Kingdom Hospital

[laura_seabrook]

I've been overdosing on the Kingdom Hospital mini series today. This is a remake of Riget  (1994) - a.k.a The Kingdom - a TV series mostly written and directed by Lars von Trier.

When I first moved from Perth to Newcastle in 1996, I was in Sydney for a few days before coming up to Newcastle. It was then that I saw the entire  thing in one hit at the Valhalla Cinema in Glebe. That's right - 260+ minutes (with a small intermission in the middle if I remember correctly) from start to finish! And really, it was never boring.

A while later they made a follow-up series, and I watched that too on SBS, but they never made the third series that would have finished the story. In 2004 it was adapted to an American audience by Stephen King in 13 episodes and retitled "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital".  I watched that when it was first shown on local TV as well. Different, but not really better or worse - just American instead of Danish.

And it's been the perfect thing to watch on a day like this.

I didn't want to to watch or listen to any news today and apart from watching a taped Good Game from last night, I've been watching this and doing cleaning and chores in between episodes. Outside it's been pretty much continuously raining and the cold wind doesn't encourage staying out for too long. Nice and cosy inside. There's a strange obsessiveness to the show (apart from all the other strangeness in it) that just made it a perfect choice. I started watching the first 5 episodes a few days ago, but today I'm watching all the remaining ones.

And right now I'll be watching the finale.

Comments

[zelieq.livejournal.com]

i was and am a big fan of Riget - and as such haven't been able to bring myself to watch what has been crudely termed "'stephen king's' kingdom hospital". i must have seen both series 5 times, and imported the dvd sets from denmark when they were released.

exactly what stephen king had to do with it is beyond my realm of understanding, since it's merely an adaptation.

is this american smattering really worth watching? i'm having visions of cath and kim with american accents all over again.

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is.

Lars von Trier (and the other writer) did have a hand in it, not just get a cheque for the rights for it. In fact, they passed on the scripts to Riget III which was never made. There are at least two episodes which are VERY American in the this version and they are a bit hard to take, but latter you realise that they weren't just gratuitous.

If you want to sample it, go to Kingdom Hospital-Episode 1 (part 1) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99of2h0qyuQ) at Youtube.