"This is Kingdom Hospital. It stands on uneasy ground. Here the cold and damp have returned, and as the gate swings open, the dead may also return." - Bill Meilen as the Narrator
Kingdom Hospital: The Entire Series DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
On the outside, Maine's Kingdom Hospital looks shiny and new. It is, however, decaying at heart. The very land on which it sits seems cursed. In 1869, a fire at a mill that once made uniforms for Civil War soldiers killed a number of the factory's underage workers. Early in the next century, a notoriously inhumane mental institution also burned down at the same location. Now the tormented ghosts of those who died in both tragedies haunt the halls of the state-of-the-art hospital. A select few of the hospital's doctors and patients can see its spectral residents, and it soon becomes clear to them that the entire hospital is in danger unless they can help to right past wrongs.if only they can figure out how.
Kingdom Hospital started its life as Riget, a Danish miniseries by Lars Von Trier (Dancer in the Dark). While on location filming the TV remake of The Shining, master of the macabre Stephen King rented the Danish original. He liked what he saw so much that he decided to write and produce an American version. When King's take premiered on ABC in the spring of 2004, it was sold as pure horror. In actuality, Kingdom Hospital is closer to being an eccentric dark comedy - Twin Peaks crossed with St. Elsewhere.
Peter Rickman (Jack Coleman) is an acclaimed artist living in beautiful house in Maine with his wife, Natalie (Suki Kaiser). While jogging down a deserted country road one day, he is run down by a careless driver and left for dead. When discovered a few hours later, he has the misfortune of being taken to Kingdom Hospital. The Kingdom is probably not a place you'd want to get treated. Dr. Stegman (Bruce Davison) is the new head of neurology, who arrived from Boston a mere six weeks earlier. An arrogant and careless surgeon, Steg reluctantly left Boston rather than face a possible malpractice suit. His idea of good bedside manner is to assure a woman whose daughter he has rendered a near-vegetable that the little girl will still be capable of simple repetitive household tasks, like setting the table and making a bed. Running a vacuum, however, might be too complicated.
Stegman's nemesis is Dr. Hook (Andrew McCarthy), an idealistic but emotionally exhausted neurosurgeon. The hospital's most conscientious doctor, Hook lives in a glorified pit in the basement of a burned-out wing of the old institution. This, perhaps, says a lot about the overall mental health of the staff. Diane Ladd also stars as Sally Druse, a self-proclaimed psychic who recruits a skeptical Hook to join her quest to discover more information about Mary (Jodelle Ferland), a sunken-eyed waif who haunts the hospital's halls.
The series' other assorted loonies includes Carrie Von Trier (Lena Georgas), a nurse who faints at the sight of blood, Otto (Julian Richings), an extremely far sighted security guard, Dr. Elmer Traff (Jamie Harrold), a horny young doctor, Dr. Lona Massingale (Sherry Miller), the object of Traff's affection, Paul (Kett Turton), a malevolent ghost, and Abel (Brandon Bauer) & Christa (Jennifer Cunningham), two kitchen aides with Down Syndrome who seem especially attuned to events in the hospital. St. Elsewhere's Ed Begley, Jr. also makes several appearances as the hospital's chief administrator, who seems more concerned with formulating a perky slogan than with his institution's glaring flaws.
The series' best performance is given by an actor who exists only in a computer. Antubis is an anteater-like creature that possesses a mouthful of ferocious teeth. Most often seen accompanying Mary, he is an incarnation of the Egyptian god who is responsible for leading the dead to judgment. As such, he is capable of both curing and killing. As Mary says, "he eats disease. He likes to be scratched behind the ears. He's horrible.beautiful." Antubis is entirely computer generated, yet the creature is startlingly lifelike. It is a truly remarkable achievement, one that puts the CGI in some feature films to shame.
The entire look and feel of Kingdom Hospital is lushly cinematic. The sets look fantastic, and the series' musical score is often hauntingly beautiful. The series' great strength is that its creators have been able to successfully produce an exquisite sense of atmosphere and place.
One of the fun aspects of the series is looking for references to other works. Beyond the roman a video Peter Rickman storyline mimicking King's own near-fatal accident, the series is peppered with allusions that bring to mind King's prior films and books. The Running Man-esque game show in which contestants are tortured, the vampiric demon children reminiscent of those in 'Salem's Lot, and the Christine-like '50s vintage ghost ambulance are sure to trigger the memories of King fans. Other images seem to hearken back to non-King related cult show: the sleeping woman with a giant tattoo covering her back is surely inspired by Bruce Wagner's Wild Palms, and the Keepers of the Kingdom bear a passing resemblance to Twin Peaks' Bookhouse Boys.
Atmosphere and pop culture references, however, do not ensure a successful miniseries. Kingdom Hospital often relies on weirdness rather than actual humor. Some of the ideas - Stegman's constantly comparing Boston to his new home, for example - are theoretically funny, but fall flat as presented here. The dinner guests in Beetlejuice forced to lip-sync "The Banana Boat Song" is funny. The constant repetition of Steam's "Na Na Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" (including an operating room singalong) in episode three is not funny, just strange and frustrating.
While it is admirable that King and ABC would commit to something so unique (this is, after all, the network that decided David Lynch's acclaimed Mulholland Drive wasn't a viable project), one wishes that something, anything would happen in any given episode. Entire episodes go by with very little plot development or action. Atmosphere and quirkiness (especially misguided quirkiness) are not enough to sustain a thirteen part series. The series' images are often engaging, and its mysteries often pique our interest, but ultimately the languid pacing will leave viewers wanting to be discharged from this Hospital.
The thirteen episodes that make up Kingdom Hospital are divided onto four discs. The discs are housed in two standard sized keepcases, each of which has an interior swinging arm to hold a second DVD. The fronts of each case are decorated with cast photos and images from the series' opening credit sequence. The backs list the episodes found on each disc along with brief, one sentence synopses. A booklet included in one of the cases provides more detailed plot synopses as well as an essay by Stephen King. The two cases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve, the front of which features an appropriately creepy close-up of Otto, with little Mary reflected in one of the lenses of his Coke bottle glasses.
Overall, the designs employed on the packaging are effective, but the execution is a little shoddy. This is especially true when compared to the outstanding DVD menus. The stunning full motion menus, which employ the same basic imagery as the series' opening credits, are perhaps the most evocative since those on Twin Peaks: The Complete First Season. The menus are a work of art in and of themselves - stylish and smart, but easy to navigate. Viewers can play all episodes or choose an individual selection. The episodes are divided into chapters (after the opening credits and at commercial breaks), but there are no scene selection menus.
