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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
6
Mixed:
8
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews
Apr 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
To find a network drama that bears sustained comparison to ABC's Kingdom Hospital, you'd have to go all the way back to 1990, when the same network premiered David Lynch's "Twin Peaks." Alternately random and brilliant, the 15-hour, limited-run series "Kingdom Hospital" has a similarly indescribable vibe. Set in a huge Maine hospital, it plays like a cross of "M*A*S*H," "Six Feet Under" and "The Shining." King, his talented ensemble cast and his capable director, Craig R. Baxley, have created one of the creepiest locales in TV history. But they don't limit themselves to mere spookiness. They go wherever they please, and their brazen confidence demands that we follow along. [3 March 2004, p.39]
Apr 13, 2021
Apr 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Its two-hour premiere is long on creepiness and somewhat short on plot development. But with the overemphasis of late on copycat reality, it's a welcome addition to primetime, indeed. [3 March 2004]
Apr 13, 2021
Apr 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Leaving aside King's peculiar nostalgia for the Middle Ages, the two-hour premiere of Kingdom Hospital, though a little long on weird affectations and a little short on story line, establishes an appropriately spooky atmosphere at the hospital and deftly sketches its main characters. [3 March 2004, p.4E]
Apr 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
When it isn't beating us about the head with the "supernatural," Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital has the potential to be a pretty good television show. Unfortunately, this new ABC series muddies a solid human story with the usual, a whole lot of ominous words disappearing from walls and ghosts appearing in hallways, and the unusual but ineffectual, a talking anteater who communicates on behalf of the undead. [3 March 2004, p.C1]
Instead of being allowed to feel characters' fear, we're shown all the supposedly scary things right away. They become as familiar as the medical staff, just a touch more menacing than Ed Begley Jr. ("St. Elsewhere") as a cynical administrator.[3 March 2004, p.C1]
Apr 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Beyond Rickman, however, the series offers little more than a stale buffet of recycled King ghouls and refried hospital types from every dark medical drama that ever aired from M*A*S*H to ER. Chief among these characters is Dr. Hook (Andrew McCarthy), the cynical, anti-authority neurosurgeon who operates on Rickman. Call him Hawkeye. Tonight's two-hour pilot works to a limited extent only because of the Rickman story line. The big question is where can the miniseries go during the next 10 weeks? [3 March 2004]
Apr 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Kingdom does have a few frightening moments, but they don't compensate for the lackluster performances, the absence of character development, humor or pacing, or the wild fluctuations in tone. [3 March 2004]
Apr 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
By the time the first episode of Kingdom Hospital is over, viewers are likely already to have checked out. [2 March 2004, p.79]
Apr 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Oh, if only television critics could be like Simon Cowell on "American Idol." I could declare Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital positively dreadful, and viewers would never have to see it again. [29 Feb 2004]
Apr 13, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Based on the two-hour premiere, a hodgepodge of false dramatic starts, bad acting, rambling scenes, a stupendously annoying narrator and a metaphorical anteater that looks like, of all things, ALF, there's only one conclusion to draw: Those things aren't scary. They're stupid.
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Apr 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Among new series this season, Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital is the biggest disappointment, a botch of monumental proportions. Next to it, NBC's misbegotten Coupling looks quaint. [29 Feb 2004, p.4]
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