pm
I think people may be turned off by the biblical parallels, when really, knowing the story it's based on isn't at all necessary to enjoy the show. It adds some depth if you're familiar with it, but you won't be in the dark if you've never read the Bible.
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post #27 of 46
3/23/09 at 5:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
I think people may be turned off by the biblical parallels, when really, knowing the story it's based on isn't at all necessary to enjoy the show. It adds some depth if you're familiar with it, but you won't be in the dark if you've never read the Bible.
Also even if you are nor religious the story of Saul and David is one of the greatest stories ever told. I was kind of piss that they had fucked up the Johnathan story, but it seem they are making the daughter out to be the 'Johnathan' of the story. Which can make trouble story if it goes on long enough.
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post #28 of 46
3/23/09 at 5:48pm
Bad news:

Quote:
As badly as NBC’s Kings premiered last week, it was down another 19% in the 18-49 demo in its first one hour edition.
Dammit.
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post #29 of 46
3/23/09 at 7:57pm
That fucking sucks...

We can only hope for a DVD release with a metric assload of special features to make up for it's cancellation.
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post #30 of 46
4/6/09 at 12:29am
The fact that we're on deathwatch here is fucking with my ability to enjoy the show.

McShane fly fishing is a good thing.
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post #31 of 46
4/7/09 at 5:49pm
Kings is moving to Satudays starting on April 18th. NBC says they're committed to running all the remaining episodes, but this buries it and pretty much guarantees it's one and done. Which sucks, because I'm enjoying the hell out of it -- it's going for a Shakespeare-meets-The Bible vibe that really makes it feel like high tragedy.
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post #32 of 46
4/7/09 at 6:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
Kings is moving to Satudays starting on April 18th. NBC says they're committed to running all the remaining episodes, but this buries it and pretty much guarantees it's one and done. Which sucks, because I'm enjoying the hell out of it -- it's going for a Shakespeare-meets-The Bible vibe that really makes it feel like high tragedy.
Same here, I'm really enjoying it. It's a shame it won't get to play out.
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post #33 of 46
4/22/09 at 3:08pm
Did everyone enjoy that episode on Saturday night? Hopefully you did, because it's the last one you'll see until June 13th.
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post #34 of 46
4/22/09 at 3:15pm
Two month hiatus? Jesus, there were only like 5 episodes shown. I guess they really are trying to kill the show.
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post #35 of 46
4/22/09 at 3:29pm
How many episodes are being produced? I'm assuming it's 13.
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post #36 of 46
4/22/09 at 3:32pm
Yeah, I don't think it was a full order.

This last episode had another great scene between Brian Cox and Ian McShane. Although Macauly Culkin didn't seem to bring a lot to the table. The character wasn't bad, but he didn't have the chops to pull it off.
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post #37 of 46
4/22/09 at 4:06pm
He wasn't in the episode that much, and it was mainly hey, it's Macauly Culkin rather than being the character.

But, there wasn't much for the character to do, so I don't know how much I would blame his acting chops.
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post #38 of 46
4/23/09 at 12:58am
So, what? Culkin is a cross dresser?
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post #39 of 46
4/23/09 at 8:39am
Wait, why is there going to be such a massive haitus? Don't they have more episodes in the can?
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post #40 of 46
4/23/09 at 8:57am
With the ratings it's pulling in, they'd rather burn it off in summer when ratings are low in general.
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post #41 of 46
6/16/09 at 1:20am
Bumping this thread since the show is back on the air.

Anyway, caught up on this show on Hulu and man what a great show this is. The writing, the acting, and the world building are all top notch.

One thing I'm curious about is where in the world this show is supposed to take place in. Is this supposed to be an alternate America or maybe Europe? Thoughts?
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post #42 of 46
6/16/09 at 11:12am
Alternate American for sure, I think Shilo is supposed to be New York, at first I thought it was also an allusion to Israel, although now I'm pretty sure its not supposed to be, either that or its a gross misrepresentation of the Israel-Palestine confilict. Thnx for letting me know its back on air, wasn't aware of this.
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post #43 of 46
6/16/09 at 11:23am
Isn't the disputed border with Gath north of Shiloh? And it's desert. The geography's wrong for New York.

EDIT: Apparently, this map was seen onscreen at one point.

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post #44 of 46
7/12/09 at 3:40pm
I know alot of people forgot this was still on the air but right now is a good time to catch up with it on Hulu. Last night's episode pretty much made this DVD-worthy when Silas officially became the bad guy. Great stuff in the last 5 minutes. Easily the best episode of the series.
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post #45 of 46
7/20/09 at 6:55pm
It's an allusion to New York, it's not meant to literally be New York, but that map looks more like the Israel Palestine region. Ian Mcshane himself said in an interview its meant to loosely be New York. Yea the last couple of episodes have been pretty good, mainly because the shows ending so we're getting a lot of pay off and conflict build up and resolution. Other than that the show was fairly disappointing after the pilot. And the actor playing David Shepherd is devoid of any personality or charm, he just sucks.

As good as Ian is, he's been hamming it up a little too much for my tastes. I love the guy on Deadwood, and Sexy Beast, but am surprised to find him chewing the scenery a little too much here.

Personally, I think Dylan Baker in his small role completely steals the show. The man's an awesome actor.
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post #46 of 46
7/26/09 at 1:50pm
Well the show ended last night and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was an excellent episode but on the other it's obviously meant to have a second and maybe third season and that's what's frustrating. Here's hoping someone with a spare $5 million or so would be kind enough to finance a two hour movie to wrap things up. Truly a show killed right when it was hitting its stride.
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