Kings
NBC | Release Date: March 15, 2009
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
12
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 1 Review: So far, that universe is pleasingly treacherous, though not ?wholly formed, a work in progress that's worth seeing through to completion. Read full review
80
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: The dialogue is just so artful and poetic, the characters are so appealing, the whole damn package is so original and daring and lovely, that after watching the first four hours, it's impossible not to feel inspired and cheered by the fact that a drama this ambitious and unique could make it onto network TV. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: Happily, this generally well-told tale of a modern-day king and his restive court has more going for it than a charismatic performance from the dependably wonderful “Deadwood” star. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Season 1 Review: The show sparkles with imagination. But Kings may be too campy for some, not campy enough for others. Read full review
75
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: Kings is a worthy enterprise that will deeply puzzle millions of viewers. Read full review
70
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: Kings does dip in and out of predictability, when familiar Spelling soap operatics and political machinations break through the show's unique surface. But it still is a fascinating effort. Read full review
70
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: NBC, which could have ripped off yet another "reality" show for 8 p.m. Sundays, instead bought into something imaginative and intriguing and, yes, a little crazy. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Kings begins with a refined approach and grows more pedestrian in subsequent episodes. Still, there's plenty to love about this series that dances with symbolism--the butterfly on the Gilboa flag is not a mere adornment--and replaces clandestine backrooms with windowed board rooms. Read full review
70
PopMattersMarisa LaScala
Season 1 Review: Combing broad strokes and detailed color on an extensive canvas, Kings makes the rewards and costs of ambition plain for all to see. Read full review
67
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: Kings is fascinating pretentious hoo-ha. Read full review
63
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: Kings is a mess, but for a few weeks, anyway, it promises to be a fun, fascinating mess, the kind of "can you believe they're doing it" show you want to discuss the next day. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: It's corny, ponderous, literary, ambitious, obvious and, at the beginning at least, as slow as molasses, but continually re-energized by Ian McShane as King Saul, or, as he's known here, King Silas Benjamin Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: Some scenes are brilliantly and subtly turned, some make you roll your eyes. Some are straight from the Soap Opera 101 playbook. Read full review
60
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: Despite a wonderful cast put to good use, a very well-designed parallel world and some marvelous turns of phrase, I can't help admiring Kings more than I actually liked it. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Viewers will have to survive a rocky, at-times jarring first hour before the series begins coalescing into something interesting--flawed but unpredictable, with a characteristically intense Ian McShane at its core. Read full review
60
Washington PostDebra Leithauser
Season 1 Review: The acting at times is overdone, and some of the pivotal plot moments come across as downright hokey. Read full review
50
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: The series itself seems divided: at times a supersize fable told with portentous, and even turgid, simplicity, while at others, a sophisticated spoof that uses ancient legend to send up modern politics. And when a series cannot be both, it ends up being neither. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: Kings, which also serves up melodrama and mystical happenings, is far more ambitious [than Aaron Spellings' shows]. Yet it can have the effect of a real sleep potion. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: It's visually engrossing. Then it goes oddly flat in parts, only to kick-start itself with another clash of tones. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesTeresa Budasi
Season 1 Review: The language on Kings is similarly stilted but lacks "Deadwood" writer/producer David Milch's passionate and intellectual punch. King Silas may not be as deliciously Machiavellian as Al Swearingen, but McShane does deliver--and he cleans up well. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Sadly, as so often happens, the grandeur and surprise settle toward soapiness when the show moves into future episodes, as various high-level evildoers battle each other for power, money, and hot sex partners, while the good-hearted folk fret and risk their lives for more noble causes. Read full review
40
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: NBC deserves points for trying something different, but the results are often pretentious and silly. The best moments belong to Egan, who handles his chores simply and directly. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily Nussbaum
Season 1 Review: Sadly, the show is carved out of pure phony gravitas--like "The West Wing," only more sanctimonious. Read full review
30
Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik
Season 1 Review: If only Green had not made such a cold, bland stew of such rich and tasty ingredients. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond
Season 1 Review: Pretentious and far too taken with its own sense of menace, the show casts every line of dialogue as a pronouncement, every action as an uppercut to the chops. Read full review
30
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: Just about everybody is having sex with everybody else: Kings is one giant raging id of a show. Read full review
30
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: Kings is oddly tedious, thanks to a supporting cast of uninteresting characters and a script loaded with heavy-handed analogies to health-care reform, Halliburton and the Clintons. Read full review
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