It’s always interesting how these shows deal with history; there’s usually some period in history where the real world splits off from the show world. On The West Wing, all the Presidents after, I think, Nixon were fictional, but they could talk about ones before that. (And even then some post-Nixon real-world people had their names dropped here and there.) They never did manage to explain the off-by-two-years election cycle, though.
Right. It’s the same crown of butterflies that appeared on the king’s head after the battle unifying the kingdom…the king tells the story a few times.
I noticed that it’s NYC, but I don’t think it’s meant to be set in North America. I think it’s meant to be set in modern day Israel.
Did anyone else think that maybe the king had been trying to get his son killed, à la Lois McMaster Bujold?
Right, except that as a story it’s open to interpretation. I assumed that if he was even telling the truth it was him being surrounded by butterflies, not an actual crown…that’s not really likely to happen. Hence my revelation
If you look at the 6 pieces that make up the butterfly, they look awfully similar to the 6 pieces that make up the peacock logo. That’s what I was saying.
I wanted to watch it and missed it.
I’ll watch Ian McShane read the phone book.
" Adams. Cocksucker Robert"
I was only half paying attention, but in that same scene, I thought he referred to the piano he was playing as a Baldwin (and a rare one at that).
I thought it was great, just great. McShane is tremendous, but David isn’t just the typical local buy made good character I’d expected. He’s out of his element, but you already see in him what qualifies him for the throne.
I agree. I thought the scene was hokey at first, but god is an active character here – that’s also why it’s acceptable that the goliaths didn’t just blow David away when he challenges them at the end.
–Cliffy
The Liszt reference was the piece he was playing.
I totally forgot about this, but I’ll check it out on Hulu. I had no idea it was supposed to be an adaptation on Saul & David, and intriguing story in its own right. Just the premise of a modern day, superpower, monarchy was intriguing enough for me. That plus Ian M.
I do agree that the Butterfly emblem looks a little to ‘corporate logoish’ than an actual seal of government. Looks like it could be a logo for eButterFly.com or something. Too bad it’s not a little more regal looking. Although some of its use in patches and uniform looked pretty cool. But that flag… yeesh…
Actually, it quite reminds me of Battlestar Galactica. But where that’s Exodus, this is Samuel.
Yeah, I thought all the propagandic material in the background all looked like it had been outsourced to a rather second grade design and print firm. It really clashed with the quality of the cinematography.
Upon re-watching one thing I love in the pilot is the fascinating showing of historical tension between being a good King and being a good religious figure. King Silas does things within the show that are cold-hearted and deeply amoral, but arguably just as deeply necessary for his kingdom. Through his manipulation of the border situation, he succeeded in creating the potential for lasting peace. He truly seems to want to be a builder, not a destroyer. However in order to make that happen, he allows two different units of his own soldiers to be decimated…
Being a good king often involved making these ultimately personally repugnant decisions while still keeping one’s moral center. Ian McShane’s performance was stellar as we see Silas begin to lose that center, compromising further and further for bald-faced power’s sake. Can’t wait to see how that devolution develops.
Does anyone know if this will re-air?
I can’t believe I completely missed the references. Wow! I guess I shouldn’t have been sewing while watching. Of course, the tax discussion going on between my husband and daughter might have had some effect there, too. There were things that kind of nudged me in that direction, but I didn’t put them together.
Jack is already talking to his uncle about overthrowing his father, so I think things will likely digress from the source material pretty soon. I plan to watch at least one more episode, and then we’ll see.
Dunno, but it’s on Hulu.com.
McShane was on The Daily Show last night. I had to chuckle when Jon asked him if there’d be any more Deadwood. McShane said “Deadwood’s dead. Watch Kings.” Take that, David Milch!
[hijack] Yeah, but I wish he wouldn’t have been tipsy - it ruined a good interview. He seems to be having fun with it, tho.[/hijack]
Beats me, I’m still puzzling out that pope in Greenwich Village.
I’ve just watched this show online. Hmmm. Difficult to judge.
It’s not terrible and it has moments of excellence, but not many. I’ve a feeling it’s going to be a TV version of Heaven’s Gate that’s going to set “high concept” series back for a decade. One reason being perhaps the worst promotion job for a big budget TV series ever. Until I saw McShane on THE DAILY SHOW I didn’t know it was based on David (the name Kings could be absolutely anything- from the clips I assumed it was a show about a business mogul or head of a rich law firm) and most people I’ve asked “are you watching it?” didn’t know it was on at all. This is one that even had a great tie-in to churches, but, it just kind of aired mid Season and that was it.
The big problem though is deciding to make it into a TV series instead of a miniseries. As a self-contained miniseries it could work magnificently and probably be a huge hit- David’s by far and away the best story in the Old Testament (I’d say New Testament as well but some may argue for Jesus). He’s probably the most complex and most human of the biblical figures, the one who seems most real: great mix of virtues and vices. Also, just from a marketing and viewership standpoint, his story’s got everything: violence, war, sex, betrayal, intrigue, more sex, more war, romance, etc…
Personally I’d have bought the rights to Joseph Heller’s God Knows. I used to think back in the 90s that God Knows would be a great miniseries that could star a Golden Age epic star (ideally Charlton Heston or Kirk Douglas) as the dying old king telling his story with Elizabeth Taylor as the aged Bathsheba while up and comers play their youthful counterparts. I still think it’d work, though Heston’s out and Douglas and Taylor are too old and frail to play old and frail unfortunately.
However, the modern adaptation could work to, but it needs to be a miniseries because its vital that to get the full effect it has to be multigenerational. In the Bible his troubles with Saul last for many years (during which he takes wives and concubines and has children and fights many battles) which you can do in one or two episodes of a miniseries, but would take a long boring drawn out season to do in a TV series. There’s no way that a TV series can ever get to Bathsheba or Absalom (the most poignant moment of the whole story to me was the all-male pieta pose of David holding his son’s body and mourning and wailing, and his vengeance even as an old man on Joab) because these things didn’t happen until Saul had been dead for years and David was no longer a youth but a middle aged man.
Also, David is one of those epics where sex is absolutely vital to the story. There’s even nudity in the Bible story of David: Michal is furious at him dancing behind the ark and showing his business, he and Jonathan change clothes and look at each other naked, he sees Bathsheba naked bathing on the roof (Hallelujah), Absalom has sex with David’s concubines til he’s exhausted, there’s an incestuous rape, etc… This is flat out BC era HBO/Showtime stuff, and as a 12 part miniseries could have been brilliant. Instead the show will fall on its sword like Saul… or Silas…
More later.