You know you are not alone at not loving something when at the end of the first episode of it, Lars shows up telling to the audience that "next episode will be better". This one is such a boring and ridiculous story that made me want to go and return the DVD and forget about giving me my money back....just get this stupid and boring story out of my life! I really don't understand the people that rate it so high. The characters are unlikeable, empty and full of absurd reactions, not to mention the production mistakes that fill the series. May God have mercy on all the people that bought this hoping to get something worth their money for! And I really envy the ones that found something worthy on this one!

I've seen this series a couple of times now and I can't get tired of it. What an astounding accomplishment. It is funny, strange, scary, bizarre, original, hilarious, ground-braking, shocking. Add to that the exceptional performances and what you have is the best time you can have in front of a TV. So many clowns are credited for being good actors these days, but everyone on this show puts award winners to shame. Among all the fine acting our main character Stig Helmer just steals the show. And what a character the writers have created! Like his girlfriend says, he is a giant and everyone else is so small compared to him.The stories center on the Danish teach hospital the Kingdom, a gigantic facility constructed on what once were bleachers. We are thrown somewhat in the midst of this strange place, where driverless ambulances arrive in the night, where a patient named Drusse keeps feigning some condition so she can be admitted into the hospital. She thinks there are spirits there who need are help. Her son is some type of janitor at the hospital.All the characters are given full human personalities: they are mischievous, deceitful, foolish, intelligent, afraid, overconfident, etc, to some greater or lesser extent.At center is a young physician named Hook who is also also something of an old timer. He knows everything about the hospital and everyone. He lives there in secret and keeps every item he finds in order to perhaps gain favors from others and offer favors. He knows how to get things done because people depend on him for things, he even provides some of them with cocaine by condensing eye drops. He also keeps tabs on the doctor's errors at the hospital.We have the hospital administrator, good natured, well-meaning, not very bright, but he does what administrators do: try to keep people calm and satisfied without himself taking on too many responsibilities. His son is a medical student there but also a prankster who gets himself into trouble. Moreover he's madly in love with a nurse who runs the sleeping lab.Bondo is the professor of pathology, a man obsessed with his research on liver tumors. Danish law doesn't allow for autopsies unless with the consent of the person/ his kin so he finds himself with no material for his research. His classes are mostly philosophical musings on death and live and this autopsy law. As a result his students learn nothing.But our main character is Helmer, a Swedish neurosurgeon who arrived at the Kingdom recently. He has absolutely no sympathy for the Danish way of doing things and despises the administrator's nonsense. He's a law-and-order type of guy who wants things done by the book- so he appears. His rants and long winding insulting speeched are an absolute riot. This is the kind of guy no one wants to be around- which the director nicely shows by having people turn at the sight of him and walk away- in the way of the camera! As it often happens with such people, they manage to show up just when you don't want them to. This happens often with Helmer. He'll be in the elevator as the doors open or just walk in a room when others want to leave. Of course he thinks very highly of himself and rather poorly of everyone else. And he complaints bitterly about how he is treated to his lover, Dr. Rigmor a sweet doctor who loves him and understands him and wants him to move in with her, something he absolutely avoids. He won't even talk about the issue. She is also open to alternative medicine which earns her a hilarious verbal spanking from Helmer.The situations the characters put themselves in are outrageous. There are dozens of twists and surprises and you don't know which way things will go. Bondo's obsession not only haunts him but comes back to bite him. Helmer made a mistake during surgery, it looks like, and his way out causes him more problems than anything else. The story and the ideas here are so fresh and interesting you won't want the show to end.The editing here is also quite unique and adds a strange feeling. Often conversations or continuous scenes are cut and continue abruptly as if nothing had happened even though you just missed who knows how much. Helmer will start a rant, then there is a cut and and change of camera angle and we are put back in rant but at some later point. Very interesting approach. It gives the series a certain time-lessness. We pretty much lose the sense of time in the series. We don't know how long all this is taking, whether it's day or night. Sometimes it seems that it all takes place in a day or a few days but there are hints here or there that a different day has begun.The music is also jarring and serves mainly to lend a creepy effect. Now, if the viewer gets confused or things seem complicated, there are two characters in the series, two actors with Down's syndrome who are dishwashers in the hospital who will summarize things, philosophize about what is going on, and sometimes make enigmatic statements about future events.Don't miss this show. And comparisons with the American version are not in order. The original is in a different league altogether.

At the time of seeing the first series of The Kingdom (1994), and then later the second series (1997), the only films of Lars von Trier that I was familiar with were Breaking the Waves (1996) and Dancer in the Dark (2000). Certainly, I would rate both of these particular films incredibly well; however, after having seen some of von Trier's other films - such as his earlier, self-referential masterworks The Element of Crime (1984) and Europa (1991), and his more confrontational films The Idiots (1997) and Dogville (2003) - I can begin to better appreciate the context of which The Kingdom fits into his career as a whole.Really, The Kingdom is a transitional work between the visually elaborate and enigmatic films that made up the bulk of his work from 1983-1991, and the second, more celebrated phase of his career that saw the drafting of the Dogme 95 manifesto and the more minimal, forward thinking films of the last ten years. On the one hand, The Kingdom shows the early influence of Dogme with the use of hand-held cinematography and multi-camera cross-cutting, as well as the use of actual locations and the more naturalistic elements of the performances. Nevertheless, at the same time it brings to mind ideas familiar from The Element of Crime and the earlier self-reflexive, meta-textual horror/satire of Epidemic (1988), with the references to ghosts, death and an all encompassing, age-old evil. However, unlike any of his work for cinema - which often has a broader intent and more rigid sense of experimentation - The Kingdom is meant, first and foremost, as a work of pure entertainment. There's none of the more obvious sense of cinematic experimentation, polemic or emotional manipulation used so skilfully in his feature-length work, with the story instead relying on great characters, moments of absurd or entirely deadpan humour, and a continual sense of mystery and suspense.The Kingdom II picks up where the first series left off, and yes, it is vital that you see the first series before embarking on the second or you'll have no idea what is going on! Basically, it's more of the same, albeit it, much funnier than the first and with more violence. The ghosts - as you should remember from the first series - are now free to take a greater precedence over the plot, as Mrs Drusse fights her own illness, teetering on the brink of life and death but still trying to discover the secrets of the hospital. Elsewhere, von Trier regular, the late Ernst-Hugo Järegård, returns as the malevolent Dr Helmer, who becomes even more of a central figure to the proceedings as Dr. Moesgaard is forced into therapy. The real treasure of the cast however is Udo Kier, who not only returns as the evil Aage Krüger, but also as Little Brother, Judith's deformed baby, and spiritual brother to the tormented Mary Jenson.Because at least three of the principal actors have died since the completion of the second series, the question is; will there ever be an end? The last episode ends, much like the final episode to the first series, with a cliff-hanger. Lars' intention was that there would be a third series, making the Kingdom an effective trilogy. However, the plan has no doubt been scrapped given the loss of lead performers. Although neither instalment of the series offers any kind of ultimate closure, they still offer a great deal of entertainment; with the bold and atmospheric direction of von Trier and his assistant Morten Arnfred creating tension, terror and an eerie atmosphere that complements the dark aspects of the series perfectly.

"Danskjävlar!" An arrogant Swedish doctor Stig Helmer has a new job in a hospital in Copenhagen that they call "Riget" or in English "the Kingdom". It was build on an old swamp and a gate hell is opening slowly. Things creepy as hell are starting to happen and everything isn't right in "Riget". Once you jump into Riget's world - you'll can't stop loving it.Lars von Trier truly is a genius. Not many people can put so much stuff in one hour. The mystery, the horror, the drama and the comedy in Riget are really something completely different. Acting is great. The mood is fantastic. The "expressionless" comedy of von Trier's mastermind reminds me a lot of the Finnish comedy, except I've never liked Finnish stuff so much as Riget. Riget walks behind other master - David Lynch, but still stands by itself. Well I really can't but it into words - watch Riget and you'll see something you'll never see again. Well, I'm speechless. The greatest Nordic TV-show ever and one the greatest all over the world. I'm proud to be Nordic. Now - when will we Finnish have Riget in DVD? I could buy Danish import which has Finnish subtitles but it would be a real culture act to publish Riget in Finland. Then more people could watch this masterpiece.Extremely highly recommended.