What Happened to Good TV?
While NBC’s admen should have waltzed into one of any number of mega-churches in the United States and announced a network-television retelling of David and Saul, they peddled the show to the so-called “cultural tastemakers,” who were to “spread the word to the masses” by marketing the curio of a modern monarchy.
—William Shakespeare, Richard II
In the interest of full disclosure, I have a confession to make: Over the course of this review, certain television shows will come under attack—I am either the most qualified or the least qualified to vilify them, because I curl up in front of my TV (or Hulu the day after) and voraciously devour their material with a sometimes rapt, sometimes stupefied gaze. My DVR nearly bursts at its seams after my Sunday recording frenzy, and I’m liable to stay up until I’ve consumed all my plunder or spend the next day twitching until I glut on tasteless schadenfreude that evening.
Because of technological limitations, I am loath to watch a new show lest I may like it and be faced with the tragedy of deciding which regular to evict from its time slot. Nevertheless, when I heard that Ian McShane was returning to network television for NBC’s Kings after his triumphant run in HBO’s Deadwood, I hardly raised a contemplative eyebrow as I clicked “Record Season”—and, throughout its first and only season, Kings never disappointed.
A retelling of the dramatic and meteoric rise of David, King of Israel (from the Bible’s Books of Samuel), Kings is set in the fictional, roughly modern kingdom of Gilboa. Kings artfully redesigns the biblical story, and Ian McShane (King Silas Benjamin) brings the insecurity and petulance of King Saul to vibrant, tangible life—indeed, as early as the first episode’s introduction, “The King Approaches,” Ian McShane towers over his co-stars. The nuance of his acting only expounds on the scriptwriters’ particular vision of Saul and David; and, at every speech, we, fresh from an election cycle, are reminded of the power of true oratory. As the deep darkness of his rule comes rudely into the light, Silas is transformed into a villain we simply cannot but love, just as David loves him even after enduring charges of treason that Silas has fabricated; the delicate spell of Silas’ twisting character – maniacal expressions and moments of tragedy as deep as his darkness – captures us. We are helpless to watch as Ian McShane deftly navigates his character’s labyrinthine development—father, supreme ruler, wounded friend one moment, and mortal man before his god the next.
Art/Photography Credit: NBC Promotional Photo
David Shepherd (Christopher Egan) is the show’s protagonist, whose annoying goodness makes it perfectly impossible for a viewer to empathize with him; his performance is as unremarkable as Prince Jonathan “Jack” Benjamin’s (Sebastian Stan) is gripping. Jack Benjamin typifies the modernity of the show: Executive Producer Michael Green took a story that had never been retold and transformed it—he made it relevant, gave it the ability to speak powerfully to a modern audience. Green transformed Samuel into the Rev. Ephram Samuels and Jonathan into Jack Benjamin; as David Halperin did in One Hundred Years of Homosexuality, Green extrapolated Jack’s homosexuality from the relationship Jonathan and David shared in the Bible. From this, the story spun to include a father’s disappointment in his son, Jack’s self-loathing, and Jack’s scheming to pull himself out from under the thumb of paternity. Sebastian Stan’s command of the emotional trauma of his character is almost equal to Ian McShane’s.
Although gloriously pretentious at times, the show warrants more praise than it has garnered; despite receiving mostly positive critical reviews and placing fourth in the Sunday time slot for the premiere, NBC pulled it from Sunday and relegated it to Saturdays after only four episodes. Then, just one episode later, NBC halted broadcasting until the summer. Now, by not ordering a set for the 2009-2010 season, NBC has effectively canceled the show; and the program’s poor performance on the network is not remotely a reflection on the strength of its content but on the integrity of the NBC marketing department. Although NBC was, obviously, editorially receptive to the Biblical overtones of the show, it never mentioned this theme in any of the marketing materials; while NBC’s admen should have waltzed into one of any number of mega-churches in the United States and announced a network-television retelling of David and Saul, they peddled the show to the so-called “cultural tastemakers,” who were to “spread the word to the masses” by marketing the curio of a modern monarchy.
