That's some really...sweeping prose ya got going there. :) But could you give us a little context as to exactly where/when this is taking place? For example, the trailers made this look as if McShane were ruling some kind of alternate-earth America, and since "Gilboa" doesn't look European and Shepard does his heroics in what looks like Iraq, well... Is this meant as a satire of the "Bush as king" right-wing meme? And I take it this is a series...though it sounds more like a miniseries.

Anyone who watches entertainment TV has nothing better to do. I've noticed a severe mental atrophy in those who watch TV. Salonistas are perfect examples. They all fancy themselves to be Finch on that inane comedy -- the goal in their lives is to be the most insulting, sarcastic person possible. Their thoughts and actions are unfunny comedies encouraged by imaginary laugh tracks. Stop watching TV, and instead watch your mental capacity increase. You'll lose your goofy Hollywood personality, and you'll become a real person again.

What a pleasure to know the great under-appreciated actor Ian McShane will be getting some network airtime. All the better if the vehicle is outside the cookie-cutter TV format and requires me to use some imagination. I'll make the popcorn.

that this obviously sounds like an update of the King Saul/King David story from the Bible. Did Heather not get that or did I miss it in her review?

this: "a contemporary retelling of the timeless tale of David and Goliath." But I thought it worth mentioning, because some scholars see an implied sexual relationship between David and Jonathan, and the article mentioned that 'Jack' was gay. I wonder how close they will stick to the biblical story.

Having seen the promos for "Kings" we're only expecting another shaggy-dog-story, like "Lost" or "Twin Peaks." If NBC is ever able to air a real epic on the caliber of HBO's "Rome," something with an actual plot then maybe we'll watch.

Like most other commercial network serials, no matter how good they look when they start, "Kings" will probably not end well. We'll pass for now.

I don't really fear the idea of the future round-up and assignment to FEMA Re-adjustment Camps. At least there will be three square meals a day, steady medication to keep us serene and a bed of our own.

What I really fear is the daily forced assembling and herding into the Day Room and compulsory viewing of this smug self-satisfied brain-dissolving regurgitation called modern TV programming.

You're welcome to watch my share, Heather.

Hey there....

to be honest? I havent read more than two or three paragraphs of this "review", and my first consideration is to ask "What would you have left if you had to make your points without resorting to this ridiculous repitition of the words 'we' and 'us'?"

Presumably, you're a professional critic....not a cheerleader leading a high-skool pep-rally.

In any case (and just to repEat an old joke?).....what's with this "we" shit, Kemosabe?

You should be able to write a review without presuming upon a set of enforced pieties, prejudices, and a preconceived audience.

AS sINCERELY AS EVER,

dAVID tERRY

WWW.DAVIDTERRYART.COM

LOL! Excellent job satirizing the kind of inane responses that at least 2 or 3 people post here every week.

A valiant military man at war with the others to protect our “way of life” and his homophobic patriarch with criminal instincts who wraps himself in god’s grace at the same time that his love for his son is conditional on the son’s disowning self, disowning “what God made you”.

That should work well for downtrodden Americans craving for change . . . . or . . . something.

Ian McShane? Oh yeah, I'd tap that... ever since he played Disraeli years ago (too many to bear counting) on Masterpiece Theater.

the idea, if I have it right, of a monarchical leader and a young military hero, bound up in some kind of mystical/religious wrapping, seems pretty disturbing to me. Considering that I see people all googly-eyed about Obama, many of whom are making any excuse they can when it comes to his continuation of certain Bush policies, I don't really want to see that kind of antidemocratic tendency and hero worship represented onscreen. I'm not in the mood--probably just me.

But McShane is great. Any one see Lovejoy? A fun show, in which McShane had lines like:

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this loin of pork.

reallynow:

Why not give up books, and think for yourself? Give up movies, music, and art while you're at it! Sheesh.

I imagine you having a nice macrame "kill your television" wall hanging, right above your herbal tea collection and your Ralph Nader box set.

The reason we loved and enjoyed all the intelligent TV on HBO is because we watched without the incessant intrusions/interruptions of annoying commercial breaks.

I simply can't imagine watching a show this ambitious on network TV

Heather's review is too long and tells me too little about the program.

I don't mind the length. I mind that it doesn't tell us when this thing is on.

"Swagger". I think it should be retired for awhile.

Any movie or TV show MUST be visually beautiful. It may be starkly beautiful, or lushly beautiful, but beauty counts. Otherwise leave it a book, or turn it into some kind of NPR piece. Deadwood was beautiful, BROWN but beautiful.

Heather says: "Even the atheists among us relish the sense that some eternal, celestial force has finally descended, to cure our blindness and set us free."

Amy says: "Please don't presume to speak for atheists and claim they REALLY desire to submit to religious sky daddy forces. Because they don't. That's why they're atheists."

Dur.

And I hate to call Ms. Havrilesky on this point, but she did rhapsodize too much about the look of this program. I heard a much more succinct analysis of this show; I recall the review saying it's based on the Biblical King David. To some that might be pidgeon-holing a plot. Not to me; once I understood that Disney's The Lion King was based on Hamlet it made the whole proposition easy to understand. (And I knew I had to go back and slog through that damn Shakespere to figure out who the hell Hamlet was.)

Still and all, the comments about this program having to be "beautiful" and all that brings up a point. It doesn't matter how much they spend for production values, as long as what they spend is appropriately used. I don't think The Sopranos, to choose a particularly appropriate example, spent a fortune on sets or locations, but they used them well. Their cinematographer and set dresser picked the right locations in that corner of Hell called New Jersey in which to film, the right time of day, the right perspective.

For that, sadly, we have to wait to see what NBC puts on the screen. Talking about it sight unseen is mere speculation.