Kingdom Hospital doesn't rock my boat. All the right components are there, though; quirky story, mad interludes, good actors, Andrew McCarthy (I lost my heart to Andrew McCarthy when I was 11 and he's been lingering ever since), Lars von as executive producer etc etc.
And yet, I've watched two out of three episodes and managed to fall asleep during two out of two.

Firstly, the ant-eater. Now, while this is initially quite funny in a whatsitdoingthere-kinda way, it's out of place in devastatingly non-surreal-only-annoying kinda way.
Secondly, the too-obvious product-placement, in this case a character reading a Stephen King novel in close-up. Jeez. Not exactly subtle and definitely not clever.
Thirdly...well, even though many components are new, I feel like I've seen it all before. Which I pretty much have.
Sometimes you should just let sleeping dogs lie.

More succesful as 're-imagining' is von Trier's attempt to 'de-perfect-ise' Jørgen Leth's Det Perfekte Menneske, or The Perfect Human, if you will. The Five Obstructions is highly entertaining, funny, witty, warm, and even moral even though von Trier clearly enjoys torturing the poor Leth, who in turns looses dignity and gains respect (and vice versa, of course).
posted by charlotte at 22:56 - comment