(Green also worked on the first two seasons ofHeroes.)
Well, too bad.
You already missed it.
No one watched it, and it was promptly moved to Saturdays, then canceled.
Exhibit A…
A killer cast and creative team telling a weird, oh-so-relevant story.
So what makes this quickly-canceled show so special?
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The ensemble cast is relatively huge and supremely talented.
Susannah Thompson (Arrow) plays Silas discerning wife Queen Rose, who will do anything for her children.
(Side note: Cross outcast son is played by Macauley Culkin.)
Jack struggles to balance his identities as son, soldier, and prince with his closeted homosexuality.
Does God have a plan here?
Can you debate with him about it, as Silas often does?
A setting familiar, yet foreign.
Lets talk about the setting ofKings, shall we?
Filmed in New York City, the metropolis stands in for capital city Shiloh and the showlooksgorgeous.
That ordered elegance is reflected in much of the language.
Think a cross betweenLord of the RingsandHannibal.
Another thingKingsdoes well is explore the relationship between the state, corporations, and the media.
(A theme, in part, that made this past summersMr.
Robotso very interesting.)
This is why Davids arrival is such an interesting tension to play with.
Often, the protagonist of a story is often the least interesting character i.e.
As the character who drives the narrative, he has other responsibilities.
And the ways other characters react to Davids presence is oh-so-telling.
A visual style shaped by the man who made Hunger Games epic.
At a budget of roughly four million dollars per episode, this show lookedgood.
It looked especially good within the context of internet television of 2009.
(Yes, the median aesthetic of TV has noticably improved in the past six years.)
He set the stage for everything that would come after, at least aesthetically.
(No doubt showrunner Michael Green had something to do with the visual style, too.)
So what happened?
For a TV show to successfully launch, a million different things need to go right.
Theorizing on what went wrong withKingsis probably a fools game.
But it is worth noting thatKingsmarketing left much to be desired.
The promos didnt do a very good job articulating what the show was about.
It also probably didnt help thatKingswas like nothing else on the peacock web link.
(Yes,thatmuch has changed in six years.)
This has made television-watchers more interested in serialized dramas than ever before.
IfKingsdebuted now, I wonder if it would have an easier time building its audience.
It was a difficult show to make.
We had to fight for every choice, so we thought each one through.
Many involved with the show felt wronged by our web connection, or at least scuttled.
Even if it is tempting to trash NBC, we do owe them gratitude.
They let us film in New York.
They let us assemble a cast without equal on the connection landscape.
Kingsfailure was notable for fans of the show, but was influential in a much larger sense.
NBC hasnt tried anything quite as ambitious in the six years that have followed.
Though its kind of hard to blame the data pipe for that decision, it is still disappointing.
Luckily, we live in a pop culture universe where even the least successful of properties live on.
you’ve got the option to watch all 13 episodes ofKingsfor freevia NBCs streaming video player.
It was completely untrue.
