Saw the promos for this a year or so back, and was interested then. Didn't start watching until now, in hopes of gleaning something useful for my cut. So far it's been really enjoyable.
The story centers around a young soldier that, against all odds, rescues others held hostage by a rival nation. One of the hostages turns out to be the king's son, so the kid is thrust into the limelight of the capital city and the royal court. It's both based on and loosely inspired by the Biblical account of David and how he rose to become a king of Israel, but, strangely, Christianity isn't a strong theme of the show. While the kingdom instituted freedom of religion upon unification, the state religion doesn't wield a cross or anything else. Biblical tales and symbolism are vague, or obscure, so the underlying inspiration is far more subtle then you might expect.
The one thing that I enjoy the most about this show is just how real it feels. It doesn't have the bathos emotion of a soap opera, or the dramatic intensity of other miniseries. Rather, it just feels like the day-to-day "real" issues that would actually happen in such a situation. This does lead to many episodes being mostly stand-alone with little plot-development, but it's a fair trade-off for an alternative to the writing and presentation of shows such as Lost or BSG.
The show was canceled following the first season, so they aired the final few episodes with various cuts (that can be found on the DVD release) that would have introduced intrigue for a second season. Despite that, it feels like it resolves itself rather well so you can treat it as a miniseries rather than an episodic show.
If anyone else has seen it, feel free to bring up whatever you'd like. I'd enjoy have some conversation about what's going on episode-to-episode.
You can watch it for free online here, starting with the two-part, one-and-a-half hour pilot:
Goliath, Parts I and II (Each following episode is 43 minutes)
