Kings

"I hope he doesn't talk about God again; God's not too popular these days."
"He will talk about God, the king doesn't care if he is popular or not."

Those were the first two lines from NBC's new show, "Kings," a drama based on the story of David, Saul, and Samuel in the bible (1 Samuel). The major twist of the show is that the show is set in present day.

After watching the pilot episode last Sunday, I'm honestly pretty hooked on this show. My expectations were that Kings was going to be a show which very loosely (if not barely) followed scripture. I thought, "well, maybe they'll mention God or something." I was wrong.

The main plot of the story really does follow closely to scripture. Samuel, David, and Saul are all represented in this show by the characters The Reverend, David, and Silas (respectively). There seems to be a battle for the Kingdom, a struggle to follow God, a desire for love, and many deceitful subplots.

While the main plot of the story strongly resembles 1 Samuel, there are many minor aspects of the show which stray far from scripture. For some reason butterflies hold some sort of spiritual symbolism for "God's Anointing." Also, I believe the son of the King is gay and hates David (neither one happened in the bible, in fact him and David were best friends). The King appears to only have one daughter (that we know of), but she is falling in love with David (which does happen with one of the king's daughters and David).

There are also some cool/interesting interpretations to make this story "modern." David slays Goliath, which happens to be an unbeatable tank instead of a giant. David plays the piano instead of the harp. And of course there are the different names of people and countries.

All in all, I am very interested to see where this series takes us. Whether it continues to somewhat follow scripture, or if it will stray completely off. If nothing else I am impressed that a show on primetime tv even allows the talk of God or faith. And more than anything, I am interested to use the tv show as a way to talk about the bible, and where it differs from the show. Who knows, perhaps this show can open up ways of sharing Christ with others.

Let me know what you think about the show, the story of David, or what you think about the article.