TV Review – The Kingdom II

The Kingdom II (1997)
Written by Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel
Directed by Lars von Trier and Morten Arnfred

Trying to describe where Lars von Trier’s sequel to his 1993 mini-series The Kingdom goes is quite a challenge. The thing your 21st-century sensibilities will be struck with first is going to be the cinematography. A lot of The Kingdom looks like absolute shit. This isn’t a byproduct of a filmmaking amateur but a stylistic decision made by von Trier. His 2000 masterpiece Dancer in the Dark employs early digital and has a similar grainy look to it. While the director was inspired by David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, he wasn’t simply going to mimic that style and instead employed his unique visual take on this horrific & comedic story. Through grainy handheld camerawork and especially the editing in post, he can construct a comedic rhythm that makes this show genuinely hilarious.

Where are things when we rejoin the hospital staff? Well, Swedish transfer Dr. Stig Helmer has returned from his excursion to Haiti with zombie poison to use on Hook. Dr. Bondo is still processing the organ transplant he underwent for science. Mrs. Drusse is hit by a van and returns to this hospital intending to uncover why her spirit work in the last series didn’t work. There’s also the underground ambulance racing ring. Dr. Moesgaard is facing backlash from the recent visit by his superiors. Oh yeah, Dr. Petersen is now raising her newborn (played by Udo Kier), the byproduct of her union with a guy who might be Satan? (also played by Udo Kier)

Despite such ludicrous plots, the show really thrives on how character-focused it is. It wouldn’t be so compelling if all that happened were over-the-top supernatural events. The idea of Udo Kier becoming a gigantic gray-skinned monster trapped in his hospital room sounds silly. Yet, his performance and Birgitte Raaberg as Dr. Petersen sold the whole thing. By the time they have their final scene in the season before its cliffhanger ending, you will feel authentic pathos for “Little Brother” and the situation he’s come into in the world. It’s also a fantastic display of how people’s love for their children can overcome anything someone outside that relationship would see as a hindrance.

While some will say they found the first season to be funnier & crazier, I laughed a lot more during these episodes. One of my favorite subplots involved hospital director Dr. Moesgaard seeking out help for the stress of his job. He discovers a therapist (?) operating in a seemingly abandoned wing of the building who has one patient whom he tortures by banging on a drum. It’s a comedic set-up that makes us think Moesgaard will be the straight man to the therapist’s zany persona. Yet, this gets flipped, and it is Moesgaard who drives the other to the point of insanity. It’s all dumb and ultimately hilariously silly, made even funnier as the hospital director tries to convince his bosses that he’s getting his staff in line.

One of the most dramatic changes this season is Hook’s arc. Before, he was positioned as a potential series protagonist, a doctor who knew the angles and could keep his hidden sanctum in the basement fully stocked through deals with other departments. He also drew the ire of Swede Dr. Helmer. I know von Trier has gone on record saying as a Dane, he does not hate Swedish people, but a lot of this show is definitely poking fun at a type of Swede. Helmer has a hilarious series of follies trying to doctor Hook’s coffee with the Haitian zombie poison, and when he finally succeeds, he has a sudden change of heart. Hook survives (don’t worry), but who he becomes when he resurrects is an entirely different person. I’ve seen some critiques that seem to think von Trier is on Hook’s “side,” but I didn’t get that vibe. We’re so supposed to be unnerved by him.

Von Trier had plans for a third season, but the deaths of Ernst-Hugo Järegård and Kirsten Rolffes (Helmer and Mrs. Drusse, respectively) put a hitch in those plans. Something shifted in the filmmaker’s worldview because he suddenly plummeted into a long string of the most nihilistic film projects. I think that von Trier has never gotten his severe depression under control, and that has resulted in very anxious, abrasive behavior. It’s not an excuse but a possible explanation. In 2022, he announced he’d been formally diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and believes he’d been living with the symptoms of it for years without knowing. This has led to him slowing down in his work. 

However, this would not be the end of the Kingdom, as in 2022, von Trier finally released the concluding chapter. So, next month, we will return to the hospital for Kingdom: Exodus and see how he finishes the story.