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Kingdom Hospital
By FLAtRich
February 28, 2004
(eXoNews) - I'm going out on a limb here because the latest Stephen King
TV project will have aired by the time many of you read this, but I
predict a big opening and wimpy finish for Kingdom Hospital. I'm naturally
suspicious of the hype and I decided to pre-judge, so sue me. If I'm
wrong, I'll apologize to Mr. King next week. (I'm still mad at him for not
finishing The Plant!)
Kingdom Hospital is not a King original. It is "based" on a
Danish mini-series, "Riget" (1994) and "Riget II"
(1997), helmed by cult writer-film director Lars von Trier.
TV Guide called "Riget" a "Danish hybrid of ER and Twin
Peaks." The SF Chronicle said the same, adding "otherworldly,
darkly entertaining soap opera." The SF Examiner also invoked Twin
Peaks and said "echoes of Dennis Potter's 'The Singing Detective' and
Paddy Chayevsky's 'The Hospital'."
Richard Scheib in The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review called Riget II
"a relative disappointment over its predecessor", accusing the
authors of "making the saga up as they go along." The Examiner
said, "The earlier installment balanced its metaphysics with its
comedy rather elegantly. Here, von Trier and his co-scriptwriter, Niels
Vrsel, succumb to the 'Rosemary's Baby' syndrome, with shots of black
masses and devils slinking through corridors."
All of these reviewers liked both of the von Trier series, mind you; they
just failed to define what kind of horror they were reviewing without
citing David Lynch. I would expect the same labeling of the Stephen King
version, unless it's a total dog.
Inevitable comparison to Twin Peaks is like saying "Hitchcockesque",
my least favorite word in movie reviews. Please don't read reviews that
compare Kingdom Hospital to TP! Stephen King writes gud, but when it comes
to TV he ain't no David Lynch. [He ain't no Michael Piller either, so
let's not be talkin' Dead Zone, the series. Ed.]
It should be noted that King's network of choice is ABC, who summarily
cancelled Twin Peaks before David Lynch and Mark Frost could script a
concluding episode.
Many have tried to equal Lynch with TP-like weird shows since, but all
have failed (unless you count Joss Whedon, but Whedon is clearly in a
league of his own.)
Given King's success with B-level TV outings, I suspect that the American
version of Riget will garner big ratings and deservedly soon be forgotten
by most - like "Rose Red" (2002) - to be recalled later by cult
purists as a retread of the Lars von Trier original.
ABC tells us that King has infused his own near-death accident experience
into the von Trier haunted hospital setting and characters, but the plot
info on ABC and Sony Kingdom Hospital sites seems pretty close to "Riget."
Big modern hospital built over the spooky remnants of bad evil thingies,
ala King's own book Pet Sematary (1985) and Steven Spielberg's film
Poltergeist (1982).
Jack Coleman is King's stand-in as Peter Rickman, the critically injured
accident victim. Suki Kaiser plays Rickman's wife, "comforted"
by Kingdom's leading surgeon Dr. Hook (Andrew McCarthy).
King has given new names to most of von Trier's characters and cast plenty
of actors we love in Kingdom Hospital, including Bruce Davison as Dr.
"Steg" Stegman, Ed Begley, Jr. as Dr. Jesse James, and Diane
Ladd as Sally Druse.
Newer faces include Del Pentecost (as Bobby Druse), Jamie Harrold (Elmer
Traff), Janet Wright (Liz Hinton), Benjamin Ratner and Ty Olsson (as Ollie
and Danny), Brandon Bauer and Jennifer Cunningham (as Abel and Christa),
Julian Richings (Otto), and resident ghosties Jodelle Ferland (as Mary
Jensen) and Kett Turton (as Paul).
Big cast, eh? Smells like detergent, but Twin Peaks was a soap opera of
sorts too. (Oops, there goes that TP comparison!) While I'm hoping for
some humor mixed into the suds and ghouls, I think it's safe to say that
Kingdom Hospital won't replace Angel (which is aired in the same time slot
over on The WB - see below) in anybody's horror-comedy list.
Will Mr. King win this year's David Lynch award? We shall see :o)>
Kingdom Hospital begins Wednesday March 3, 2004 on ABC at 9/8c.
Official Kingdom Hospital - http://abc.go.com/primetime/kingdomhospital
Kingdom Hospital
Revisited
By FLAtRich
March 6, 2004 (eXoNews) - Hey, I said that I would apologize! (See
previous Genre News pre-review comments on Kingdom Hospital.)
OK, so Kingdom Hospital was very funny. So, Stephen King (who never
finished that online novel I paid for) did write the teleplay and it was
better than anything else he's written for TV.
So, there was a very scary moment with the talking anteater (if that's
what it is - it might actually be Otto's talking German Shepherd.)
So, the prolonged entrance of Dr. "Steg" Stegman (Bruce Davison)
had me laughing very, very hard (who knew that Davison would be funny?)
The parking lot bit was absolutely inspired. Never let it be said that
Stephen King does not understand modern paranoia!
But I wasn't entirely wrong. Without mentioning that specific show I
warned against inevitably comparing it to, Kingdom Hospital still had
nothing for the Lynch mob.
Most of the dark moments in Kingdom Hospital were beyond familiar to those
who have seen films made from King books (some of which, admittedly, Mr.
King did not like any better than I did.)
King did write and produce Kingdom Hospital, and he has always
acknowledged his influences, so it is not surprising that horror genre
clichés haunt those somewhat less than pristine halls. (Do hospitals
really allow dogs? Even talking dogs?)
We live in an era of perpetual horror. Not just the constant onslaughts of
slasher movies and Stephen King wannabes, but daily newscasts that make us
groan in shame at being human. Slaughter in Africa, Haiti, Iraq. Senseless
child murders in Belgium. Daily political and religious suicide bombers.
The body count grows in direct proportion to the population.
Nothing ever changes. Everything is exactly as it seems.
These are the true horrors of modern life, and so, Kingdom Hospital fills
no void. King has provided us with another offbeat show (within acceptable
Network parameters), but as is often the case with King horror stories,
the owls are just the same old owls.
American television needs to grow up. The majority TV audience is not 14
years old. We read books and go to uncensored movies and plays. We talk
dirty when we want to (we have the right, until Bush and other zealots
rewrite our rights) and we know what a breast looks like.
We talk philosophy and religion and history. We ain't superstitious.
In short - we think.
Reworking the same old formulas may sell soap to the less sophisticated,
but 21st Century TV is mostly one long vamp, waiting for the end. Kingdom
Hospital was enjoyable to a point, but what exactly is the point?
Been there and done that. Haven't we?
And while I'm ripping, Tripping The Rift sucked much worse than anything
else I've seen this year. It held my attention for about two and a half
minutes. If this is the best adult entertainment Sci Fi Channel can come
up with, they deserve to be dialed off permanently.
More "new" shows are launching this month as part of network
attempts to recoup losses from earlier failed series. Wonderfalls looks
hopeful on Fox, but we already like Joan of Arcadia on CBS. So now we have
two girls talking to God?
How about asking Him to do something about bad TV, ladies?
USA will launch Touching Evil on March 12th, also at 9PM/8c opposite
Wonderfalls. Touching Evil is executive produced by Bruce Willis and stars
Jeffrey Donovan as Detective David Creegan, who has just come back on the
force after a brain injury. That is apparently the entire premise for the
show. USA says, "as a result of his brain injury, Creegan is apt to
ignore common sense - and sometimes even the laws he is sworn to uphold -
in his passionate, unending quest for justice." Great. Another
over-the-top cop.
And so on.
You can be sure we'll be back if we find a show we really like. In the
meantime, we must correct an error made in last week's tirade. Kingdom
Hospital airs Wednesdays at 10PM/9c. ABC probably thinks this will keep
people coming in - ten o'clock is when the networks traditionally show
naked male buttocks, excessive ketchup and people rubbing naked shoulders
- and people probably will.
There's nothing else on...
Official Kingdom Hospital - http://abc.go.com/primetime/kingdomhospital
Touching Evil Official - http://www.usanetwork.com/series/touchingevil
Sci Fi Channel Tripping - http://www.scifi.com/tripping
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