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We’ve all suspected that hospitals are less than hospitable places to stay. “Kingdom Hospital” with its bizarre and eccentric staff and “guests” only confirm this. Unfairly attacked by critics, Stephen King’s “Kingdom Hospital” developed a quirky charm all of its own more “Twin Peaks” than “Salem’s Lot”. The series set at a hospital build on the site of a burned down mill where many people were killed, focuses on the odd goings on at the hospital and the haunting visage of a little girl’s ghost that needs some sort of help. In the first episode we're introduced to most of the main characters at The Kingdom--Hook (Andrew McCarthy), Sally (Diane Ladd) the psychic who appears to be more than a few bricks shy of a full load, Jack (Peter Rickman) an artist who, due to a terrible accident, becomes a paraplegic (and is a stand-in so to speak for King in a bizarre collision between art and life). These main characters become the “team” that try and help Mary the little lost soul haunting the corridors of the hospital. --- ***

First, let's clear up a misconception. "Kingdom Hospital" was created specifically as a limited series with a beginning, middle and end. Like "The Prisoner", King had envisioned it as a "true" novel for television. If ABC had chosen to renew it, King would have developed a series of different story arcs. So it wasn't cancelled as much as it concluded. Another point to clear up--King's series created in collaboration with co-writer Richard Dooling, director Craig Baxley, executive producer Mark Carliner and others King hoped to use this "limited" series format not unlike "The Prisoner" King's series is every bit as effective in its own way as Lars Van Trier's "The Kingdom" but one made for a very different audience. Since Lars Van Trier was an executive producer on the series, I doubt that he would have given it his blessing if he didn't see King's version as a quirky complimentary vision to his own. ---

There's also a number of great featurettes included on this four disc set including "Inside the Walls" which focuses on the making of the series, a discussion of the various characters, a discussion on the creation of the visual effects for the bizarre looking Antubis as well as a tour of the hospital. King also contributes a two page essay on the series in the booklet enclosed with the first two disc set. While there’s no featurette on how this ties into King’s various novels (particularly the Dark Tower series), fans can figure that out for their own.