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The Kingdom II [viff] Dir: Morten Arnfred Dir: Lars von Trier Country: Denmark

Four more installments of Lars von Trier's gothic-weirdo hospital drama will probably be appreciated most by those who have seen the earlier series. As with the earlier episodes, the story picks up the day after the horrific events of the last episode with the characters going about their routine without so much as acknowledging the freakiness of the previous night.

Since the characters have been thoroughly established by now, the directors waste no time with re-introductions. In fact, we can almost anticipate the actions of most of the characters and even when they do something seemingly out of character it is convincingly acceptable. I even found myself more sympathetic to certain characters that I did not find appealing the first time around.

This middle part (?) of the Kingdom story elaborates some plot threads, ties up just a few, and creates some more. The humour has also been turned up a few notches, especially an hilarious "chase" scene where the participants try not to set off a motion sensor alarm. Of the seven or more subplots that are juggled alongside the really big one, I found myself growing restless with only one.

As with the first set of episodes, The Kingdom II ends with a cliffhanger just at the very height of excitement when it looks like the hospital will be the arena for the battle between the forces of good and evil for an unspecified prize. Roughly ten hours into the story, and admittedly I am hooked.