Kings: 3/15: "Goliath" - Grading & Discussion (Two-hour premiere)

[What's his face]

I suspect ratings will improve next week as word of mouth spreads about this wonderful show. At least, I really hope they do. I want this show to succeed.

I just saw it now and I have to say I'm really impressed. I can't wait to see more.

I also really like Silas's character. despite his shortcomings. The only character I couldn't stand was his son. Not just because he's evil, but rather he's kind of annoying.

 

[IndyJones]

Not just because he's evil, but rather he's kind of annoying.

I actually liked the kid. A lot of what we saw wasn't him, but what he thought a prince was supposed to be.

He was clearly hurt, both by the arrival of David, and by his father's admission that he could not stay true to himself and ascend to the throne.

And the actor did a great job with the scene on the stairs.

 

[HIj'Qa]

Ian McShane was on The Daily Show promoting the show. He was on his way home to Ireland as they have completed filliming 13 episodes. He sold it as an alternate history should-be-on-cable but its on Network TV instead so you should watch a great show for free kind of deal.

I hope we get to see the 13 episodes without having to pay out for the DVD

 

[Kelso]

It is very pretentious. It is pure cheese.

Well, of course. They're re-telling a fairy tale in a modern setting.


What were you expecting it to be?

 

[Roshi]

Ian McShane is an awesome actor but the pilot is veeeeeeeeeery average. I see it veering towards proselytism though. It would be more fun if the writers took the fantastic angle in stead.

I shouldn't have but I almost died laughing when the King confronted his son. I was waiting for a 'cocksuckah' from McShane...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Temis should be happy. The premiere didn't do very well, even by NBC standards. NBC has awesome shows, but no one watches them. I really don't know why. It's like once Scrubs left, so did half their audience.

Bwahah, well you should be happy, Chuck fan! Because now Chuck is just that much safer now.

(Seriously, I never like seeing something imaginative tank like this; predicting it will is not the same as hoping it will. But if it's going to tank, we might as well look on the bright side. If it had been a hit, Chuck would probably be toast as a result.)

But sadly, I thought I taped the frakkin thing and didn't! I guess I have to watch it on that frakkin nbc site. I hate watching stuff online...unless there's a re-airing this weekend anyone knows about?

I suspect ratings will improve next week as word of mouth spreads about this wonderful show.

That just doesn't seem to happen with TV shows anymore.

 

[Thrall]

Bwahah, well you should be happy, Chuck fan! Because now Chuck is just that much safer now.

Well, that's good news.

(Seriously, I never like seeing something imaginative tank like this; predicting it will is not the same as hoping it will. But if it's going to tank, we might as well look on the bright side. If it had been a hit, Chuck would probably be toast as a result.)

Same here. People really seem to really like it. But if I have to choose between yet another predictably dark and serious and heavily serialized "event genre show" and something like Chuck, a show that breaks the norm, I'll go with Chuck every time.

Josh Schwartz is all but promising that NBC is going to give them another season. NBC really likes the show apparently. I think he's being presumptuous. There's a lot of good arguments to keep it. But their ratings are not one of them. So I wouldn't hold it against NBC if they pulled the plug. I would hold it against the writers for not giving us a finale with some closure when they knew the end was a possibility.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Okay I saw it - gave it a solid "Excellent." The only problem I had was the rather tired use of the "evil corporation" as the big baddie, like Ian McShane can't be evil enough in his own right?

But everything else worked. I loved the way they just dove right into alt-history, without feeling the need to explain anything. They have video games, Central Park, and Franz Liszt, but they're a monarchy and the names are all wrong: deal with it.

I appreciated the little touches - the guards gossiping about the royals, King Silas boring everyone with his stupid butterfly story, the enemy soldiers heating up their MRE's on the tank engines. The kid playing David came thru - I was skeptical that he could be anything but bland, but he was the right actor for the role. The royal kids, particularly Jack, struck me as interesting. The existance of a younger brother and threat to Jack was very intriguing.

But if I have to choose between yet another predictably dark and serious and heavily serialized "event genre show" and something like Chuck, a show that breaks the norm, I'll go with Chuck every time.

Honestly, much as I like Chuck, I think I'd sacrifice it to see where they go with Kings. But we won't get that choice. If one of these shows survive, it will be Chuck. Kings really belongs on AMC, Showtime or HBO. If something as esoteric as Mad Men can survive, why couldn't Kings? We'll probably get all the episodes that were scheduled for this year - I don't think the ratings will drop much next week - but that's it.

I'll be watching for as long as it lasts.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

I'm just hoping that it lasts long enough to prove that we can have a show with an alt history setting but then it fails and we get another show with that setting but without the religion.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'm just hoping that it lasts long enough to prove that we can have a show with an alt history setting but then it fails and we get another show with that setting but without the religion.

Well, there's Caprica, but that's gonna give us two, count em, two different religions!!!

 

[Mr Light]

So is the show set in New York City, then? I was assuming it was all a made up world and geography. The city certainly looked very sci-fi and not NYC-ish. And if it's NYC, and the enemy border is 20 miles away I believe they said, where is the enemy nation? Imperial Canada? ... The other thing I wondered about. So the bad guys possess tank technology, and our nation doesn't? But they have this super glossy future looking sci-fi city? If they have tanks and we don't, aren't we horribly outgunned?

 

[Agent Richard07]

I was assuming it was all a made up world and geography.

It is a made up city. It's not New York.

 

[Michael Chris]

So is the show set in New York City, then? I was assuming it was all a made up world and geography. The city certainly looked very sci-fi and not NYC-ish. And if it's NYC, and the enemy border is 20 miles away I believe they said, where is the enemy nation? Imperial Canada? ... The other thing I wondered about. So the bad guys possess tank technology, and our nation doesn't? But they have this super glossy future looking sci-fi city? If they have tanks and we don't, aren't we horribly outgunned?

I think it's not NYC. Rather just a city in an alternate universe where ancient Israel developed much later. It's certainly an interesting concept, a story based on real events of the ancient past set in a modern setting.

 

[Venardhi]

"Real". . . In any case, I pretty much saw it the same way. It isn't NYC, and Gilboa isn't nearly big enough to be the US. Perhaps Gilboa could be the equivalent of New England and New York. . . but realistically I doubt they could be much bigger than that considering what we've seen of their forces and that nothing in their country has been mentioned as being more than a few hours away.

 

[Roshi]

Wow, you guys should really check your definition of "fantasy". As in "it borrows elements from our world and transposes those elements into an imaginary world wherein events cannot happen in ours."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

So is the show set in New York City, then? I was assuming it was all a made up world and geography. The city certainly looked very sci-fi and not NYC-ish. And if it's NYC, and the enemy border is 20 miles away I believe they said, where is the enemy nation? Imperial Canada?

Apparently the USA doesn't exist in this reality. It could just be a scattered collection of former states, perhaps shattered after their version of the Civil War.

Or, OTOH, it could be Caprica, or even Kobol.

 

[watermelony2k]

Josh Schwartz is all but promising that NBC is going to give them another season. NBC really likes the show apparently. I think he's being presumptuous. There's a lot of good arguments to keep it. But their ratings are not one of them. So I wouldn't hold it against NBC if they pulled the plug. I would hold it against the writers for not giving us a finale with some closure when they knew the end was a possibility.

Yeah, seriously. Chuck doesn't strike me as the type of show that would necessarily have to take more than one episode to wrap up properly.

And it's good to hear that Kings at least has completed the 13 episode season, meaning if it isn't renewed we'll at least have that much to enjoy.

 

[Star Wolf]

So is the show set in New York City, then? I was assuming it was all a made up world and geography. The city certainly looked very sci-fi and not NYC-ish. And if it's NYC, and the enemy border is 20 miles away I believe they said, where is the enemy nation? Imperial Canada? ... The other thing I wondered about. So the bad guys possess tank technology, and our nation doesn't? But they have this super glossy future looking sci-fi city? If they have tanks and we don't, aren't we horribly outgunned?

I wouldn't say they don't possess the technology. Look how easy their anti-tank rockets scored a catastrophic kill. More likely David was a soldier of the weaker nation. They could not afford to line up tanks as mobile pill boxes and dare anyone to shoot at them. It took an act of God, having a smoke grenade cook off the ready ammo of Goliath, for David to survive the encounter. The major difference from the source story is that David didn't go in with faith that his God would make him successful.

Since 24, went a bridge too far yet again this season it seems that I found a replacement for the second of my two hours of new TV a week.

 

[watermelony2k]

the first episode of Kings is available for free HD/normal download on itunes and streaming on hulu

 

[Perseus]

So I've missed the first 30 minutes of this show....

And wow, I have the song that David is playing.

Hmmm, I'll have to hulu/NBC.com the first half, but the last part leaned on a supernatural theme. Didn't think the William subplot with the treasury would be resolved the way it did. Until I see front end, I'd say this was an average to slightly above average episode.