Kingdom Hospital

 In 2004, a series called Kingdom Hospital came and went without very much of a reaction. Based on a Danish eight episode mini series by Lars Von Trier called The Kingdom it was originally intended to be of similar duration. It was eventually developed into what was intended to be an ongoing series though in the event it only lasted for one thirteen episode season. It was developed by none other than Stephen King, more used to others developing his work, and directed by Craig R Baxley.  To describe it as slow would be to understate considerably because it moves like a snail with a tendancy to repeat certain visual or musical signatures. I’m not even sure how you would define it. Is it a medical drama? Yes. Is it a fantasy? Yep. Is it extremely weird? Oh yes. It unpeels mysterious happenings, oddball characters and bizarrely is set in an interior that seems to bear no relation to the striking exterior shot we see of the building.  There is a palpable sense of unease generated by the direction and script, and its circuitous structure can sometimes irritate not least that song which is playing when Peter Rickman is first run down by a truck. Yet if you become absorbed in it- and it is a big If – it seems important to watch every bit of it.

 

It opens with a painter being involved in a road accident when he is hit by a truck while running, something drawn from Stephen King's own similar accident a few years earlier. Its unlikely though that what subsequently happens is based in real life! On one level the series is a dark comedy about procedure, protocol and our paranoia of it. The Keepers for example are built up in early episodes as powerful and influential but they seem to achieve very little despite an absurd initiation ceremony. Then there’s Dr Jesse James (!) sitting in his office extolling the virtues of Operation: Morning Air, a pointless initiative meaning nothing much at all which anyone who works for a large company will recognize with a knowing smile. Part PR, part inspirational it seems to consist largely of ignoring real problems while creating buttons and posters. It could be just me, but I had an uncanny feeling that if I were to suggest something like Operation: Morning Air at work there are people who would really think it was a good concept.

On a different level the series seems to tilt at medical malpractice; the patient’s head going missing is a very silly rendering of this - kudos to whoever thought of playing `Where’s Your Head At?` on the soundtrack as the headless corpse runs about haplessly!. On a more direct level, Dr Stegman’s increasingly desperate attempts to hide his own incompetence that led to a girl suffering brain damage become more powerful as events move to climax. The story seems to want it both ways though presenting Stegman as a deranged kind of doctor he is pushing the viewer towards wanting him to get his comeuppance. Yet there is also a scene in which Dr Hook is seen to have an understanding that everyone makes mistakes in their job and even surgeons will do so hence his miniature graveyard of mistakes. The rivalry between Stegman and Hook intrigues because the latter is the kind of manipulative character the former aspires to be. Stegman’s daily frustration and hassles (his car gradually comes to pieces over the course of the series!) will be recognizable to us all and do evoke some sympathy – he is just a man in over his head.

It may be that some of the characters were too arch for a lot of viewers; certainly on first sight they seem over familiar couples – the seemingly backward twins who know everything, the surgeons with ethical and personality clashes, the innocent lost little girl and the manipulative bad older boy and so on. Its only when they mix them all up that the sparks fly; just like one of those British mystery dramas, half the fun is watching all these powerful actors doing their stuff. Sometimes it is laid on with a trowel; why the idlers should take such exception to Stegman for example is never explained even though it is the springboard for his breakdown.

The other threads that join up the diverse characters are part ghost story and part religious study. The latter is revealed in an interesting couple of episodes that appear to re-play the crucifixion and resurrection in a modern setting. A street preacher (whose initials inevitably are JC!) is found crucified and the next three days follow a familiar religious pattern taking in miracle cures, bodies disappearing and so on. This may seem to be laying on a bit thick and it’s hard not to see them as fillers in the overall narrative yet the result makes for powerful viewing especially as the fervour of people’s response to what’s happening grows. Perhaps the sequence is there to show us the wafer thin divide between myth and religion? The clash of magic and science is also represented by the fact that by the finale we have a group of intelligent medical staff sorting the problems via a séance. The series is a ghost story too. While there are plenty of shocks to be had, it’s not really horror in any sense of the word and matters never really become truly frightening.  King is riffing here on an old staple – the restlessness of spectres that hang about – but he makes a good go of it drawing from both myth and religion in equal measure.

The cast get into their parts with relish; I’d love to have seen their faces when they first got the scripts. Bruce Greenwood gives a tremendous performance as the increasingly deranged Stegman, all the more clever because you can never quite see him as evil; in fact wouldn’t you be angry if people kept messing about with your car, challenging your authority at work and so on? His exasperation is fun to watch; most of all his characters’ distaste for the hospital and the keepers. Ed Begley Jr is very funny too; you could argue Doctor James isn’t even an essential character but it balances the more intense strands of the drama. Andrew McCarthy, last seen in lame late 80s comedies makes an effective Hook, pulling off a tricky role, Dr Hook has high ideals and standards, yet he also looks after himself and is practical where the hospital’s administration seems hidebound by procedure (hence the big MIR scan argument with Stegman). Of course there are similarities between the two it’s just that while Hook wants to cut corners for the sake of the patients, Stegman is out for himself. Greenwood and McCarthy’s scenes together are full of tension.

Dianne Ladd’s Mrs Drew seems at first self consciously eccentric if well intentioned and I like the way she has to struggle to find things out; the actress giving those scenes where she’s connecting to other worldly happenings a far away intensity. She does get some of the silliest lines (swedeborgian space!) but delivers them all with utter conviction. There’s a whole babble of other staff, each of whom have their part to play, while Jack Coleman gives a solid everyman quality to Peter Rickman even if we don’t learn that much about him. Kett Turton as Paul shows his versatility (he’s also the voice of the anteater); it’s a shame the character doesn’t get more things to do really; in fact there is no real resolution or confrontation with Paul in the last episode               

Despite the location never particularly seeming to be a real hospital; compared to the building outside, the incongruous setting works strikingly well; there’s a surreal contrast between the modern exterior and shadowy interior of the hospital which has an atmosphere reminiscent of those old 70s telefantasy programmes where they had to create a mood on a shoestring budget. Its simple but effective and when we see the old kingdom below the use of lighting is excellent; proving you don’t always have to go for the most spectacular effects. The horror elements are safe enough for mainstream tv and I would argue they don’t need to be any stronger or they’d undermine the other parts of the script. Being the most striking visual motif for the show, Antubis the anteater works particularly well despite being CGI; the sounds and walk are perfect (not that I know exactly how an anteater might move!).

Visually Kingdom Hospital veers towards the surreal style first pioneered on tv by Twin Peaks and now so familiar that we tend to forget how good it is and how odd it seemed back then. From the opening credits –which resemble a moody pop video- the series establishes a cool, casual motif which is only occasionally interrupted by frenetic bursts of action. Sometimes this does foster the impression that nobody is in any real danger, a feeling amplified by the flips between what seems real and what are visions or dreams. Yet there is a connection only slowly revealed between the two, though the series tries to keep explanations to an oblique minimum. Perhaps the idea that it’s a boring show was due to the opening episode being double length and scene setting; by the end you have no real idea what you’re watching and the pompous voiceover doesn’t help. I do find it difficult to believe that US audiences did not have the patience to stay with the show because in their view nothing was happening; post Twin Peaks slowburn dramas were often successful.  Perhaps this was just too out there!

I prefer to think of the pace of the series as like that of a novel, slowly unpeeling but if you watch each episode there is nothing boring about any of it, provided you buy into the whole thing. One thing that works especially well is Peter’s internal voice where he thinks he’s talking but isn’t. Throughout the series makes you interested in finding out more, just like Mrs Drew (the closest to a real narrator) you want to piece all of it together. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that amidst the strangeness there is some genuinely realistic scenes - Peter’s wife’s confused reaction to the accident and the apologetic diagnosis that Hook provides, the inevitability of Lenny’s death, the awestruck belief of the Reverend Jimmy’s followers and most of all the image of a solitary little girl in such a sad situation. Most strikingly of all is a tiny scene where Stegman is hiding in the dark muttering “I used to hate myself. I like myself now.” Easily forgotten, this moment is the key to the show’s most rounded character and the reason why you’re with him later on when it would be easy to say what a crazy he is. Juxtaposed against this are scenes of black comedy, some plain silliness and a dash of reflection.

Its not perfect of course. Perhaps showing that the anteater was what Peter was painting before the accident makes things seem more gimmicky than they are; had this been a last episode reveal it would have been more effective. Some of the explanations at the end don’t really add up, particularly how Anubis and Paul look the same, neither are we really told why Peter is so significant; surely Mary can have had other opportunities to have done all this earlier? Also, why could Antubis only save Mary? Unfortunately showing full length flashback scenes in the finale almost upsets the charged tension that has built up over the past couple of episodes and they are also the only sequences that are not very well staged. I know it sounds picky but there is clearly an opportunity for all the kids to escape; it’s just a poorly conceived scene.

The ending is perhaps inevitably a bit confused if only because the garbled explanation for swedeborgian space does not really explain where the fire extinguisher appears from. The finale offers a bizarre mixture of more conventional fare mixed up with complicated explanations and it doesn’t always blend seamlessly even if it does conjure up a suitably thrilling climax. Presumably unanswered questions were to be answered in a second season but the series was cancelled.  I suppose it's fate was sealed by the flaws in the opening and closing episodes which is a great pity because in between there is much to admire in Kingdom Hospital. Atmospherics, mystery, shocks and ethical questions all line up in an absorbing mix helped by a top notch cast and some excellent set pieces. Perhaps one day it will be re-considered by viewers less eager to run and more interested in looking into things.