Authors: Hans-Ake Lilja
Posted: February 18, 2004
I have just seen the pilot (which has the subtitle
Thy Kingdom Come
) for
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital
and boy, oh boy, am I happy! This is the best King has ever written for TV! Now, I can hear some of you saying that King didn’t write it, Lars von Trier did, and yes, you’re partly right. Trier did the TV series that King is basing
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital
on,
The Kingdom
, and even though the two are very similar on several things they are also very different. King has really done what he was supposed to do: he has taken a really good series and turned it into his version of it. I mean, how fun is it to listen to a cover song if it sounds exactly like the original? Pretty meaningless, right? Well,
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital
is far from meaningless, that’s for sure!
As usual with pilots, this is where we get to meet all of the characters and get to know who they are and who they like and dislike. The same happens in
Thy Kingdom Come
. We are introduced to the characters and learn a bit about each one of them. The thing I dreaded would be hard to translate from the original version to King’s version is the arrogance and hatred that Steg (Stig in the original) has toward his colleagues and patients. In the original he was a Swede who hated the Danish, but here you would have an American hating Americans. Instead, you have a doctor from Boston working in small-town Maine who hates countryfolk. I was worried, but it’s really well done and it worked perfectly! Bruce Davison is really perfect for the role of Steg!
If you have seen Trier’s
The Kingdom
you will definitely recognize parts of the intro to the series. You will also recognize the characters even though some are new and others have changed a bit, but you’ll definitely recognize them. King has kept the feeling of Trier’s version and added to it. I get the same crazy and bizarre feeling by watching
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital
as I got when I watched
The Kingdom
. King has just added his own thoughts and feelings to the mix.
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital
feels really fresh!
The most gripping part is at the beginning when Peter Rickman (Jack Coleman) gets hit by a van while he is out running on the side of the road. This must be exactly as King experienced his accident and it’s realistically done. You can almost feel your limbs breaking when the van smashes into you. The scene is extremely realistic and well done. Even the dog trying to get into the cooler bag is there…
The accident transforms Peter and give him telepathic powers and the ability to communicate with the spirits of Kingdom Hospital. This and Peter’s recovery are what the pilot centers around. That, and as I said earlier, letting us get to know all of the characters. If the rest of the series is as good as the pilot, ABC has got a huge success on their hands!
The cast that has been assembled for
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital
is really amazing. As I have mentioned earlier, Bruce Davison is perfect as Dr. “Steg” Stegman, but Andrew McCarthy (Dr. Hook), Diane Ladd (Sally Druse) and Ed Begley, Jr. (Dr. Jesse James) are all equally perfect for their roles. Two other characters that I’m really happy that King kept in his version are Abel and Christa, who both have Down Syndrome and work in the hospital’s kitchen. They know more than you would think and guide the viewers as to what is happening at the hospital.
The pilot is seventy-three minutes without the commercials, and after you have seen it you’ll stay clear of anteaters and you are going to walk around doing the Kingdom Hospital handshake. Just make a fist of your hand, put the thumb in your mouth and blow. At the same time you put your pinky in the air…well, you’ll understand what I mean on March 3.
Lilja’s final words about
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital
– The Pilot
Personally, I think this is probably the best pilot I have ever seen. It’s clearly the best thing King has written for TV to date. Please do yourself the favor of watching it on March 3. The only thing you will have a problem with is that you have to wait a week to see the next episode. This is TV history in the making, mark my words!
****
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital - Death’s Kingdom
Posted: March 8, 2004
I have just finished watching episode two of
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital
,
Death’s Kingdom
. It’s a bit shorter than the pilot, only 40 minutes (without commercials), but just as good.
In
Death’s Kingdom
we get deeper into each character and the plot thickens. David Hooman, the guy who hit Peter Rickman while he was out running, is getting a better look at the hospital in this episode. The confrontation between Dr. Stegman and Sally Druse hits full force, Dr. Hook gets to hear what Sally hears and Antubis (the anteater) gets to show his teeth once more.
There has been some speculation on whether or not Antubis and Oy from King’s
The Dark Tower
series are one and the same. King has now stated that this isn’t the case. There has also been some critique about Antubis, that he looks like Alf or one of the Muppets…well, each of us can think what he/she wants, but personally I never saw either Oy or Alf with fangs like Antubis’s…maybe one of the Muppets has fangs…seriously though, I don’t have a problem with Antubis. I look forward to see what his role in this will be. You do get a hint in
Death’s Kingdom
, but nothing solid.
What also strikes me while watching
Death’s Kingdom
is how nicely done this series is. I mentioned this in my review of the pilot as well, but it gets more notable the more I see of it. It looks really fresh and the characters all feel so strange and odd, in a good way.
Lilja’s final words about
Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital - Death’s Kingdom
So, if you missed the pilot, jump in this week. There will be a short “last time on
Kingdom Hospital
” segment that’ll bring you up to speed. If you did watch last week, well, then I don’t have to tell you to tune in this week as well.
****
’Salem’s Lot (remake)
Posted: June 1, 2004
I have just finished two episodes of the new version of
’Salem’s Lot
and I’m torn. Some of it was good and some of it was not so good. Some of the story was very true to the book and some was changed for no apparent reason, which made me pretty angry…but let’s take things in their right order and start with part one.
Part 1
The basic story is the same as the book, but they have done quite a lot of changes…and a lot of them aren’t good. In the beginning they have added to the story by letting Ben find Father Callahan and going after him. I won’t spoil it for you by revealing what happens but…it’s very wrong!
The other issues they have changed in part one are small, but oh so important for the plot. They have turned the shy and somewhat lonely boy Mark into somewhat of a bully, which is totally wrong. The romantic and funny scene where Ben and Susan meet is gone—it’s the scene where she is reading his book and he jokes about how she treats the book. As with Mark they have also changed the personality of Straker. In the book he is rather sophisticated and laid back, here he is more cocky and blunt.
One change they have made to the basic plot is that Ben has much bigger problems in this version. I guess that it’s not a big problem, but I don’t see why they would change it. I mean, it doesn’t really change the reason he is there, it’s just bigger without interfering with the story…and this is the worst kind of change. Changes that are done for no particular reason other than they feel they want to do it different or whatever. Not a smart move when you’re dealing with King fans.
How about the actors and actresses then? Well, some are good, some are bad and one is perfect. One of the good ones is Rob Lowe, who does a good job portraying the haunted Ben Mears. And, after all, it’s not his fault that they have screwed up his character’s background. Donald Sutherland and Rutger Hauer do their best, but unfortunately, they don’t reach all the way. Sutherland as Straker is just too much and Hauer as Barlow is just too little.
The perfect one is James Crowell as Father Callahan. If they ever do a movie version of
The Dark Tower
I hope they will bring him back as Callahan. He is just as I imagined him when I read
Wolves of the Calla
.
Unfortunately, too many of the actors and actresses are too young. Andre Braugher, Samantha Mathis and most of the co-stars are way too young, if you ask me. The movie itself looks very fresh and that is a good thing, but it seems that they wanted to make the characters fresh as well. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. The characters in the book aren’t all young and good looking…
Oh, and then they go ahead and let Sandy’s husband blackmail Dr. Cody. It’s a really, really bad change that robs us of one of the strongest scenes from the book (and the original miniseries). Yes, you got it, the-shotgun-in-the-mouth scene.
Part 2
Part two is better than part one. Many more things happen and we get to see all of the vampires. The special effects are well done. What’s not so good is that now the vampires are smart. In the book they are more like zombies, but here they are the same as before they became vampires—they just have longer teeth. Two scenes show this failure in screenwriting very well. One is where Mike Ryerson visits Matt Burke and they start talking to each other about Mike’s scars. What is that all about? The other scene is when Ben is talking to Susan and she tries to convince him that it’s so much better to be a vampire than a living being. These two scenes are perfect examples of how a script should not be written!
Unfortunately, Ben’s past is revealed in its entirety as well. I say “unfortunately” because as I said earlier, they have made changes that don’t add anything to the story in any way and they could have used the one from the book without any problems.
The ending is quite a bit different from the book as well, and personally I can’t see why they would make that change…it’s not bad, but why not follow the book it’s supposed to be based on?
Lilja’s final words about
’Salem’s Lot (remake)
OK, I know that my review has been mostly negative, but I want to say that the reason I feel
’Salem’s Lot
isn’t one of the best adaptations isn’t the actors’ faults (at least, not the ones playing the bigger parts); it’s mainly the script’s fault. Its writers have made so many silly and unnecessary changes from the book that it’s ridiculous, and I can’t for the life of me understand why. And even though I definitely recommend you tune in on June 20 to see for yourself, my guess is that you’ll get more out of watching the original.
****
Riding the Bullet
Posted: January 21, 2005
On Sunday (Janunary 23) you can see
Riding the Bullet
on USA Network. I saw it today and here is what I thought about it:
Prior to the release of
Riding the Bullet
there was a lot of speculation about if it would work even though Garris had expanded the story and changed it a bit. I, for one, was a bit skeptical, but since I have enjoyed Garris’s other King projects I was hopeful. As it turned out, I wasn’t disappointed. It’s true that the story in the movie has been expanded and changed a bit compared to King’s story, but I think that was necessary if the movie should survive. If you would have followed it one hundred percent it would have been good as an episode in a TV series (like
Twilight Zone
), but as a feature movie it wouldn’t have been enough. The backbone of the story is still intact and that is crucial. Without that it wouldn’t have worked either.
The feel of the movie is a bit surreal. We get a lot, and I mean a lot, of flashbacks of Alan’s life as he travels to his hometown to be with his mother as she is hospitalized. There are also a lot of Alan’s “this will happen” visions as well as his seeing things that aren’t really there. The mix of all these things makes the movie a bit surreal, as I said, but it’s in a good way. It’s an interesting, fresh way to drive the story of the movie forward though.