King Me.

[Ed. note: this show was canceled after like 2 episodes because it was totally boring and stupid. I take back everything I said here.]
In the pilot episode (aired Sunday, March 8th) NBC's Kings managed to check off nearly every item on my list of deal-breaking clichés.

1. What's that? Someone's GAY?!
2. Here's my delicious, blue-eyed daughter. Please discuss business with her. WHAT, YOU'RE FALLING IN LOVE?
3. Hi, we're kings and queens in a fictional land. Based on the bible.
4. Bombs! Blood! Camo pants!

So here's the weird thing, I really liked the show. Nearly all two hours of it. The only thing I didn't get was the royal priest who talked like he was from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. I guess royalty and medieval locution are a sensible mash-up, but the rest of the cast seems to be be in modern times. The king holds court in a boardroom overlooking a quasi central park, with a wall of windows and a boomerang-shaped (not round) table, full of congressman-like cohorts, and no men in tights.

His queen loses a cell phone, his princess is involved in health care reform and the prince? The king-to-be? Not so fast on that one. He's gaaayyyy. The family uses their royal sway to force the media to publish stories about the "play boy prince" to up his straightness cred so he has a shot at the kingdom. That is, until King David comes along. (Obv that's not who he is yet, or else the show would already be over.) I think the king's personal reporter is my favorite detail of the story. He tags along with the king and rewrites history per his request. It's funny and not overblown.

I'd summarize the show like this: a down-home boy does the right thing and saves our prince in war, only to later find out who he is. He gets a shitload of press and, subsequently, a role as royal defense secretary, more or less. Then, after watching his brother die in battle (via webcam) he turns anti-war and tries to end the whole thing which will severely screw over the king's ties to an arms dealer, and the whole country's economy (sound familiar?). THEN he's caught canoodling princess prettyface (not her actual name, but it should be) which clearly pisses off the big man.

I guess what I'm getting at is, clichés are such for a reason. They are tried and true formulas that work and, when handled correctly, can work really effing well. This show is a mishmash of tons of things I hate to see on TV, but I'm already looking forward to the next epi. My advice? Start watching now so we don't have a Lost calibur dash to the DVD set before season two comes out.

Added Brooklyn Bonus:
Some castle scenes are filmed at the Brooklyn Museum. Yay!