Hear Me Out: The 10th Kingdom

Hear Me Out is a column dedicated to earnest reevaluations of those cast-off bits of pop-cultural ephemera that deserve a second look. Whether they’re films, TV series, albums, comedy specials, videogames or even cocktails, Hear Me Out is ready to go to bat for any underappreciated subject.

From its opening shot of the New York City skyline dominated by the Twin Towers, The 10th Kingdom announces itself as a clear missive from the past. The opening sequence quickly pivots to the concrete jungle transforming into a lush fantasyland populated by fairies and giants. In spite of visual reminders that the NBC miniseries was filmed during a much different time, The 10th Kingdom is still a delightful, inventive cross-genre experience that deserves to be revisited over and over again.

For the uninitiated, The 10th Kingdom follows Virginia (Kimberly Williams-Paisley, best known for Father of the Bride), a waitress from New York City, and her hapless handyman father Tony (John Larroquette) as they’re transported to the Nine Kingdoms, the home of Brothers Grimm fairy tales and plenty of other fantastical stories. At the same time, the Evil Queen (Dianne Wiest at her most diabolical) is attempting to usurp the throne to the Fourth Kingdom by body swapping king-to-be Prince Wendell and a dog. Virginia and Tony find themselves looking after canine Wendell, hoping to both help out the princely pooch and unearth the magic mirror that will bring them back to New York (the titular 10th Kingdom). They’re aided by Wolf (Scott Cohen of Gilmore Girls fame), an escaped convict who’s secretly working for the Queen but is also infatuated with Virginia. Along the way, the gang encounter classic characters like the Tooth Fairy, Cinderella, and Snow White, as well as an eccentric family of trolls and a murderous huntsman. Romance, comedy, fantasy, adventure—there’s a little bit for everyone over these glorious six-and-a-half hours. 

Fractured fairy tales have been a fairly popular genre for decades—think Princess Bride, Shrek, Into the Woods, etc.—but few cases have operated on the same ambitious scale as The 10th Kingdom. Every moment packs in some sort of allusion to fairy tales or legends, and Simon Moore, the writer of The 10th Kingdom, is sure to give fairy tale references enough background or narrative importance so that they feel earned, rather than cheap lip service. For example, at one point Virginia, Wolf, Tony, and Wendell in Dog Form are sailing on a boat and discover the “Golden River Gold Fish” that gave King Midas his gift is on board. Before you know it, Tony (always on the hunt for some extra cash) has a magical, gold-producing finger that gets the group in unexpected trouble. Not only is another fairy tale added to the lore of the Nine Kingdoms, but we get a glimpse into Tony’s short-sighted behavior, which has long term consequences.

The 10th Kingdom’s impressive scope is fleshed out thanks to the rich production design and on-location shooting. There’s some CGI in the miniseries, but it’s charmingly dated and sparing enough that it feels like a quaint afterthought rather than a staple feature like in our current days of green screens and acting opposite tennis balls. The cast and crew shot in Austria, France, the UK and beyond, with majestic mountains and waterfalls bringing the series’ fantasy to life. As for the rest of the production, the sets and make-up have a handmade attention to detail that alternates between convincing and endearingly silly. Either way, there’s a tremendous effort put into worldbuilding that comes across in every scene. 

And then there’s the characters themselves. Amidst these wondrous landscapes are utterly believable people—flawed, sometimes unlikable, very real, and always compelling. Virginia is emotionally guarded, having put up walls after her mother abandoned her and Tony. Paisley-Williams can be overly sentimental in the part, but it makes sense in a role that is a modern day Cinderella type, going from unassuming waitress to the potential savior of the Nine Kingdoms. And as for Virginia’s dad, he’s often buffoonish, with a focus on get-rich-quick schemes that never end well. Larroquette ups the oafish factor with his comic acting choices, but at the end of the day, Tony is a single dad who’d do anything for his daughter. There are plenty of silly and campy moments, like the pair of them singing a sheep-themed version of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” in order to win the Lovely Shepherdess Competition, but those are punctuated by beats of genuine pathos that keeps the viewers rooting for Virginia and Tony. 

Scott Cohen’s Wolf is likewise a complicated figure, with an irrepressible horniness for Virginia that’s often played for laughs. When you strip away all the horndog, though, he’s just a guy trying to make his way in the world in spite of all the prejudice society holds against him for being half wolf. Prince Wendell (Daniel Lapaine) is a spoiled royal whose time in canine form finally teaches him the humbleness needed to rule the Fourth Kingdom well, and there’s some Lassie-level dog acting to boot. Lapaine is also hilarious and pathetic as the poor dog trapped in human skin and forced to learn table manners.

Besides the main cast, the supporting characters in The 10th Kingdom are such a motley, ever-entertaining crew. The background actors take full advantage of their brief time on screen and make the Nine Kingdoms even more vivid; there are still one-liners from the miniseries that my siblings and I repeat to each other decades later because they were delivered so memorably. The Evil Queen sends Relish the Troll King’s (pre-Modern Family Ed O’Neill) three bozo kids to capture Wendell in Dog Form (as opposed to the Dog in Prince Form), and they’re a clear highlight of The 10th Kingdom. The trio—Burly (Hugh O’Gorman), Blabberwort (Dawnn Lewis), and Blue Bell (Jeremiah Birkett)—are consistently uproarious comic relief, especially when they end up in New York City, wreaking havoc in Central Park and discovering the wonders of The Brothers Gibb. Lucy Punch is perfectly cast as the pampered, snotty Sally Peep, the heir to the massive Peep farming fortune. And Dutch actor Rutger Hauer brings such a seriousness to the small screen as the Evil Queen’s loyal Huntsman that he’s both unsettling and, next to the likes of a cartoonish Larroquette, hilariously intense. I could go on and on—Warwick Davis as the devious Acorn, Games of Thrones veterans Peter Vaughan and James Cosmo, Ann-Margret as the 200-year-old Cinderella—but nothing compares to watching The 10th Kingdom itself. 

Clever enough to draw in the cynics but also committed to the fantasy, The 10th Kingdom casts an enchanting spell over the viewer—one that hasn’t broken all these years later.