Riget [The Kingdom]

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

So, will MUBI ever release the new season (or series) on blu-ray? I've been waiting for this release since the online premiere as I simply refuse to have my first viewing be in the format of low bitrate streaming. Also, it would be amazing to revisit the restored first two seasons, but again, definitely not if the Super 16 is compressed into macro blocked lego vision madness.

[therewillbeblus]

I really don't know why they wouldn't. If Criterion is able to release three of LvT's least-marketable films in a box set, it seems silly not to release a cherished, accessible, coveted show on blu-ray

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

Yeah, it's baffling. But it's soon been a full year since the web premiere, and still no news. I can't imagine it's because it's still touring in some territories? IIRC, it only had a very minor theatrical run in addition to Cannes and the web premiere last year.

[therewillbeblus]

Mubi have been slowly releasing physical media for pretty popular recent art films, so it's possible that they're counting on something like Decision to Leave or Aftersun to bring in more capital right now (or feel pressure to release some of these films asap, before other boutique labels put out superior editions), prioritizing them if they have the rights - whereas Riget's fanbase isn't going to dwindle the longer they wait. But that's probably just wishful thinking, since I can't imagine a label holding onto new restorations of this series and not immediately dropping it - especially a label that doesn't hold most's ethos on accruing supplements to beef up the package

[domino harvey]

So, will MUBI ever release the new season (or series) on blu-ray? I've been waiting for this release since the online premiere as I simply refuse to have my first viewing be in the format of low bitrate streaming. Also, it would be amazing to revisit the restored first two seasons, but again, definitely not if the Super 16 is compressed into macro blocked lego vision madness.

This is coming out in March from Mubi in both the US and the UK. The US edition is also 40% off right now on Amazon

[The Curious Sofa]

Now that the German Blu-ray set has finally dropped in price enough for me to pounce, I've been rewatching the first two seasons to finally get around to watching Riget Exodus. The first season still strikes me as flawless, one of my favourite TV shows of all time, where hospital soap, absurdist comedy and supernatural horror are perfectly balanced with a cast of memorable characters.

By Season 2, the show was running out of ideas and almost every storyline was spinning its wheels without going anywhere interesting. Only the Little Brother storyline is memorable for its sheer grotesquerie, and playing up the pathos only makes it more absurd. Then again, when the plot of one of your main characters revolves around whether his turds float or sink, you know you're in trouble. At least it still had the superior original cast to make you care.

To see reflexive or meta elements in Riget Exodus as meaningful is rather charitable. This is because the comparisons to Twin Peaks The Return lend themselves, since Riget was obviously inspired by Twin Peaks and has a similar production history (cancelled on a cliffhanger after season 2, continued decades later). But what von Trier does here is simply execute the plot he originally had in mind for season 3, but substitute the main characters for similar ones, which is the laziest way to do it. So every original lead character has a modern equivalent, but none of the new cast are as memorable as the original actors (only Mikael Persbrandt as the new Helmer comes anywhere close). Worst of all is the new lead character, Karen, who can't hold a candle to Mrs Drusse and Kirsten Rolffes' wonderful performance. Karen is devoid of any personality, she only investigates the hospital because the plot needs a new Mrs Drusse and she lacks everything that made the original so likable and so much fun. Without any motivation, she immediately falls into a sleuthing relationship with a stand-in for Bulder (now nicknamed Bulder), the original being Mrs Drusse's good-hearted but dim son, who was her sidekick in the first two series. Apart from Birgitte Raaberg's Judith, who is allowed to continue her character as if no time had passed, the rest of the surviving original cast are poorly served, with extended cameo appearances and storylines that go nowhere because there's no purpose for them in a series where they've all essentially been recast. Twin Peaks The Return had to replace one of its leads with an equivalent character, but at least Robert Foster was an upgrade over Michael Ontkean and had been the original choice for Sheriff Truman.

The only reason the beginning is meta is to contrive a way for a Mrs Drusse equivalent to sleepwalk into the hospital and to pick up where she left off, and then this is resolved with a

Spoiler

clunky horror "gotcha!" ending.

I found the first three episodes of this third season a chore, subplots flailing around for the sake of being wacky but with little narrative purpose. In the last two episodes, however, things start to come together, arguably more solidly than in Season 2, by leaning back into the horror aspects of the series. And there is some beautiful imagery.

Spoiler

The idea that the hospital has become a bodily extention of Udo Kier's Little/Bid Brother, is a good one.

Still, unlike Twin Peaks The Return, this was too little too late and despite always having been a huge fan of the first season, I didn't really need this. And it certainly doesn't compare to Lynch's The Return, which both engaged meaningfully with the original Twin Peaks and served as a jumping off point for Lynch to sum up his career and revisit many of his ongoing preoccupations and themes. Von Trier dusted off his old screenplays for season 3 of Riget and did the bare minimum to adapt them to the fact that 25 years had passed.

Von Trier could have embraced the original two seasons really having a TV show, instead of this half hearted attempt which then is forgotten about. Then he could have recast all the characters as being the real people the show was based on and set it shortly after season 2. Or he should have set it in the present, with a completely new set of characters, instead of characters that closely mirror them

Spoiler

(which also undermines the evil doppelganger plot that becomes important)

and with more meaningful roles for the returning cast member.