Day Seventy - Kingdom: Series 1, Episode 2, or "There's really no mystery here, after all."

I figured that I'd try Kingdom again, hoping for something to improve what hadn't worked in the pilot. Unfortunately, it was more of the status quo.

In this episode, the only mystery, aside from what looks to be the season/series arc of "my brother is dead, but maybe he's not," is how on earth anyone puts up with crazy sister Beatrice's antics. I mean, seriously, there's only so much eccentric destructiveness that any reasonable person should have to go through. Forcing it for the sake of episodic drama is dirty pool.

Wait... did I just type "dirty pool?" Argh. I should watch something American to cleanse my lingual pallete, and right soon.

There! I did it again!

Back to Kingdom, this episode's A-story is a custody fight between an illegal immigrant field hand and the boss farmer who, shall we say, plowed her field. Seems that the obvious villain took the child without permission after dumping the girl for another (though, the episode never reveals whether the newer model is ALSO a put upon immigrant worker).

The B-story is a silly bit of culture as the local characters are putting on an international dyke jumping competition and the long poles they've bought do not come from the proper species of tree and snap instead of bending mid jump as they should.

Both stories are boring as all get out. The A-story is a simple bit of moralizing about the plight of the immigrant worker and would be very much at home in, say, an episode of MacGyver where Mac fights an evil slaver type to help abused Mexican laborers, though, they would never be called illegals, just poor ethnic Americans, so, at least Kingdom got that part right. The B-story? Well, I'm pretty sure I could've done without it entirely.

Plus, I'm only two episodes in and I'm already annoyed as all get out with Lyle and his falling for anyone with breasts every single episode... and that includes looney Beatrice. Ugh.

Really, the only reason to watch is Fry... and he's not given enough time to compensate for how utterly horrible the rest of the cast and storylines are. The only intriguing bits concern how he deals with his missing brother's affairs. THAT is a mystery I could get behind, but it's only given in dribs and drabs inbetween every episode's A and B lines... which are, themselves, just horrid.

To be honest, I don't know how long I can stand Kingdom if it's going to continue down this road. Fry, as ever, is a charmer of the highest degree, but his supporting fellows? Well, they overshadow his charm with utter dreck... and it's beginning to make me want to never come back to Market Shipborough.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~