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A still from Kingdom.
Opinion
What a view
by Stephen McCarty
What a view
by Stephen McCarty

Netflix’s Kingdom, in which zombie apocalypse meets Korean period drama, is horrifying for all the right reasons

Starring Ju Ji-hoon and Ryu Seung-ryong, all six episodes of season one are now available, with season two in the works, promising blood, gore and more

Even now, I can’t watch Charlton Heston. Not because the Hollywood star remains in death an unreconstituted ex-president of the National Rifle Association – which would like to make Smith & Wesson classmates of all American children – but because he was The Omega Man.

A birthday “treat” for a friend involved his father taking him and half a dozen other youngsters to a matinee showing of the eponymous science fiction-horror movie. Our reward for somehow beating the age limit was to witness grotesque, goggled-eyed albino mutants, survivors of a biological war that left only vaccine-protected Heston unscathed, scavenge across Los Angeles while plotting tirelessly to turn Ben-Hur into gruel. Instead, they traumatised me into cowering behind the seat in front, then feigning vicious stomach pains so as to be taken home early. Great choice of film, Mr Lomas, thanks a lot.

Nightmarish visitations from Heston, however, could hardly have been expected to afflict the latest South Korean period-drama blockbuster from Netflix: Kingdom, six episodes and counting of exquisitely shot history, action – and horror.

Amid 15th-century pastoral beauty, Kingdom advertises all the attributes of a dynastic political thriller, with a slowly expiring king kept functioning by a strange potion dispensed by a mendacious minister; a heroic crown prince (Ju Ji-hoon) who is trying to figure out what’s going on with his father and why the whole country is suddenly calling in sick; and a spiteful queen (Kim Hye-jun) threatening to separate the crown prince’s head from his shoulders if he tries to contact his dear old dad. And that’s because – here, Kingdom careers right off the reservation – the monarch has become a growling, undead monster that chomps human flesh!

The first zombie movie: 10 classic horror films to celebrate Night of the Living Dead

Why the widespread cultural fascination with zombies, ghouls, vampires and mutants? Does it manifest itself most clearly at times of economic, political or environmental precariousness? Is it all the fault of Jane Austen and Abraham Lincoln?

Whatever the explanation, the zombie apocalypse is now so 600 years ago that it may well have found its true milieu: neither the present nor the sci-fi future, but the past, especially a past rendered in splendid period detail and by sumptuous cinematography. Much gore remains to be spurted, not least in the savagery of clan battles, and human stew to be consumed before this correspondent reaches the climax of series one (available now to download in its entirety), but he’s already cheerleading for series two, filming of which is about to begin. Even if he is channelling Charlton Heston and watching from behind the sofa.

HBO’s High Maintenance featuring your friendly neighbourhood marijuana dealer is back for a third season

American rock musician Lou Reed’s ever-unreliable “man” – his New York drug dealer – today wears a more appealing face, having been reincarnated as “the guy”, the friendly, neighbourhood Brooklyn marijuana supplier of mellow comedy series High Maintenance.

If your job is pot delivery, chances are you’ll run into an odd, if largely harmless, bunch of people. And maintaining a high for a motley crew of everyone from the medic to the apartment cleaner to the old hippie to the female flasher is the ideal career for the genial “guy”, who roves around the state in his camper van, never too high on his own supply to share in his customers’ everyday triumphs and disasters.

Ben Sinclair is “the guy” and the show’s co-creator, giving him double the opportunities to play the sort of empathetic, non-judgmental confidant that fits perfectly his approachable, extravagantly bearded countenance.

Now in its nine-instalment third season, High Maintenance isn’t pro-drugs per se but is, in keeping with its tie-dye wall hangings and other paraphernalia, pro-peace, love and understanding. Chill out on Mondays at 11.30pm on HBO GO or Now TV channel 115.

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