User Reviews

I watched this from the beginning to the end. This compares favorably with the British/USA miniseries The Story of David from 1976 with Keith Mitchell,Timothy Bottoms,Jane Seymour and Susan Hampshire.This version is very faithful to the Biblical Story.This story had more Biblical characters in it than any story of King David I have ever seen.Some fictional elements were added in like a teenage shepherd David rescuing a beautiful teenage girl on her way to her wedding from an abductor. The girl later grows into the beautiful Bathsheba.Fictional element two General Joab David's nephew has had a crush on Mephibosheth's Prince Jonathan's son Mephibosheth's nurse Tirzah since back in days of King Saul and still has crush on her when he is reunited with her in middle age.Fictional element three jealous first wife Michal abducts baby Prince Solomon but returns him to David.Fictional element four the Witch of Endor is the wife of one of Saul's generals Doeg the Edomite and she is from Babylon and her name is Allat not only does she bring up Samuel from the dead.She also gives occultic advice to Saul's female relatives.Fictional element five Joab has a tomboy daughter Rachel who fights in battle and who is lusted after by her cousin Jonadab but she later marries Mephibosheth who tries to help him to learn how to walk with crutches it didn't work but the love did.Fictional element six Tirzah prostituted herself to help young lame Mephibosheth stay alive. Fictional element seven David's daughter Princess Tamar after she is raped by her half-brother Prince Amnon and after her brother Prince Absalom has been killed marries Hushai who steps down from his priestly duties to marry her.Fictional element eight Solomon takes over as King when he is still a child.What I appreciate about this version is it kept the majority of characters from the Biblical account.David's first four wives are in the story Michal,Prince Amnon's mother unnamed in the series(in the Bible she is named Ahinoam the Jezreelite so as not to be confused with King Saul's wife Ahinoam whose character is in the series.)Abigail,the widow of Nabal and the third wife of David whose son by David Chileab Daniel is not mentioned in the series and the fourth wife non-Jewish Princess Maachah,the mother of Prince Amnon and Princess Tamar after Tamar three other wives who are not mentioned in this version Wife five Haggith who should have been mentioned in this story she was the mother of the troublemaker the handsome Prince Adonijah and wives six and seven Abital and Eglah who also gave David sons.Wife eight Bathsheba she and her son Prince Solomon figure prominently in the series.Goliath wears a rams head helmet not a plumed helmet like the Philistine soldiers wore.The actors turned in fine performances physically speaking some didn't look middle eastern but the acting ability made up for that.The actor playing King David resembles Richard Gere (who played King David in 1985).The actress playing Bathsheba resembled the beautiful Mexican actress of the 1930's and 1940's Delores Del Rio and the actresses playing Princess Tamar,her mother Princess Maachah,Abigail and King Saul's older daughter Princess Merab and Rizpah,the concubine of King Saul were gorgeous women.The men who played Saul's son Prince Eshbaal Ishbosheth,Palti,Princess Michal's second husband,Prince Amnon and Prince Absalom and General Joab were also good looking in fact better looking than the actors playing David,King Saul and Prince Jonathan. In the Bible David,Saul and Jonathan were good looking but the acting performances made you forget the physical appearances.All in all this is a great version with fully fleshed out characters you could relate to and in my humble opinion it is tied with the 1976.Open up your Bibles and start reading the story of David you will be surprised how well this follows the pattern set in the Bible.Yes,a few fictional elements were added but it did not detract from the historical or spiritual aspects of the story.Anyone who collects Biblical epics needs to add this to their collection. If you missed it on the Mundofox network last month you can view this on Youtube per episode (Some episodes are dubbed in Spanish from the Brazilian and some episodes have English subtitles depending on who uploaded it to Youtube.).