Stephen King is so prolific and his work so ubiquitous that it's impossible to have any distance from him.
It's really hard to assess his strengths and weaknesses as a storyteller. His horror stories are well-known but the rollicking good humour in his work is underestimated and his raw anger at arrogance and complacency is forgotten.
In much of King's work, true evil is in the acceptance of poverty and ignorance. Sometimes, evil is intellectual arrogance. A good deal of King's mass popularity is a result of his portraits of the rich and powerful as arrogant and out of touch with real feeling. In many ways, he is a subversive writer.
Kingdom Hospital (ABC, CH, 9 p.m.) is King's latest endeavour and, in a rare move for him, he's adapting someone else's work for an American audience. Kingdom Hospital is a version of Lars von Trier's 1994 miniseries for Danish television, called The Kingdom. Von Trier (his movies include Dancing in the Dark and Dogville, and he is listed here as an executive producer) produced the miniseries as he began to win international fame and recognition as a film director. A sort of ER from hell, it was set at a Danish hospital renowned for its cutting-edge technology but also for being haunted.
Von Trier created a savage satire of modern medicine. A central character was a pompous Swedish surgeon who loathed everything Danish. The hospital's administrator was obsessed with feel-good frippery in a vain attempt to improve morale. A clairvoyant patient was aware of disturbing forces existing in the hospital corridors and elevators. In the kitchen, a group of mentally challenged workers commented wryly on the hospital's eerie aura and events.
In Kingdom Hospital, Stephen King retains much of that, but this is also a deeply personal adaptation of von Trier's story. A few years ago, King was seriously injured when hit by a car and he spent many months in hospital. That experience directly informs this series.
The two-hour opening episode tonight starts with a gravely ironic voiceover. A deep male voice tells viewers that the Kingdom Hospital is built on the site of an old mill, where many child workers died in a fire. We are told that strange things happen at this hospital, a facility with a reputation for its excellent technology. "But there is such a thing as intellectual arrogance," the narrator says.
Soon enough, we meet Peter Rickman (Jack Coleman), a distinguished artist who is out jogging when he's struck by a van. Left injured on the road, he sees a raven land on his chest and it speaks to him. Then a giant anteater emerges from the trees and talks to him. When Rickman is finally taken to hospital, he undergoes surgery and we enter his injured, hallucinating brain. He senses terrible things happening at the hospital.
Rickman is obviously the King figure here, and in his story King unleashes some zingers at the medical system. A nurse jokes that they need to do "a wallet biopsy" to determine if the artist is wealthy enough to pay for care.
Meanwhile, viewers get to know the staff. There is the absurdly named Dr. Jesse James (Ed Begley Jr.), the foolish administrator handing out buttons to make everybody feel perky. There is Dr. Stegman (Bruce Davison), the supremely arrogant chief of staff who loathes the hospital and everything about it. We are treated to a long scene in which he tries to park his car and then falls on his face, while onlookers mock him. At the core, there is the brilliant, joking surgeon, Dr. Hook (Andrew McCarthy), who despises Stegman and yet indulges in his own egotistical games.
Kingdom Hospital is, like much of King's work, bloated, showy and given to repetition. It bludgeons you with its message and the sense of horror within the hospital verges on camp. The characters are broadly drawn (the clairvoyant patient, played by Diane Ladd, is particularly overblown). The dialogue and the narrator's voice are supremely unsubtle.
At the same time, King is funny when he's angry: There are some fine moments of acid humour here. King sees grotesques everywhere and throws in some nasty little jabs at contemporary American culture. The van driver who runs down the Rickman character watches TV at home and it's a silly reality show. The clip we see involves a loser on the show being electrocuted on-camera.
For ABC, Kingdom Hospital is a high-stakes experiment. It is meant to run for 13 episodes, just like an HBO series. It won't be back next season. You're meant to watch it now and admire its daring and imagination. There is much to admire but a lot of padding, too.
Also airing tonight: Corner Gas (CTV, 8 p.m.) continues, and it continues to be delightfully funny. Tonight, everybody tries to protect Lacey when her ex comes to visit. Corner Gas is doing very well with viewers, and it deserves to be adored. If you haven't seen it, do so. (By the way The Corporation, on TVOntario, 10 p.m. also continues. Last week I gave the wrong time for its start. It's on at 10 p.m., and worth your while.)
Dates and times may vary across the country. Please check listings or visit http://www.globeandmail.com/tv