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Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom, Series II DVD Release Date: 22nd January 2008

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Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom, Series II DVD Review:

It is difficult for me to review this DVD, considering it is part two of an experimental miniseries about the supernatural, in which all of the subplots are developed. So I am essentially reviewing this cold turkey, without having fully seen the previous series. Normally this would automatically throw me out of place, but given the bizarre nature of this series, I was ready for pretty much anything. The result has superb things about it, and is ultimately good, but I would only be able to call it great by having a context from the first DVD, the first four episodes, that is. The series is directed, mostly by Lars von Trier, and he appears at the end of each episode, much like Rod Serling, and therefore, comparisons to the twilight zone are inevitable.
Lars von Trier seems to always be subverting something, sometimes with amazing, and sometimes with irritating results. One of his most interesting is this television series from the 1990’s, The Kingdom. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Stephen King saw this series and was so impressed, he decided to re-imagine it in America and add, among other things, a giant Anteater version of Anubis and Diane Ladd. The original version, I find is much more disturbing as it adds a dimension of horror that is not necessarily based on grotesque imagery, but there are elements of horror in the deranged things that the hospital staff do, such as watch splatter films, as if they could not get enough of the gore they endure every day. One doctor continually evades responsibility for a botched operation on a little girl that leaves her in a vegetative state, and proceeds to put her in a hospital dumbwaiter to evade charges. All this is frightening enough without the inclusion of evil spirits that seek to wreak havoc once again on the hospital. To add to its depravity, the story is framed by two people with Down’s Syndrome speculating about the problems in the hospital with incredibly lucid and philosophical speech, and as an added bonus Lars von Trier puts his two cents in at the end of every episode, channeling Rod Serling with a moral code to perhaps bring a method to the madness of his deranged series. But there is no method to the madness, there is merely a madness to the method. His camera work reflects his madness, so clearly present in cinematic work. In great fashion, he uses dogme lighting and shaky, handheld DV cameras to follow the action, some of which are impressively long one-take shots.
It is a very interesting, sometimes ingenious twist on medical soap operas, by adding to the drama and blackmail, severed heads, ghost stories, and demonic babies born that grow and develop at near ten times their normal rate. It falters only when it attempts to play on the emotions of the audience by giving certain characters diseases, falling into that soap opera drool that it is basing its narrative on, but redeems itself with the flourishes these tragedies result in. The best example would be when a doctor, in order to gain a liver donation for the hospital, switches livers with a cancer patient.
Perhaps some of its flaws really reside in the fact that you do not have to have seen the first season to understand it, because there is not one concrete aspect to understand. This indicates its limitations, and its introduction which reeks of ‘90s nostalgia and therefore placing it within a time. But if you ignore these things, the Kingdom is a very interesting series, at least from season two. Knowing a little bit about the plot from season one due to the convenience of the internet, I can say that the plot itself is indeed a rebuke to the trite hospital drama, using supernatural elements to subvert it.

The extras contain a music video for the gloriously cheesy ‘90s intro music, by a band that sounds like an amalgam of Rammstein and a Danish Duran Duran. It is admittedly inspired hilarity, and does add a bit of the tongue in cheek humor that pervades the disturbing content of the show. What we see during the video: none other than Lars Von Trier in a suit with people in hospital uniforms performing a very hip ‘90s equivalent of the Monster Mash.
Then are the Bloopers, which are not nearly as funny as the music video itself. Next are trailers, which give a bit of a glimpse of what happened earlier in the series and are therefore somewhat valuable.
Finally, there is some selected commentary on each episode which divulges some difficulty on the process of making the episode.

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Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom, Series II DVD review written by: Brian Reis