Kings 6/13 [spoilers]

[HIj'Qa]

They are burning off the remaining Kings Saturday nights. I was going to stick it out but I don't know now.

This ep was much more stylized in dialogue than the earlier episodes. It was ok by me. Took the show to another level, more fantasy, other worldly. Maybe they went slow in the beginning to draw people in to the style.

One of the main attractions for me in the show was Wes Studi. Criminally underused in the earlier episodes, and now they kill him off!?!?!?!?!!!!

That did the show in for me. What's the fun of watching Ian chew all the other castmembers up?

The only other show I'm actually watching at the moment if Primeval, and Merlin coming up, so I might keep recording Kings, but laundry or other housework might get done while I watch it.

I guess I was hoping for a different show

 

[Mr Light]

I forget, who died? The Hispanic General? Did they actually show him getting killed?

 

[backstept]

dammit I missed it
gonna pop it in the Hulu vcr tonight

I love this show and it's a shame that it hasn't been given much of a chance

 

[watermelony2k]

I forget, who died? The Hispanic General? Did they actually show him getting killed?

Yep and yep

 

[Anwar]

In the Biblical story, Abner (which is who General Abner was based off of) didn't die like that. But I supposed it's their way of showing us that they aren't exactly following the story (unless William Cross takes the Biblical Abner's place).

 

[Shawnster]

Oh, there are plenty of other differences. Jonathan, for example, was 20 years older than David in the Biblical account.

 

[IndyJones]

Did anyone see tonight's episode? I really like where they're going with it, too bed we'll never get to see the show progress...

Favorite part?

Spoiler: tonight's show

Jack: You're no king!
Silas: And you're no prince, you faggot!

Yikes!

 

[Agent Richard07]

The last few episodes have been fantastic, and the end of this last one really kicked things into high gear. I started watching out of curiosity, but I've since become a dedicated viewer. It is a shame this show has been cancelled. It should have been on cable.

 

[auntiehill]

Holy Crap, tonight's episode was good. I wondered who among the usual suspects was going to grow a backbone; I'm glad it went the way it did. Very well played out, I think.

I'm very glad that Thomasina gave Rosencrantz that kiss---very sweet.

 

[Anwar]

Of course it's canceled, it's a good show on NBC.

 

[stj]

The show had terrible ratings. I don't know for sure why. It is not a matter of people just disliking the show. The show didn't start off with high ratings and slump, either quickly or slowly. It started off with low ratings that stayed pretty constant until the show went off the air, then came back on Saturday. I suspect that the subject matter turned off lots of Christian viewers who suspected a revisionist take on the Bible and refused to even look at it. There was no organized boycotting though.

 

[DWMarch]

The show had terrible ratings. I don't know for sure why. It is not a matter of people just disliking the show. The show didn't start off with high ratings and slump, either quickly or slowly. It started off with low ratings that stayed pretty constant until the show went off the air, then came back on Saturday. I suspect that the subject matter turned off lots of Christian viewers who suspected a revisionist take on the Bible and refused to even look at it. There was no organized boycotting though.

No, I think it was the opposite. The show was never marketed as being based on the Bible. In fact, it wasn't marketed much at all. I can't see the biblical aspects turning people off. The presence of God on the show is very subtle and very nicely integrated, for example with the flag blowing one way while the smoke blows the other. But the show has a bizarre concept in a weird time slot and it's a serial drama that does not forgive you for missing an episode. Don't get me wrong, I think it's an awesome show. Just not if you work at marketing for NBC.

The last time the general public would have heard anything about this show would have been when the cancellation was announced. So to the public at large this show is dead and gone. NBC isn't promoting it, they're just burning it off because they spent a lot of money on it (it shows in every episode!) and they have nothing better to show, even if showing nothing at all would get better ratings. It's a damned shame.

 

[Mr Light]

To be fair, there was a lot of advertising for the pilot. It's just too intellectual a show. Premiering in ?March? didn't help either, that's a dumping ground.

I'm very glad that Thomasina gave Rosencrantz that kiss---very sweet.

I must have walked out of the room at some point, when did this happen???

 

[stj]

No, I think it was the opposite. The show was never marketed as being based on the Bible. In fact, it wasn't marketed much at all. I can't see the biblical aspects turning people off.

Not watching very many NBC shows (I think I had quit even Heroes about the time Kings premiered,) it's hard to be sure about the quantity of advertising. But I seem to remember that we heard "David" and ane we heard "Goliath," and we saw a modern day setting. That easily enough to tip off that it's Biblical revisioning, even to the Christians who don't read the Bible. Then there are the people who actually read the descriptive articles. We knew the basic premise months before the premiere.

Still, it's hard to prove that people knew the show was rebooting the Old Testament. If they didn't, it's hard to know why people never sampled the show. I seen people rant about CBS and old folks but so far as I know NBC has escaped such foolishness. People didn't think they wanted to waste their time watching a show about kings because of their antimonarchist sentiments? Seems unlikely. Barring scientific polling we can't know for sure. Christian suspicion it was intrinsically irreverent seems like the best bet to me.

As for being too smart, I don't think that people reject fantasy because they think it's too smart: They reject it because they think they're too smart for that nonsense. It's true that there's lots of people who hate big words and exposition reject science fiction. But they and the writers who feel the same way believe they're too smart to think science fiction is anything but the same old dumb fantasy, except with delusions of grandeur.

The thing is that I don't think Kings' audience found it too smart and tuned out. Kings' ratings were pretty constant until the hiatus and change of day. I suppose it's possible that Kings kept getting new samplers each Sunday, who would drop the show, to be replaced by new people sampling. But the easiest explanation is that Kings' immediately appealed to its audience, and largely kept it until the hiatus. Again, the question is, why didn't it get a large audience to sample?

 

[Scout101]

another show I'll miss. Turned out to be a pretty decent watch...

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

The production values, acting, writing, casting choices, they're all top notch. The premise was original and I enjoyed watching it. And the show got better with every episode. Ian McShane, as always, is the fucking man.

All pretty great reasons to market it poorly, throw in a hiatus, then move it around before dumping it, I guess.

Put this thing on HBO, throw in some nudity, ultraviolence and let McShane get truly biblical. Or bring back Deadwood.

Motherfucker.

 

[Checkmate]

To be fair, there was a lot of advertising for the pilot. It's just too intellectual a show. Premiering in ?March? didn't help either, that's a dumping ground.

I'm very glad that Thomasina gave Rosencrantz that kiss---very sweet.

I must have walked out of the room at some point, when did this happen???

Not long after Silas gave a cocky smile when he put her in her place. It was definite foreshadowing that she's about to betray him in some way and knowing that she will be paying the ultimate price for that betrayal.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

To be fair, there was a lot of advertising for the pilot. It's just too intellectual a show. Premiering in ?March? didn't help either, that's a dumping ground.

It was well publicized, the style was fun to see - I like things that are unusual - but they forgot the basic thing that all stories must have, namely a reason for people to keep watching. I hung in there for a few episodes before finally admitting to myself that I just didn't give a fig about any of the characters or what happens to them. I think doing a better job casting David might have helped - that guy they got had the personality of a soap dish.

Put this thing on HBO, throw in some nudity, ultraviolence and let McShane get truly biblical. Or bring back Deadwood.

Give us a central character played by someone like Timothy Olyphant, who doesn't at all have to be a choir boy to garner enough audience sympathy to lock in our attention - he can do it on sheer charisma alone. (And sympathetic secondary characters like Calamity Jane, Doc Cochran and Charlie Utter also help with that task.) If I'd seen even one person like that in Kings, it could have kept me watching.

But it's not just the marketing. The content just wasn't there.

 

[stj]

The ways they updated the old testament story was in itself interesting.

The different ways that people responded to God's peculiar ways of not expressing his will clearly, and the baffling reasons behind it are interesting. (Yes, yes, I know BattleStar Galactica didn't even notice the problem, but for real people it usually is of direct, personal interest.)

Trading land for peace seems to be a topical issue of great interest to me.

What people will do for power has usually been regarded as interesting.

By any standards I understand, the content was and is there.

But, whatever it means to care for a character and what happens to them (seems to have something to do with not being a choir boy) I still think is irrelevant. People didn't watch Kings for a couple weeks and quit: They didn't tune in, not in large numbers, from the very beginning. They didn't want to check it out in the first place.

 

[Mr Light]

Why does every "intelligent" TV show have to have sex and nudity in it? I never got that. Like the Caprica DVD which had topless women and two girls making out. Is it really necessary? a P.S. to Temis: would you want to talk about our respective stories on PM? This is in regards to the "SyFy Space Opera" thread.