Kingdom

Yes, it's just a fairy tale about a solicitor in a picturesque British market town, his wacky family, and equally eccentric clients and fellow townsmen, but I totally fell in love with it. Sadly, it only ran three years before being canceled for being costly to produce, but at least we have those three years. I recently watched it on Netflix and had a difficult time getting through the last two episodes. I kept pausing the streaming because I didn't want to get to the end of the series. Stephen Fry is simply wonderful as Peter Kingdom, but so is the rest of the cast in their roles as family, colleagues, and clients. This show is such a charmer, you might well fall in love with it too.

Stephen Fry as the title role of Kingdom is wonderful. I don't find the other characters irritating at all. They're charming. They have great potential for growth which is why I watch this sort of show. I use to watch shows like "The Golden Girls" not because it was fantastic, in fact it was kind of predictable, but the actors performed that show with grace and a level of excellence seldom seen. Same for "Kingdom". Excellent. Stephen Fry is just a delight to watch do anything. He's real. Maybe he does one very good version of himself but have you ever seen a Brad Pitt movie? Same guy over and over and his movies make millions. Give me Stephen Fry any day. Give me Kingdom.

Stephen Fry, playing an attorney with a young, eager-beaver legal intern, lives and works in a small seaside town somewhere in England. The show has wit and charm--also, it delivers thematically with usually understated or just matter of fact truths about life. Fry is truly great in this role, where he is asked to be the man everyone likes and to whom they turn to solve their problems, legal and otherwise. His character's sister is over the top with obvious, but not major, psych problems. But she makes a great contrast to the almost always unflappable Fry. A special mention should go to the actress who plays Fry's secretary/receptionist. She helps to make the show seem real by being a good person whose presence helps Fry to solve the problems of the various denizens of this village. At 18 episodes, the show is incomplete---the final episode does not in any way wrap up the show or give a sense of an ending. Three good reasons why show stopped: cancelled--Brit t.v. is notorious for cancelling popular shows (did it with Foyle's War and outcry was so great that it was brought back for a few more shows); Fry is a millionaire who may have decided that he'd had enough; the episodes had covered a lot of ground in terms of what it's like to live in a small village with quirky characters and situations. Anyway, with all he junk on t.v., it is truly too bad that a quality show only gets 18 episodes. I believe that with a bit of creativity many more stories could have been engendered and not have been repetitive or boring.

I think this TV show is brilliant. I rarely get this involved into TV shows and plus British ones as well as they tend to have a much cynical shape to them most of the time. Which is great when your are into that sort of thing. Stephen Fry does a great job and the rest of that cast do a fantastic job. I am saddened that it got canceled. I would have loved to keep on watching. It's a soothing TV show with good humor and just a feel good show. Worth watching! do not let the opportunity pass you by.

If you like a bit of humor, eccentrics and a show that makes you feel good then this is the show for you. I kept putting it back watching this. Now that I finally have I have to admit that I was not disappointed.

I came across this show, on youtube.com, trying to find shows featuring Dominic Mafham. I was pleasantly surprised in spite of the fact that he isn't a main character. It is a lawyer version of Northern Exposure. I do find Hermione Norris's character a bit irritating but I think it is because I enjoyed her so much in Wire in the Blood and I tend to dislike "lovable but crazy and destructive sibling" characters. The stories are light and simple with a little darkness sprinkled from the plot involving Simon Kingdom. I have only watched the first few episodes of the first season so that might change. Overall, I would recommend this show as a nice alternative to most American network television.