laura_seabrook | Kingdom Hospital (Reply)

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.