NBC's new series, "Kings," premiered on Sunday night. I was casually flipping through channels when I stumbled upon it 15 minutes or so after it began. I was immediately snagged by the quality of production (think "24" or "Lost" production value). Kim and I watched the next 45 minutes and then turned the show off, missing the second half of the premiere. We were under the assumption that the show takes place in a future USAmerica where our nation abdicates democracy for a monarchy...but we were (happily) mistaken.
As I lay in bed that night I kept thinking about the few minutes that I saw and realized that what I was actually watching was a modern take on the story of Israel's King Saul and King David. Now, this would be painfully obvious to someone who had seen the first 15 minutes and was introduced to a few dead giveaways: the capital city is "Shiloh," the reverend's name is Rev. Samuels, David's father is named Jesse, David is a warrior who takes on a giant military tank called a "Goliath," oh, and, the nation fighting against David's army is called "Gath" (from where the Biblical Goliath hails).
So on Monday I watched the entirety of the "Kings" premiere on Hulu and was quite surprised how close to the Biblical record the writers went. Granted they took a few liberty's. King Silas' (the King Saul of "Kings") son, Jake, is not friends with David--at least, not yet. This is a difference from the David/Jonathan relationship in the OT. That said, Jake leads an ambush against Gath which is similar to Jonathan's ambush against the Philistines as recorded in 1 Samuel 14--except that Jake fails whereas Jonathan succeeded.
My verdict? I'm adding "Kings" to my weekly television queue. I recently dropped "Chuck" after a disappointing second season that depends way too much on sexual innuendo to keep the audience's attention, so "Kings" will take its place.
I am particularly interested to see how far they will go with the succession of Israel's Kings. Will they stop with David? Will they go on to show Solomon's building of the temple? How about Solomon's son, Rehoboam, who divides the kingdom? Will we see Elijah or Elisha? All fun things to think about.
Would I recommend "Kings?" Sure. Of course, I've only seen the first 2 hours, so who knows how the rest of the season will pan out. Anyone of Christian or Jewish faith would find it intriquing and entertaining to watch--bearing in mind that it is a fictional modernization of the story.
Saw an interview with the creators / actors on Birmingham's NBC13 and they referenced the Biblical story of David as the inspiration and pretty much said it is the story of David set in modern times.
Posted by: Jim C Hamil | Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 06:58 PM
nice! i'm sure if i did some research before flipping through channels i would have seen something about it.
did you watch the premiere?
RTR, brutha.
Posted by: adam feldman | Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 09:03 PM
Hey, I saw it. Watched from about the same time you got into it all the way through its end. I'm not sure how I feel. In some ways it was really good- if I could just stop saying, "But that's not how it went down." Especially the Jonathan-David relationship which just doesn't seem even close yet (future clips say it will be).
Anyway, I think it'll be interesting to see whether the show pulls it off. How often do we see a TV show ripped clean out of the Bible? Maybe someone finally realized that the Bible has more drama, violence, and craziness in it than Days of Our Lives could dream of.
Posted by: Joe Kennedy | Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 09:41 PM
I read the book. Plus a dystopian USA is way too close for comfort/recreational viewing.
Pass.
Posted by: Earl | Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 06:48 AM
joe~ yeah, i'm not advertising it in the same way folks talked about gibson's "the passion." i'm more interested to see how they modernized the story and how closely the walk with it. should be interesting.
earl~ lol! good one! yeah, i'm not sure its birthed out of a dystopian USA or if it is just a hypothetical land in the future. they haven't addressed that much, really.
Posted by: adam feldman | Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 07:05 AM
Hopefully you can forgive me for taking so long to comment;)
David provides enough drama they could do a really long series without ever getting to Solomon. I want to see David get his Philisine foreskins!
Posted by: mo | Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 08:30 AM