Yeah, okay, I love this show but honestly I think this is a shit way to end the show. Which, it's not fair to pin that solely or even mostly on the writers since it's not like this was a planned series finale. But the show remains as it is and I have no counters for what Mark has to criticize.

So this show ends off as a desparate 'imagine what could have been' for me because there's so much left to resolve and I admit fully to the fact that I love a happy ending. The show ends with so little hope in line of sight that I just want to sit down with the creators and beg them to tell me what their plan was.

It's kind of funny, cause The Sarah Connor Chronicles is another one of my favorite shows, and both of these shows share a lot of common over-all elements that make me adore them. However, TSSC ends on a cliffhanger where I can believe in good things happening and, ok, outright revision of the timeline to make things better. I actually really love and respect TSSC for ending where it does, and I think it's a pretty fantastic ending for what wasn't originally planned as such.

Kings just makes me think of what could have been. Maybe it would have fared better on tv now, or as some kind of nexflix original or something. Maybe if the advertising of the show was better, or if NBC recognized it doomed the show really quickly after moving around the time slot so much.

So yeah. Kings. It's been quite a ride, and I'm glad to see more people watching this show and talking about it. I know it can't be to everyone's tastes, but I think there are so many powerful and beautiful and intelligent moments to this show that I'm not used to recieving in television that I have to hold it close to my heart as a show I fell in love with.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to get to relive expriencing this show for the first time, and I look forward to what Michael Green (and Bryan Fuller) will be doing with American Gods. (Which had better be fucking great.)

I feel like this is kind of a redeeming episode for the Benjamins.

Michelle steps up and starts playing the political game. We've seen her lose a lot of her optimism and hope over the course of this show, and while I find it hard to watch her get hurt and broken down I can admit I don't necessarily miss the naivety. Here, she's willingly playing along with media games, which is a big change from where she started on this show.
Jack, even if we don't really get to see what kind of king he would be, appears willing and desiring to be a more honest and peaceful version of his father. Between this episode and last, I believe he does have convictions of ethics and does genuinely want to be a better ruler than his father, and that's refreshing when in the past it seemed more like all he cared about was the power.
Rose reveals what she cares about, and yeah appearance means a lot to her but she ultimately holds her children above the appearance of a united royal family, and even gives Silas an ultimatum.
And now we see that even though Silas was a shit king, well, it could have been worse.

It's been 12 episodes with 1 left, but it feels like we've come a lot farther than that, and that's a testament to how fast-paced this show is and how committed the writers are to delivering a compelling story. I feel like so often with American television the stories get stretched past the point of comfort and value; Kings has so far been a really compact story more reminiscent of a mini-series than a full-fledged show. And maybe that was it's downfall, I don't know. But being so close to the end of this ride all I can say is it's hard to predict where the next episode will end, and given that this is a retelling of a Biblic story I have to applaud that. It's been a roller-coaster of unpredictability and emotions that this show is able to wring out, and this feels like the precipice of the final drop.

When David tells Jack to warn Silas about the planned coup from William, I just want to scream at David to wake the fuck up. It's one thing to take entertainment from Jack and William's scheming behind Silas' back, but it just edges too far into uncomfortable for me watching David still try to protect Silas, and believing without question that Jack only has the best for Silas in mind.
And then David stays loyal to Silas to the extent of pleading guilty, and I just can't find it in myself to respect that loyalty over complete lack of self-preservation.

And then Jack. Finally doing something geniune and honest, and it's terrifying and puts everyone in jeopardy and oh god even something that can actually be contstrued as "good" is still such a nightmare this goddamn show!

(It's genuinely nice to watch The Martian and not have a Sebastian Stan character be tragic and heartbreaking, btw.)

I like how during the opening credits of Mark's video he talks about this show being a personification of the "that escalated quickly" meme and it's just like yeah, uh, wait like 35 minutes and then you'll know how true that is.

I think the last episode sets up pretty clearly the writing on the wall that everything is gonna start snowballing down and down and down. So hooray, confirmation of that, I guess? The lines are being drawn, and it's just so tense waiting to find out where things will settle in the end.

I'll miss Katrina Gent. It totally stands to reason Rose would want to take her out for the disrespect alone, let alone having the audacity to scheme to marry Jack and take over Rose's crown, but the way we find out about Kathrina's fate is just so nonchalant it's still actually kinda surprising just how ruthless Rose can be.

Also, somebody save Lucinda Wolf. Just, yikes, she's entered into this fucked up world and is learning immediately how terrible it is and just wow, she's just this poor, innocent sacrifical lamb. No good can be expected to come out of this.

Whenever I've expressed love for this show, it's because of my love and admiration of this episode. It ties together a million different storylines, and furthers character development in really interesting and surprising ways. It furthers the plot and ends as a turning point for a number of different relationships on this show.

I love getting to see Jack care for and protect his sister, but also choosing something for himself that doesn't serve his parents.

As terrible as Rose's interactions with Jack are in this episode, I do love her scene with Michelle. I love her explicit discussion of sexism and double-standards in the media. But also there's this underlying message that the treatment from a homophobic society is in many ways more of a challenge. Even if Rose didn't consider Jack's sexuality a "mistake of character" I think she would still have made the same decision.

I like watching Katrina Gent a lot. She's not William who's hurting the Benjamins simply out of spite; she's been mocked and denigrated and is fighting for some amount of power and respect, and I think that's so much more interesting to watch than William.

We still haven't been told what Andrew did to get exiled, but in this episode he comes across as basically soulless and unfeeling, like his and even if it's not said what he did I can still easily believe he deserved it.

"Is the implication that Death took David's father in Michelle's place?"

WOAH, never considered that. Yikes.

1. It's nice to see Jack, Michelle, and David get some modicrum of happiness for once. I mean, it's not exactly long lived, but it's something.

"You're the only real thing I've ever touched" hahaha kill me now.

2. IT'S DEATH, YO! I'm not sure why urban modern fantasy isn't as big a thing in tv/movies, but I love the mixing of this polished, modern city and the high-stakes political drama with fascinating and creepy fantastical elements.

3. Oh Rose. Silas is incapacitated so she secretly fills in for him by "relaying" his orders, and I really do like stories where the wife of a politician is as ambitious and cunning as their husband.

4. Silas' deal with Death is perhaps a little overly on the nose in terms of Death basically giving Silas a prophesy of what's to come, but damned if it isn't a compelling scene.

5. The use of music in this episode is lovely and brilliant, and it's hard to think of other shows or movies that have tied in music to the plot at all, let alone as well as this episode does.

Nyy V pna guvax nobhg guvf rcvfbqr evtug abj vf gung V ernyyl, ernyyl jbhyq unir ybirq n frpbaq frnfba jurer Wnpx naq Qnivq npghnyyl jbex gbtrgure va unezbal. Orpnhfr jr xabj Wnpx raqf hc erfcrpgvat Qnivq rira vs ur ungrf naq erfragf uvz, naq gur gubhtug bs n fybj ohea 'Wnpx yrneaf ubj gb znxr sevraqf' znxrf zr lrnea sbe jurer guvf fubj pbhyq unir tbar.

WE'RE ONLY ON EPISODE SIX! (or five, even, if you count Goliath as 1).

Like, I don't even understand how it's possible to set up these characters so quickly, to set up the stakes and the reveals and the surprises and keep moving the plot forward so that it already feels like 20 episodes have passed and we're gearing up to a finale.

One of the things I take away from this episode is that I genuinely cannot imagine anyone else doing what Ian McShane does with this role. He's so stately and so good in the judgement scenes that it's easy to understand why people would love him as king. With another actor, I might feel that David's choice to be loyal to Silas was a contrivance of the writing, and yet with McShane I understand why David believes so highly of Silas.

This week's Kings for y'all! http://markdoesstuff.fetchapp.com/get/747c3503 http://markdoesstuff.fetchapp.com/get/e19af671