I believe in God. This is a somewhat unpopular stance in a geek like myself. Secular humanism is generally the order of the day in SF, but, of course, if I was content to follow the herd, I wouldn’t be head writer for this site, would I? Suffice to say, however, that given the obvious rationalist bent of the genre as a whole, religion was kind of a taboo for most of its history.

Man, is Saturday Night a bad night for this show, or what? Even I, who love it with an entirely inappropriate fervor, keep forgetting it’s even on, getting distracted by fireworks one night, and a Justice League Unlimited marathon the next. Talk about a show being consigned to outer darkness, it’s schedule is so remote that even those who love it frequently forget it exists. Such an undeserving exile.

In any event, forgive me for the delay. If it’s of any consolation, our favorite show goes out in fine fashion, at the top of its game all around.

PLAY BY PLAY

Man oh man oh man, trust the best show on TV not to go quietly to its death. Instead, the show hits the ground running, and never lets up for an hour, it deviates wildly from the source material, finds its own voice, and yet seems vaguely reminiscent of things we’ve seen before. True, in a week we’ll be done with this show forever, and that’s sad and frustrating, but when the episodes are this good it’s hard to care about our imminent Kings-less future.

One of the perils and fun parts about basing a story on one of the best-known tales in all of literature is that virtually everyone knows where the beats are in the story, and what to expect. If you’re doing a half-assed job of it, that works to your disadvantage: the ending is written before the beginning, so what’s the point, after all? But if you’ve got a clue, if you’re a storyteller of some strength, this very same thing works to your advantage.

If last week was all about hope, this episode is about the death thereof. The king, once so open to the future, trusting, and full of promise, has seen his faith betrayed and learned that no matter how he may wrestle with David’s destiny, the future has no place for Silas. Once again closed off, and all the more tragic for it having shown his heir the soul of the man beneath the crown, he seamlessly shifts gears in to defensive mode, protecting what he sees as rightfully his. And as with all megalomaniacs, what the king sees is his is everything…

PLAY BY PLAY

Just a heads up that I kind of blew it on Kings this week. With all the stuff going on for Quatro de Julio, it totally slipped my mind. In fact, specifically when it was airing, I was in my driveway blowing crap up. I'm sorry.

I'll have one of my typically OCD reviews up ASAP, but it's going to take me a while to find a copy of the episode to watch. Anyone know if it's on Hulu or something like that?

In the meantime, those of you who saw it, please feel free to discuss it amongst yourselves, or you can just poke fun at my incompetence, which is both legion and legendary.

Eros, Agape, Phileo, Platonic, Paternal, Maternal, Uplifting, Pure, Forbidden, Eternal, Fleeting and so many others - there are a million different kinds of love, and really none of ‘em make a bit of sense, and they all have one thing in common: love can be damned inconvenient on occasions.