Earlier this year, Angel Studios launched an animated film about the Holy Land’s greatest sovereign that was a suitable introduction to his life for all viewers.
With “David: King of Israel,” a four-part docudrama – each roughly 45-minute-long episode of which will become available on Thursdays, beginning Feb. 26 – Fox Nation takes a somewhat different approach. Although scripturally accurate, this is not a tale for little kids.
Instead, as written and directed by executive producer David L. Cunningham, it’s an energetic, action-oriented profile of the psalmist – played with gusto by youthful Nahum Hughes – yet one that keeps his faith front and center. Given even-keeled narration by actor Zachary Levi, the series mixes lively reenactments with insightful commentary from both clergy and scholars.
While some aspects of the story are straightforward, such interpretive guidance comes in handy once the focus turns to David’s complex relationship with the monarch he would eventually replace, King Saul (Langley Kirkwood). Soon after we first encounter Saul leading his warriors in prayer, he’s told by the wild-haired Prophet Samuel (Peter Butler) that he has lost God’s favor.
David subsequently impresses Saul – who is unaware that the young man has already been anointed by Samuel as God’s new chosen one – first as a harpist whose music soothes the ruler’s troubled mind and later as the slayer of the Philistine giant Goliath (Jandre Le Roux).
Saul gives David a role as one of his military commanders. Yet jealousy and paranoia swiftly take their toll.
Both Saul’s mental state and his treatment of David deteriorate rapidly. But Saul’s son, Prince Jonathan (Evan Hengst), adopts an entirely different attitude.
At once more perceptive of and more obedient to God’s will than his father, Jonathan humbly acquiesces in his own displacement by David and swears not only friendship but fealty to the latter. The resulting bond between the duo proves unbreakable.
Based on the first two installments screened for review, “David: King of Israel” is appropriate fare for teens as well as adults. The program includes some gory incidents, a scene of restrained marital sensuality and vague sexual references. It also recounts Saul’s rather distasteful challenge to David to bring him the foreskins of a hundred dead philistines.
While all this renders the series a bit rough-hewn, its rigorous pace will maintain audience interest. Younger TV fans will also benefit from its showcasing of faith-based decision making amid engagingly tumultuous events.
