Well that didn’t take long. Only a few episodes in NBC has thrown in the towel on its series Kings, a loosely modernized adaptation of 1 and 2 Samuel. No, they haven’t cancelled it, instead putting it off until this summer when no one is sitting at home watching TV. Then again, no one was sitting at home Sunday nights when it first aired or Saturday evenings either after NBC moved it the first time.
Add this show to the likes of Jericho and SportsNight (and I’m sure you can list your favorites) as shows that were critically acclaimed, well written and acted, and not pushed by their networks before dying an inevitable death. It’s too bad too, I think the story was just beginning to pick up steam. Though the plot so far seems more like Frank Herbert’s Dune than the story of David from the Bible.
I was thinking about this the other day while watching the latest episode. David doesn’t yet seem like a “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22) and Jack is nothing like the Biblical description of Jonathan. But King Silas rocks as an ego-maniacal version of Saul. If you’re looking for a better adaptation of David’s story I’d recommend instead A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. Or if a book written as a three act play isn’t your thing, check out either Kyle Baker’s King David one-shot comic or David: Shepherd’s Song originally published by Alias Comics.
(And yes, this is just a shameless post since “Review of NBC’s Kings” seems to be the only Google search that hits this site.)