No one’s ever accused network television of subtlety, but the hype leading up to NBC’s new drama Kings has managed to obscure the source of the story for at least one reviewer. (Otherwise, how can you excuse a line like “Some aspects of Kings are predictable”?)
For the rest of us, this rethinking of the biblical story of Saul and David should be a mix of the familiar and the new. The pilot has been generating some good buzz, and I’ll admit I’m a sucker for a good Biblical retelling, so I’ll certainly be tuning in for the March 15th two-hour premiere episode, in which Goliath is reimagined as a really big tank.
It will be particularly interesting to see if any contemporary feelings about Israel color the discourse around this story (which the writers and producers have carefully set NOT in Israel, but rather in a fictional kingdom called Gilboa, borrowing the name of the site of Saul’s final biblical battle). (And of course, by “discourse” I mean “internet jibberjabber.”) But perhaps the most pressing question around the series is which biblical figure will be played by Macaulay Culkin, and once that image has passed our eyes, will we ever be able to read Tanakh the same way again?
So set your Tivo and bookmark this page… after you’ve seen the show, come back for a lively discussion of the timeless themes of the Biblical story… or at least some snarky jibberjabber that we all do so love to spew.