NBC's Kings; A Great Show People Weren't Watching

Last night I was watching 'Kings', another canceled show that started showing up on my DVR. I truly enjoy the show, and as I was watching it I couldn't help think why wasn't this show a hit?

If you haven't watched the series, it is about a fictitious country Gilboa who is at war with neighboring Gath. It is ruled by King Silas with his wife , his son and daughter at his side. His son, next in line for the throne is, on the outside, the "playboy". We find out, however, that his antics with woman are only a disguise and he is indeed gay. He has an army at his command and is saved by another young soldier, David Shephard. Shephard finds himself a hero, having saved the Prince, and is brought into the world of his King and its politics.

What is really cool about it is that Gilboa resembles modern America, only with a monarch. Even down to health care issues , with the princess championing the cause of reform for the people with her father. There is a history there in the country of Gilboa and in Gath, the neighboring enemy. There are also very spiritual type mythical undertones that I found really fascinating.

This show started out the gate with lots of dimension and depths to be explored. Yet, the American public didn't really tune in to the premiere back in March and it only opened to an audience of 6.3M viewers. That sounds like a lot , but by major network standards it's not. It finished fourth in it's time slot. It dipped 19% in it's second week. The show was eventually canceled and it's remaining episodes will be aired on NBC through July 25th.

I really did like the fantasy tied in with the soap operatic element. The Princess, who is promised to another (and that promise was actually revealed to us in last nights episode), and the regular everyday hero who enters the Kings world, of course falls in love. It is a love that can not be because of the promise of the Princess to another. The prince whose father knows of his gay affairs and who, as a result, treats him with some disdain , treats Shephard more like the eventual air to the thrown then he does his own son. Who are the people of Gath and why are the two countries at war? How did these two countries form and Shenandoah come to be? It hurts to watch because those questions may never be answered, as the series has been canceled. I just hope that NBC is nice enough to redo the last episodes of what was to be the first season so that there are some answers and some conclusion.

One more thing I wanted to point out. I was a big fan of Jericho on CBS (another series that was cancelled, but thanks to rabid fans CBS brought it back and brought the series to some conclusion for us) . What I found interesting, and is probably completely unrelated, is that Jericho left off with the United States divided into two separate governments; one that was emerging from the ruins of the nuclear attacks and the other the re-emerging government of the U.S trying to gain footing and hold on to its Constitution. In Kings, I noticed that it felt somewhat like it was in the U.S with two different governments at the end of Jericho, almost as if it picked up years in the future from where Jericho left off. Again, they are probably unrelated, but I couldn't help note that feeling or idea that came to me.

Some shows I don't really miss when they get canceled. This one, however, will be. I want more. I want to know more and delve more into the story. On that note, here's an idea for a new network. How about a network that picks up all the canceled series from the other networks and keeps them goin?. I'm sure that they would be happy with all those millions that stopped watching those shows gathering on their networks to watch. It can be like a TV series purgatory.