{"id":312,"date":"2009-03-14T15:24:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-14T15:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/03\/kings-the-interviews-up\/"},"modified":"2013-12-11T11:37:20","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T19:37:20","slug":"kings-the-interviews-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/03\/kings-the-interviews-up.html","title":{"rendered":"Kings — the interview’s up!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
My interview<\/a> with Michael Green, executive producer of the new TV series Kings<\/a><\/i>, is now up at BC Christian News<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first episode airs tomorrow night, and it\u2019s interesting on a number of levels, especially if you\u2019re a Bible-movie buff like me. (The show is basically a modernized version of the story of Saul and David.) I\u2019m not reviewing the episode, per se<\/i>, but here are four extra points that occurred to me while watching it, which I couldn\u2019t fit into the article linked above:<\/p>\n

First: The way the film depicts David\u2019s battlefield heroism, and his reluctance to be feted and exploited by the powerful and influential people back home, is reminiscent of Flags of Our Fathers<\/a><\/i> (2006) \u2014 but when I mentioned this to Green, he said he had never seen that film, so he couldn\u2019t comment on that.<\/p>\n

Second: The way the show conveys the gap between life on the battlefield and life in the big city \u2014 the gap between those who risk their lives for their country and those who live in the lap of luxury, especially while running the country \u2014 is intriguingly reminiscent of a line from the biblical story<\/a> of David and Bathsheba, which begins by telling us that \u201cDavid remained in Jerusalem\u201d when he sent his army out to fight during that time of year \u201cwhen kings go off to war\u201d. There is an implicit critique of David\u2019s behaviour in that line, just as there is an implicit critique of the modern, real-world ruling class in the TV show.<\/p>\n

Third, and a little more spoiler-ish: The reason Reverend Samuels finally withdraws his support from King Silas is strikingly different from the reason the prophet Samuel gave for finally withdrawing his own support from King Saul. Whereas the biblical king failed to be as thorough as he could have been in wiping out<\/a> an entire ethnic group (i.e. the Amalekites), the TV king violates a peace treaty and keeps a war going after everyone else had thought it was over. (There\u2019s a little more to it than that, but I don\u2019t want to give too<\/i> much away.) So on one level \u2014 and it\u2019s not necessarily the most important level, where either of these stories is concerned, but still, it\u2019s there<\/i> \u2014 you could say the TV king is rejected for being too violent, while the biblical king was rejected for not being violent enough.<\/p>\n

Fourth, and even more<\/i> spoiler-ish: The first episode ends with a twist that almost seems to be taking aspects of the biblical David\u2019s story \u2014 aspects that come up long, long after Saul is dead \u2014 and transposing them onto this earlier<\/i> part of the storyline, and onto entirely different characters. I am thinking specifically of how the biblical David faced a rebellion<\/a> led by his son Absalom and his grandfather-in-law Ahithophel; a similar conspiracy involving one of Silas\u2019s offspring and one of Silas\u2019s in-laws seems to be in the works here, too.<\/p>\n

Future episodes could prove me wrong, though!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My interview with Michael Green, executive producer of the new TV series Kings, is now up at BC Christian News. The first episode airs tomorrow night, and it\u2019s interesting on a number of levels, especially if you\u2019re a Bible-movie buff like me. (The show is basically a modernized version of the story of Saul and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nKings -- the interview's up!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My interview with Michael Green, executive producer of the new TV series Kings, is now up at BC Christian News.The first episode airs tomorrow night, and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/03\/kings-the-interviews-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kings -- the interview's up!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My interview with Michael Green, executive producer of the new TV series Kings, is now up at BC Christian News.The first episode airs tomorrow night, and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/03\/kings-the-interviews-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-14T15:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-11T19:37:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/SbyOWhS9pOI\/AAAAAAAADCA\/eVWs1C1xb3g\/s400\/kings-michaelgreen.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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