Customer Reviews

Kingdom

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I, like probably everyone else, was surprised to discover this was Series Two (noted in fine print on the back of the case, just above the pictures). I checked the Amazon UK site to see if that was how it was initially released in the UK, but discovered they have Series One in release (as of this review), but not Series Two, of course these are two different regions. Who puts out a DVD starting with the second season? There will be a lot of questions if you haven't seen the first season. Amazon.com needs to stipulate that this is Series (Season) Two. Question to BFS Entertainment - Where is Series One???

Other than that, my actual review is on this excellent dramedy. I have waited for "Kingdom" to be released since I first saw it on PBS. Stephen Fry is excellent as always, and, new to this side of the ocean, Karl Davies is OUTSTANDING as his assistant Lyle in a light comedic performance. The rest of the supporting cast is superb. It is just to bad there aren't any DVD extra's. I hope they will film more of the series in the UK, and that Series (Season) One will be released on Region 1 DVD shortly.

I do have this one question - Why are DVD's of all British series so expensive? I have never understood why they always cost so much more than the U.S. series, especially when there are less episodes.

Stephen Fry is a genius, pure and simple. And while he didn't write this series, or at least isn't credited , his very presence in the show anchors the series, allowing it to swing from the touching to the ridiculous in sure even measures.

Fry plays Simon Kingdom, a lawyer in a picturesque village on the Cornish coast. What the English would call a confirmed bachelor, Simon is the iconic country lawyer, rumpled, wrinkled, and un-coifed. Without playing the spoiler, he is bedeviled by deep family problems--a wayward brother, a depressed sister--all the while being the dependable accessible lawyer for what it seems like is the whole village. Assisted by an able secretary and Lyle, a young legal assistant working toward his final legal certification, Simon deals not only with the mundane day to issues that plague his town, as when the local cricket team contracts a sponsorship with the local sexual toy store, but also with the continuance of his British countryside lifestyle, threatened by local development and often tangled town histories.

While the series could fall over the edge to schmaltzy excess, Fry and his cohorts have kept a firm hand on it through the two season that I have seen. (Season one is only available in the US on-line--this boxed set is Season Two--it is enough of a soap opera that you should see season one before watching season two.) Touching yes, but never does it succumb to temptation and fall into pure trickle. The comedy is sharp, character driven, and occasionally bizarre; classic Stephen Fry. Watch for Fry's reaction shots--his most compelling acting is most often when he's not speaking. At these moments you can see Simon soaking up information, either as a lawyer or as a family member, in each allowing the moment to impact his character and his actions. I don't mean to suggest that this is a one man show however. This is an excellent ensemble work. The entire cast is filled with dependable, solid actors, many familiar from other British series. Part of the joy, for the anglophile, is recognize the actors from their past shows. Part of the sorrow is to understand that America can't produce such fine character actors.

Go now, and start watching the first season. Halfway through you should order the second season so that it will get to you by the time you end the first season. You will go through withdrawal when you are done--- Season three is just now finishing up in the UK. Enough of us buy season two, and we in the US might get a chance to see season three sooner.

From the first show, I knew this was going to be a blockbuster. It is a "must have" for my library. This is a comedic drama, and a mystery too, which keeps you coming back for more. It is well written, the dialog is quite captivating, and the acting is superb. The characters, Beatrice, Lyle, Peter, Gloria, Scott have their quirks which make the stories compelling and endearing. One can watch them over and over and never tire of them.

This is a wonderful show. It is silly that season 2 was released first. You can watch season 1 on hulu dot com free of charge. I am hoping season 3 will be released soon so I can see the guest appearance of Colin Baker (Doctor Who) in episode two.

I was slightly confused until I discovered this was Series Two, not series one, but the on-going stories draw you in without knowing too much of the backgrounds of the characters. Stephen Fry was wonderful as Peter Kingdom and the mix of odd villagers and interesting situations kept me glued to my DVD player. It was light and frothy and smile inducing comedy played by some of the best English actors - Phyllida Law! and if you like quirky English comedies this is the show for you. Now all we need is Series One, which, hopefully explains the whole bit about Peter's brother, Simon.

If Andy Griffith had been from the UK he might have found Kingdom's Market Shipborough to be the present-day Mayberry-by-the-Sea. Fry's Peter Kingdom character is of course comprised mainly of "Fry playing Fry", as mentioned by others, but in a rather new way, with even greater benevolence than Jeeves could have mustered. Though the overall plot in Kingdom and its central theme strayed early, it is still filled with excellent acting, charm, and enough substance to make it worth the hour.

The long running theme of a central figure in a community is well modernized here, I think, in the Kingdom series. Peter Kingdom is not much able to correct all the ills around him, and ambiguities persist in character and story. That's the big difference from Mayberry, but the idea is the same of a Go-To character who everyone knows, and trusts. Like the Doc Martin character, Kingdom fills that ever present gap.

ITV of whatever television production company nearly ruins it all by not having proper channel distribution in the US and we are stuck with spotty, late night PBS distribution. The same is true of Doc Martin, and many other superior Britcoms, most which put to shame lesser US-based productions.

One could imagine a money making British TV cable channel in the future that eclipses the dreary matter emanating from NBC these days. As a final insult, we have to wait for the DVD which costs nearly $40 for only 7 episodes. I would have thought we could have it at a bargain price since its sad and abrupt series cancellation. Management seems to have lost the knack for finding the audience and getting the product to it on time. I assure you - here in New England, there are many followers and even more potential viewers than you can imagine. It's pure nonsense and chaos in broadcast television now and some basics are being forgotten.

Still I will gladly pay the ransom for series 3, and have already done for 1 and 2.

I am a huge Stephen Fry fan. I expected to like KINGDOM right out of the gate. However, with season 1, the show was slow. I think the reason for this is that the show wanted to handle ordinary life in Cornwall and the solicitor (Fry) who handles their cases in low key, good humored fashion, no matter how absurd the case is. Unfortunately, this is potentially deadly dull stuff. Sure enough, the cases were just not that interesting in season one. Nor was his personal life that interesting either. However, by season two the creators must have realized these problems. Thus several cases were handled in each episode, not just one, all of them offbeat. Instead of just one crazy sister to handle (Norris), Kingdom's identity theft brother comes home; Kingdom has a new nephew living with him, a baby he dotes upon; the crazy sister gets pregnant; and the cases are outright hilarious. For example, there is a nudist colony which wants to fight an outraged beachfront homeowner; a man in a nursing home who finds a girlfriend and wants to disinherit his daughter and leave everything to his girlfriend; two sisters who guard a secret about a lighthouse, thus stopping its acquisition by the community; two feuding brothers who have refreshment kiosks at war with one another, right across the street from one another; a man in a stag costume with antlers who is injured at a toddler day care center, and on and on. This is a big step up in creative scripts from season one. I applaud this show for another reason. This is one of the few times a series succeeds without a criminal lawyer at the helm. Shows generally need murders to succeed as legal shows, even if tangentially. In DAMAGES, for example, Glen Close may be litigating a civil case but there are usually several murders going on in the season as well, all revolving right around her and the people in her world. So Kingdom is infinitely more daring with sticking with civil cases in an English countryside setting. There is not even a courtroom aspect as Kingdom is a solicitor, not a barrister. Only barristers try cases in the UK. Of course, Fry is fabulously talented so he does a wonderful job as Peter Kingdom and surrounds himself with a very solid cast of supporting actors. I highly recommend this show.

Kingdom is one of the quirkier and more engaging series of irresistable British shows to cross the pond. The cast is superb and the situations in which Peter Kingdom finds himself wholly believable - comedic, pathetic, hopeless but never dull! Pity there aren't more of them - it captivates the imagination and makes the viewer wonder what they might do if confronted with some of this totally human solicitor's conundrums.

The DVD is good. The stories are a bit thin and certainly not emotionally draining but the scenery is beautiful and Stephen Fry is always fun.

Stephen Fry plays a genial country lawyer in a rural English town full of colorful characters.

The show includes both comedy and drama, but nothing too extreme in either direction. There are few if any "laugh out loud" moments, and none of the drama is stressful. It's just a nice, enjoyable way to spend a bit of time watching talented performers play interesting characters in a beautiful country setting.

It's not the best show Fry has ever done, but it's worth watching.