Day Two Hundred and Forty - Kingdom: Series 1, Episode 5, "I knew there was a reason I was ambivalent."

It's been a while since I last watched Kingdom... well over a hundred days, in fact, and I find that the distance I've gained away from the series has left me forgetting why I stopped in the first place.

Then I said "what the hell" and tried it again. Didn't take long to remember why now, did it?

As much as I adore Stephen Fry, quite a lot of what I've seen of his that is available on Netflix just doesn't do it for me. Whether it's the 100 Greatest Gadgets or this subdued country law drama with your stereotypical quirky village characters, it's just not enough to have Stephen pulling them along with his quiet wit.

Several things are going on in this episode, including a divorcing couple whose marital woes are solely due to the husbands recent transvestism, a horse rustling, children gambling, and blatant, unapologetic racism.

I think most everything in the ep would've worked if not for that last glaring addition. That horrific, unabashed racism could exist without being instantly decried by all involved, especially the local constabulary, is utterly unbelievable.

Sure, at least both Fry's Kingdom and his often daft associate Lyle are against the overzealous racehorse owner who wants a group of convenient Romany off the pasture he intends to lease from the village council, I find it so hard to swallow that the man could round of a posse and get away from dehumanizing and threatening bodily harm on the Travelers without some comeuppance. I also find it difficult to see the excruciatingly stereotypical way that the Travelers are presented.

On a lighter note, for the most part, I actually did enjoy the other main plot of the ep, the divorcing couple. The gentleman involved presents such a confident and happy personage in his transvestism (and his wife so vehemently vitriolic) that you can't help but side with him immediately.

Now, yes, that might be a tad too convenient... just like with the Romany, but at least there's a happy end for the couple, whereas the horse breeder gets to harass the Travelers with impunity.

To be honest, I just can't justify this series anymore. Its storylines are trite and its overarching mystery concerning blackmail, suicide, and possible murder just has no oomp to it anymore, even as Peter Kingdom and his disturbed sister argue about it... or when a gun is flashed to scare them.

Bah.

Yeah, I think I'm done... I just hope that next time I get the urge, someone or something will remind me just why I dropped the series in the first place.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Twenty - Kingdom: Series 1, Episodes 3 & 4, "A bit more to sink one's teeth into here."

It has been a while since I've digested anything that Stephen Fry was in, seeing as how I've yet to come upon him in Bones and have managed to cleanse my palette of his horrible "100 Greatest Gadgets" by not finishing out the second half of the program, so I decided to revisit Kingdom in the hope that it was better than I'd remembered.

Oddly, it really isn't... but I'm okay with that considering the terrible beating I've been taking not seeing him in Bones and being terribly disappointed with his gadgets. It isn't any better than I remember, but it's strangely more consumable in comparison to the alternatives.

These episodes deal with a possibly sabotaged fishing trawler and a definitely sabotaged college enrollment, but the best of it for both episodes centers on Peter Kingdom and his repressed distaste for sister Beatrice's new beau, a rather bawdy artist.

I, personally, found it great to see him in a scrape. I could swear he was chittering like an angry badger there for a moment, but it's hard to tell.

Sadly, the latter of the two episodes features the return of Beatrice's outbursts, but, while she was happily content in her lover's arms, it was nice to see her sedate instead of impractically wacky or raging. If there's one thing that annoys me the most with this series, it's her forced zaniness and the lengths everyone around goes to humor her.

The boat drama was meh, but episode 5's family issue, where a brilliant young girl goes along with her mother's insistence on suing Cambridge (where we get a nice cameo from Richard Wilson) despite the fact that she threw her own admissions interview so she could help her illiterate father, is actually quite intriguing.

Add to that a bit of bonding time for Beatrice and Gloria over their individual love woes and you've got a halfway decent personal drama, that is certainly helped by Fry's ever present charm, which had previously been the only thing holding up the series... and not well, at that.

I find that, as the series progresses and the actors settle into their roles, I'm enjoying Kingdom more and more. I still find Snell a cartoon that is completely out of place and Lyle an utterly irredeemable tool, but nothing is ever perfect (at least until Hyouka is licensed).

Overall, I find myself actually looking forward to watching more episodes of Kingdom, which is something that I never expected after the first few. I suppose that's a good thing? Maybe that feeling will rub off on Dr.Who... but the wound there is still too tender, so that won't be for a while yet.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Ninety-six - Stephen Fry's 100 Greatest Gadgets, "Look! Even Fry can make VH1-style crap docs!"

Alright, yes... I'm a Stephen Fry fanboy.

I find his debate footage intimidating, love his documentary where he tours all 50 American States, and pretty much adore every film role he's ever done. While his early television work with Hugh Laurie doesn't really thrill me as much as it does the rest of the internet, I still enjoy it to a decent extent.

The same cannot be said for the 100 Greatest Gadgets special.

To be sure, I wasn't kidding in today's title... this two part special that counts down Fry's favorite gadgets of all time feels exactly like an episode of 'I <3 the 80's" but swapping out "gadgets" for a specific decade. Most of the segments are all minute long mini-features that montage promo and demonstration shots of each particular invention in its various incarnations set to brief, vapid interview monologues with mostly generic British television personalities.

Swap out Breakfast Presenters for American Comedians and it's just another day block on VH1.

It's also annoying that some of his favorite gadgets are decidedly obscure UK tchotchkes from across the Empire like the ZED-X, a British designed game station from the early 80's (as opposed to the more famous and recognizable Atari 2600) or the Australian invented electric sandwich press.

Not exactly the freaking WHEEL, now are they... though, to be fair, I only watched the first hour so perhaps the wheel IS on his list, I just haven't gotten that far yet.

I can't say I'm all that happy with the weight he gives some inventions over others... I have no clue why the Aibo is even on this list, let alone the Sodastream (which is apparently used to make cheap, fake champagne). It's nice to see the Can Opener made it, but the Curling Iron? And above the Scissors, no less?

This is a crazy, arbitrary list that combines both useless junk and actually practical devices in a mish mash of pedantic interviews from useless Brit Icons (not to include Mr.Fry). If I had to see one more "Presenter" title as an interviewee's job description, I was going to scream.

To add to the monotony are the countdown slides which feature a rotating cast of the lists' actual inventions numbered to keep track of where one is in the program's trip down Fry's ghastly gadgets. The gimmick wouldn't be so annoying if they didn't reuse them every five or so. You'd think they'd be able to spring for this sort of insert based on every gadget, but no.

Sad. Boring. Ineffective. LCD.

The final straw for me, I think, was when the entire segment on the Walkie Talkie revolved around stock footage of the Royal Wedding that everyone went gaga over a while back.

I mean, honestly, what the heck is the point of showing footage of the motorcade and Kate and whatshisface's nuptial reveal as part of a feature on radio communicators? Oh, the 5000 police organized using them? Whoopdeedoo! Show them using the Walkies, not lingering shots on some pretty little thing marrying into figurehead status.

The Brits and their Royal obsession. Yeesh.

I can't really recommend this cheesy little pseudo-doc whatsoever, even if it is hosted by the esteemed Stephen Fry. I'll stick it out for the second episode to see where he goes with it, but I have the almost certain feeling that this will never again darken the door of my Netflix queue.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

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~

Day Sixty-seven - Kingdom: Series 1, Episode 1, or "It's hard for Stephen Fry to do wrong."

It really is difficult for me to be annoyed by Stephen Fry.

I honestly can't think of such a case. I love his documentary and film work and, while his comedy bits with Hugh Laurie don't beguile me as much as they apparently do the rest of the internet, I still find them on a continuum from at least mildly amusing to really rather quaint and endearing.

I'd never heard of Kingdom before it popped up in my suggestion queue, but, with Fry the headliner, I was at the very least intrigued.

To be fair, it's just alright.

While I never laughed out loud for any of its moments or jokes, I couldn't help but smile whenever Fry's quiet, sardonic humor broke through. Whether it revolved around a stinky client relying on legal aid to put up roadblocks for local development or taking mild shots at his apprentice's lack of vision, it's hard not to find even his pointed jabs just, well... cute.

Now, the drama is, itself, rather bland. The main thrust of the episode revolves around an estate probate involving the death of a rich retiree and her two sons, one a greedy tosser (their words, not mine... I probably would've used "putz" or "dick") and the other a decent sort. Then there's the minor case involving the stinker and the requisite family drama that inserts Fry's mentally unstable sister into his life to upset his status quo.

The entire thing is stretched out a bit farther than I was expecting. There's really little in the way of substance to either case and the sister drama is a bit cliche, but the inbetweeners are generally pretty amusing. I did happen to like his assistant solicitor's fear of heights, though I wasn't a fan of his pool diving antics. The sister pretty much just annoys, but maybe that particular wrinkle will iron out in due course.

I am glad, however, that there's no romantic drama. At least, not yet. While there are threads that could develop that way (though, I doubt it), I was very happy with the decided lack of your typical sitcom love story.

If you're looking for a sedate law drama and are tired of American procedurals, this could really be up your ally. It's definitely smarter joke-wise than its American cousins, though the mystery is very much lacking.

Still, there's something calm and refreshing about Kingdom. I hope, as I continue the series, that the overarching story lines that they laid groundwork for in the opening episode develop into meaty bits of drama. We shall see, I suppose.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~