The Kingdom I & II Review
This miniseries from Lars Von Trier shows the Dogme founder is as comfortable working with television as he is with the films for which he’s better known.
Though the premise of Kingdom – a supernatural series about a haunted hospital – seems straightforward enough, Lars Von Trier was never going to produce straight-up genre television and instead the series plays out as a sophisticated multi-narrative drama, exemplified by episode one, a strikingly strong start to the series, which sets the tone and introduces the ensemble cast.
We meet Sigrid, a regular patient (and suspected malingerer) with an interest in spiritualism, who suspects a presence in the hospital. Then there’s Krogshøj, a likeable maverick doctor, Mogge, an arrogant intern with a deeply sick sense of humour and the abonimable Stig Helmer, a Swedish neurologist with power issues and a murky past. We follow this cast, among others, as they go about their business in the hospital.
supernatural aspect is ever-present of course, but Von Trier opts for subtlety over all-out scares; it’s more about what you don’t see and the Dane shows himself to be quite adept at ratcheting up the tension.
we’ve come to expect from its director, Kingdom is a self-aware work, Von Trier’s appearances at the end of each episode, where he thanks the viewer and discusses what they’ve just seen are likeably offbeat and he even gives the show a chorus, in the form of two dishwashers with Downs Syndrome, who periodically comment on each episode’s events.
These two series are unlike anything you’re likely to have seen before and could compete with the cream of Von Trier’s cinematic work. A must for fans of the genre, the director, or just good television in general.
Adam Richardson