Kingdom by Lars von Trier. Is the King Naked?

Let’s talk about the series as a whole and in detail. What fascinates, surprises, scares. And what feelings it leaves behind.

I have long been haunted by the thought that Lars von Trier had a TV series from 1994, and I never watched it. This series was made into a more recent “remake” by Stephen King, but we are for authenticity, right? We are for the original…especially since choosing between King and von Trier, I don’t need to tell you who I would choose (although between anyone and a TV series based on King, I would choose him). Let’s briefly go over the plot and the style of the story.

Kingdom 1994-1997

The events take place in Denmark, where there is a giant hospital called the Kingdom – the main hospital of Denmark. The hospital was built on wetlands, where in the old days there were bleaching ponds and washerwomen brought fabrics here, washed them in the shallows. It is with this story that each episode begins. One could assume that this is what a certain part of the plot of the series is based on, but this is not entirely true, because most of the events occur not so much because of the place where the hospital is located, but because of people’s attitude towards certain things.

The color scheme of the series is made in yellow tones, which may not be very pleasant for some (it creates the feeling that the series is very old, although… it is). However, you quickly get used to it and begin to delve into the plot itself. All events take place mostly in the neurosurgical department of the hospital. According to the plot, a famous surgeon from Sweden, Stig Helmer, comes to the Kingdom. He has an ambiguous attitude towards both Denmark and the doctors there. And although the hospital is considered one of the best, Helmer has some doubts about the qualifications of the local doctors. However, the qualifications of Dr. Helmer himself become quite questionable when it turns out that during the last operation he performed, due to some negligence, the child became disabled. But the Swedish doctor cannot make a mistake (as he himself believes), so he tries to hide the reason why this happened.

Meanwhile, another doctor, Palle Bondo, is trying to make a real breakthrough in medicine and is researching liver cancer. Just then, a patient appears in the hospital who could be an excellent source for examination, but the patient’s family is against their close relative being used for scientific purposes. So he will have to look for other options, how…to get access to the liver of a dying person. Meanwhile, the hospital itself is not working without problems and the Minister of Health decides to visit the hospital in order to determine how much it is not idle and whether there are any problems in its work.

One of the patients, Sigrid Drusse, also has her own problems, who believes she can communicate with spirits and hears a little girl crying every time she rides in the hospital elevator. According to the doctors (generally, Stig Helmer), Sigrid is faking her illnesses and ends up in the hospital every time for made-up reasons. However, she has her own task – to find and help the girl whose crying she hears, while finding out exactly what happened to her.

Hospital filling

It is difficult to single out any positive or negative characters in the series, because each of them has its own full-fledged story, idea, and goal. Someone is trying with all their might to research diseases in order to complete their scientific work, someone is not very serious about their future work, which is why they get into ambiguous situations. Others simply feel at home and try not to think about what is happening in the Kingdom, simply doing their job. I would like to separately mention the “secret society” – something like a local Masonic lodge, which includes all the main doctors. Its goal is interaction and assistance between doctors, no matter how strange and ambiguous this or that task is set before the “lodge”.

One of the few “positive” characters is the two dishwashers with Down syndrome, who are shown to us from time to time and who tell the story as if they are watching it all from the sidelines or the events are happening in their own heads. But in reality, they are at the same time in this very Kingdom, and are more of observers who reflect on the actions of various doctors and patients.

As it becomes clear over time, in addition to the superficial problems of the hospital, there are also deeper ones, such as gambling to death (when an ambulance driver drives into the oncoming lane for a while), personal problems (when it almost comes to the murder of some employees by others), as well as many stories about spirits that appeared here due to the negligence of certain doctors. The further you are immersed in the life of the Kingdom, the more it becomes clear that it exists on the laws of chaos, and according to such laws, something cannot exist and it must necessarily go awry. So is it possible to save this place?..

Kingdom. Exodus

The series did not have an answer to this question for 25 long years. That is how long it took to finish filming the last, third season of the series. The fact is that certain actors from the original cast were gone almost immediately after the release of the second season (it took three years anyway), and the plot had already sunk. Over time, Stephen King wrote his adaptation of the story and in 2004 the world saw “Royal Hospital”, the story of which was based on the original series, but the place changed, as did the doctors. The plot also changed somewhat and according to rumors (I have not watched the adaptation yet), the endings in both series are different. Which is not surprising, because Lars von Trier will shoot the sequel only 18 years after this adaptation.

Some roles were played by the same characters, and many more characters were added, which is why you don’t immediately understand who is who. The story continues with a new doctor who comes to the hospital. He is Helmer Jr. – the son of the infamous Stig Helmer. He considers his father a genius for his work, hates Denmark just as much and wants to know what exactly happened to his father and who he was. Will the son suffer the same fate as his father? You will find out about this by watching the last season, but I want to focus my thoughts on something else.

The fact is that the third season was perceived very differently. Some people didn’t like the fact that the story was “twisted” and the hospital began to look completely different. Others thought that the sequel wasn’t as vivid as the first two seasons. But in my opinion, the director did the maximum that could be done with the plot so that the story could really be brought to something and concluded. I think that not least because of this, there was one more episode in the season than before. The case was about the same as with Game of Thrones at one time. The audience’s dissatisfaction was based on the fact that the story didn’t end the way they would have liked, although you simply can’t have such a vision of the end of the story after the first two seasons, because there is a constant feeling that there is still “more to be filmed and filmed”. But let’s be objective – when most of the main cast is either no longer alive, or someone doesn’t want to play, it’s somehow difficult to make the ending something that everyone would pray for. So I think the series ended the way it did. The third season was not a breakthrough or better than the first two, but we should thank Mr. von Trier, because at the moment this is the last of his works, and given his serious health condition, it is far from a fact that we will see anything else.

Humor

I would like to pay special attention to the humor of the series. It is somewhat black, somewhat sarcastic. You will either “get it right away” or you will find the jokes stupid. It is partly based on the relationship between Denmark and Sweden (such as the curse towards Denmark by Dr. Helmer, which he shouts while standing on the roof of the hospital and looking towards Sweden), partly on absurd situations (such as the moments when the doctor removes the disks from his expensive Volvo so that local children don’t steal them, but he constantly has no space in the parking lot and something happens to the car itself from time to time). Or the doctor who watches horror movies to finally stop being afraid of the sight of blood in life. The humor is specific, but in my opinion, it is quite appropriate. Especially considering the fact who filmed this series.

Is it worth watching?

And here we come to the main question – is this series worth watching at all? The question is quite complex and controversial. In my opinion, this is one of the most fantastic and mystical series by Lars von Trier. From this point of view, yes, you should watch it. The series shows the other side of a person very interestingly, his decision-making, as well as responsibility for his actions. A bit of a spoiler, but what is the point of transplanting a diseased kidney instead of his healthy one from a dying donor, in order to have a chance (at least theoretical) to get it into his possession by transplanting his healthy one back to himself. This is both about what a person is ready to do for the sake of science, and, at the same time, what he can do for the sake of a smoldering desire to get what he needs at any cost. And this example with a kidney is just one of many, when the series gives its characters an “either-or” choice, and they themselves have to choose what to do at a particular moment.

You should be prepared that in addition to humor, you can also meet many characters here, whose actions will be unpleasant for you. Because each of them is shown, first of all, from the point of view of their flaws. They have no better side, there is simply something that we have to accept as it is. Therefore, this series can hardly be recommended as entertaining, but it is worth watching. At least to see how you can revive history through a quarter of a century. I recommend it. And i rate the series 5 Diseases of Sigrid Drusse out of 6!

Author: Sa Crea

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