It is always difficult to establish comparisons between a truly radical and unique author or work with another with similar qualities working in a different way. But sometimes it’s hard not to see some influencealbeit subtle, and becomes more complicated when decisions are made that make the parallels even more obvious.
This is what happens with one of the most surprising and unique works of Lars Von Trier, which was not produced in the cinema but on the television screen. A series that would not have been possible if David Lynch had not come to push the boundaries of episodic fiction with ‘Twin Peaks’, and that also manages to transgress in a way somewhat similar to what the American series did. His return this year with a new installment years later, in an almost identical way to how ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ did, make comparisons with ‘The Kingdom‘.
where good and evil meet
With this imperial name the Danish denominates the hospital that will focus the dramas and mysteries of the series throughout two seasons and 8 episodes in total (available to see through Filmin). This modern center is frightening due to its labyrinthine structure and the strange events that take place, which the author attributes to the construction in an old and disturbing swamp where people washed their clothes, creating an inexplicable eternal mist from the vapors of the washed.
Some secrets are too terrible to stay buried seems to tell us that very introduction, explaining how scientific egomania allows doctors to ignore the mystical or the “divine” and how that is going to work against them. Different and increasingly bizarre elements will be found with the episodescompletely disrupting the lives of the professionals of El Reino.
With these airs dark fantasy and quite bad slime, which also translates through a black comedy, Von Trier creates his own twisted version of soap operas centered on medical dramas. Inspired by the freedom of the aforementioned ‘Twin Peaks’, she tries to make a reflection of the collision between the apparent goodness in small communities that ends up absolutely corrupted by a mysterious but latent evil that progresses uncontrollably.
‘The kingdom’: tragedy will fall on you
Of course its virtues are not limited to those of the Lynch series. ‘The Kingdom’ is pure Von Trier with his radical aesthetics and anti-spectacle, still following the parameters of Dogma 95 that he had stipulated in his youth. His way of writhing with pleasure ridiculing and torturing the characters is also a trademark, as is his way of disturbing the viewer with terrible ideas or creepy images, as well as frustrating them with mysteries to which he does not intend to give easy answers.
It is not a series that one comes to see to settle down and that they give everything well tied. The Dane wants to introduce us to the perfect collision of worlds: good and evil, science and the spiritual. ‘The Kingdom’ manages to be riveting in its pursuit and descent into madness, brilliantly twisted thanks to that variety show vibe that Von Trier himself lampoons at the end of each episode. One of the essential jewels of his career that is worth enjoying now that it is streaming.