Manny Camacho reviews the premiere episode of Kingdom…
I’m not really sure what I saw Wednesday evening because for a moment my mind was blown at what I witnessed. I was surprised by this original series, produced by DirecTV for the Audience Network. Starring Frank Grillo (Warrior, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Nick Jonas (Smash, Jonas), Jonathan Tucker (Hannibal, 100 Girls) and Kiele Sanchez (The Purge: Anarchy, Lost). About a small family heavily involved in the Mixed Martial Arts business, trying to keep their struggling gym alive. Frank Grillo is the head of this family playing Alvey Kulina, a legendary competitor in the MMA game and is banking on his youngest son Nate, played by Nick Jonas, who is being groomed into a top level competitor to keep their business, Navy Street Gym, afloat.
I was shocked to see Nick Jonas in this role, yes that Nick Jonas (from the Jonas Brothers), and marveled at what was transpiring on the screen. For a few moments watching this premiere episode I thought I was watching a serial adaptation of the 2011 film Warrior. Where Grillo was playing a similar role as a legendary trainer with a strong MMA gym. However here on Kingdom the focus is on the trainer and his family not on the random guy the trainer is building up…
Wait…There is a random guy coming out of nowhere, played by Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights, Chicago Code), who eventually starts getting trained, was also a solid fighter (many years ago), before he went to prison for roughly five years. During which time his fiancé left him and got together with Alvey. She now helps Alvey run Navy St. Gym. Adding a continual stress device to the plot. Lauria’s character, named Jay Wheeler, returns to Navy St. Gym; but I’m not really sure (at least it’s not apparent) he’s a source of trouble. Wheeler’s appearance is humble throughout the episode and seems sincere in commitments to become a better person. There are tidbits about his crime in the context of the dialogue and leads us to believe Jay hurt his father in the middle of an intervention gone wrong. But it is still unclear. The second episode will venture more heavily into his return into Alvey’s life and possible return to the ring as a competitor.
I’m struggling to find information that this series was indeed inspired by Warrior. Because of its various similarities. The grittiness Kingdom has, the down to earth showcase of people, their struggles –How visceral their experience is showcased. It’s so real You could swear there is a smell coming off your TV reminiscent of sweat and broken humanity. Those are the qualities this series shares from Grillo’s past work on Warrior. I want to see more from this series but I wonder how long a show (like this) will hold my or your attentions.
The writing is decent and feels like a solid story. However is mired in macho bravado, testosterone fueled contemplation and a projection of the male ego that is both interesting yet not a novel experience. A liberal assault into our sensibilities of pride and egotism. We’ve seen this before, many times. Further, there was an additional amount of randomness thrown into the mix and I wonder where it will lead this series. During the prologue there was an establishing shot that cemented Alvey as an exceptionally tough guy with a near zero tolerance for bullshit, yet exhibited some of his patience and self control. It involved a very stereotypical argument from a very stereotypical area in Venice Beach, California. It involved Mexican gang members pulling a gun on Kulina over a random comment yelled out in the street because they cut him off while jogging. When the gun was pulled from the gang members’ waist Kulina commenced judiciously beating these archetypal thugs down with extreme prejudice and precision. Following it up by casually jogging away with a grimace on his face after sliding away the gun with his foot.
Now…any normal person that had the skills to defend themselves in such a manner would have called the cops after such an altercation. But the macho factor here and the old school thinking of “let men be men” plays strongly throughout. The plot in the episode had Alvey simply jog away –queue the music, Kulina is a badass, role credits. Which honestly made me chuckle because I thought that was a great scene and set a tone for the character.
However, this left me wondering if those men would ever attempt to seek vengeance on Kulina. Because Kulina was jogging through the area, the natural thought I had –The thugs would come back until they caught Kulina jogging through the area again. What transpired was far simpler and more convenient for this subplot point. One of the flyers for the upcoming fight for Kulina’s son was coincidentally placed under these thugs’ windshield wipers. Consequently they ended up taking revenge on Kulina’s kid at the very end of the episode leaving us with a very intentional cliffhanger. However the previews for the next episode assuaged any concern or worry we might have built up in that moment connecting to the character by showing us he was fine.
I’ll admit, this aspect of Kingdom was interesting, yet it’s a secondary plot moving the focus away from this show’s meta-story. I can’t help but be irritated (however slightly) that this subplot only serves as perpetuating a stereotype about young Mexicans in California. While the show appears to be equally opportunistic in its racism and stereotypical archetypes. The bulk of the characters and players in the series are generally white. The thugs are an injected ethnicity to the story, leaving this argument for this subplot unbalanced.
Kulina’s older son, Jay, played by Jonathan Tucker is a drug addict, unstable and in one scene is having what can only be described as rodent mimicking sex in Nate’s room. While in another instance is randomly firing rounds into a boxing dummy in his backyard. Prompting Nate to tackle him to the ground, forcing Jay to stop firing. Even though he never stopped laughing as he gasped for air.
It would seem that an underlining message here is based on all three men having a variety of issues. The father was once a legendary fighter and now is just a trainer who used to do drugs. Kulina’s eldest son (Jay) is a wash out and was a great fighter previously, but is burned out for yet undisclosed reasons against his father. Nate, the last hope for pride and joy struggles with anger and self-doubt.
At one point Nate loses all possibility of control and begins ranting at his father (out of nowhere), destroying a plate and was seemingly inconsolable over issues his brother is having with his father. The scene invoked thoughts of steroid rage as opposed to a proper reaction for the continuity we observed.
We don’t necessarily know why, with the exception that we (the audience) are given rough edits of Jay prepping needles for some unknown drug. If at some point Nate knew about this, we weren’t made aware. It was during a musical montage as Nate and his father trained while Jay was somewhere else getting high. However, in the next scene Nate is getting ready to fight and we see both his father and brother together; Kulina gives the generic pep speech about how they’ve been through a lot but they’re family, how he loves them both and now wants his son to kill his opponent…
This is rushed if not a weird attempt at throwing horse blinders on for the characters against their issues. It feels horribly imbalanced. If not pushed through to the cutting room floor, edits that were needed to convincingly connect the dots. Despite the strange unnecessary plot hole or the odd subplot that the series doesn’t even need to be a solid story, Kingdom is entertaining and a decent entry into the action meets drama category that has become so popular due to the UFC. Or as I thought (introspectively) based on a story inspired by the film Warrior. To be fair, there is no reference or mention of Kingdom in any way being connected to this film. That comparison is strictly my opinion.
The preview of the second episode gave glimpses of further issues with the random Mexican gang members and further pushed that aspect of the story. A set of scenarios that play out similarly to what the series Ray Donovan had covered in its final episodes this past season. Again furthering the notion that some of the plot devices and expository characters are more formulaic than artistically crafted through a solid narrative built from an engrossing story.
If the goal throughout the rest of this season is to continue to showcase the men in this family struggling as one of their own falls into a downward spiral, the show then may not grow an audience very well. Because we’ve seen this before (many times); one of those times with Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter. Which gave me pause as I typed it out. Because it was a more meaningful comparison to this particular story.
I hope this series finds its identity and fleshes out these characters and their relationships more intently. I hope that the gritty nature of the graphic and obscene material is not the only meat on the bone toward strong and dramatic adult content. Otherwise we can all tune in to UFC on any given day while pulling up Redtube on our cell phones and just multitask to combine the two. It would be the same thing. Otherwise there is solid potential for this series.
Kingdom has an amazing cast of actors in place to make this series impactful and enthralling. Let’s hope the next set of episodes showcases these talented people in a meaningful way within the confines of this story. I’m hopeful…for now I give it a 2.5 out of 5.
Manny Camacho is a Miami, Florida based award winning writer and independent film producer whose current novel, I Think? No, I’m Sure…God Hates Me, is currently sold out of its first printing but will be available again on Amazon soon.
