Note to NBC: Don’t Dethrone Kings

JC is here, with a brief but necessary defense of NBC’s Kings.

I love NBC’s new show, Kings. The acting is generally very good, the writing is great, and the unique setting is so interesting that I find myself thinking about the made-up world that Gath and Gilboa inhabit in between episodes. I love the idea of updating the story of King David; I love the political tensions and compromises that have been introduced so far; I’m really liking the cast, including David who took some unnecessary knocks in a few of the reviews that I read when the show first came out; and I love the interesting contrast of familiarity/strangeness that I get from observing the world the characters live in. I haven’t been this sucked into a show since the early days of Battlestar Galactica. I think that Kings has plenty of narrative room to grow, and I’m sure a lot of interesting things are planned for the future.

Sadly, the first couple episodes were killed in the ratings. I haven’t seen any numbers for the last couple of weeks, but if the current trend continues, it’s likely that the show is going to get canned. And that would make me very sad. On top of losing a great show, the demise of Kings could scare off networks from showing similarly ambitious, thoughtful, smart, and interesting scripted TV.

I am slightly encouraged that a groundswell of web support seems to be building for Kings, from publications as different as IGN to Larison’s blog on the American Conservative, among others (see here, here, here, here, and here).

So, note to NBC. PLEASE, give Kings some time to grow. This series will start out like a slow burn, rather than a bonfire. It’s going to need a little time, but I really do think the audience will come to it. It’s getting noticed on the web, and that can only help. Just be patient, give it some more time, and you will be rewarded.