Of Kings and Prophets

‘Of Kings and Prophets’ on ABC: King David with More Sex & Blood, Less God

on March 14, 2016

ABC finally premiered Of Kings and Prophets last Tuesday, its long-delayed television series retelling the events of 1 & 2 Samuel. Producers determinedly branded the show as a biblical version of HBO’s wildly popular Game of Thrones, including all the sex, grit, and intrigue. Yet this reimagined telling seems to leave less room for the role of God in the story.

Chris Brancato, executive producer for Of Kings and Prophets, gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly (EW) in January. He elaborated on the tenor of the show and repeatedly likened it to Game of Thrones:

“It’s suspenseful. It’s extraordinarily violent. It’s sexual. And it’s a power struggle between two men. We don’t view this as a revisionist history nor do we view it as a literal translation. We’ve sought to make the show modern… This is a non-dragon version of Game of Thrones.”

All of that is true. Of Kings and Prophets isn’t just violent – it’s “extraordinarily” violent, as I can confirm from the first episode. And yes, it’s sexual. It includes sex both of “the regular intercourse variety and some implied oral,” as Noel Kirkpatrick of TV.com described it in his review. Saul was singularly obsessed with his concubine Rizpah, and his daughter Merav had a premarital affair with Judean nobleman Mattiyahu.

Of course, there’s sex in the Bible. But the show’s creative team seemingly added sex into the story more for “entertainment” value than meaningful plotline development.

In fact, that’s the one word that best summarizes the show:  Entertainment.

I honestly don’t think the producers for Of Kings and Prophets were trying to be revisionist. I doubt they approached the biblical account with a hidden liberal agenda to deceive the public. It’s much more likely they simply wanted to attract viewers.

The calculus is simple. What do American viewers like? Sex, intrigue, and violence, all of which Of Kings and Prophets supplies in abundance.

And it’s not just secular American viewers who enjoy this sort of content. Bruncata said he believed Christians would still watch Of Kings and Prophets, even with all the sex. “From my experience, faith-based people like sex as much as anybody else. I don’t know that that will necessarily be an impediment,” he told NJ.com in an article published March 8.

What’s sad is Bruncata is probably right. Plenty of Christians watched the show’s fantasy equivalent, Game of Thrones, despite heavy doses of nudity, incest, and rape. In June 2014, Pastor John Piper responded to Christian fans of Game of Thrones after one follower commented: “I know many Christians who are against porn, but they have no issue watching movies or TV shows that show graphic nudity.”

Piper said that culture has deceived many young Christians into thinking “they have to be hip, cool, savvy, culturally aware, watching everything in order not to be freakish. And that is undoing them morally and undoing their witness.”

What’s perhaps saddest about Of Kings and Prophets is that all the “entertainment” leaves little room for God. “It’s an odd thing to see a story from the Bible basically function without any religion,” Kirkpatrick wrote in his review. He added that the show was “obviously geared to favor the violence and sex” in imitation of Game of Thrones.

Indeed, there’s little mention of the Lord outside the prophet Samuel telling Saul that Yahweh wanted him to wipe out the Amalekites. It’s not clear in the show whether the order is coming from God or from Samuel, portrayed as a senile old man jealous of Saul’s power. Either way, this command comes across as inhumane.

King Saul, weary after years of war, resisted Samuel. He told the prophet that Israel’s dispute with the Amalekites from ten generations beforehand was no longer relevant, and the Amalekites didn’t deserve extermination. He later confided in Rizpah that he didn’t want to be remembered as “Saul the Butcher.”

I’m not telling all Christians to avoid watching Of Kings and Prophets. It’s for individuals to decide what violates their conscience. But more than anything,  it’s a depressing commentary on American society that scrubbing a Bible story of meaningful religious themes in favor of sex, violence, and intrigue results in better ratings. There’s something wrong when sex attracts more viewers than God.

  1. Comment by Eternity Matters on March 14, 2016 at 8:50 am

    As usual, far too many churchgoers will spend more time watching horrible movie versions of the Bible than they do reading the Bible.

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