And, best of all, it stars Ian McShane, the powerfully magnetic star of HBO's Deadwood...

A dry summary of Kings threatens to make it sound more simplistic and uninteresting than it is. It's set in modern times, in a city named Shiloh that's not unlike a spiffed-up New York -- but a city whose nation is in the midst of a volatile border war (like the current Israeli-Palestinian standoff) with Gath.

As soon as you put fictitious names to these lands and events, it sounds sci-fi silly, especially when the young hero of the piece, David Shepherd, goes singlehandedly against an enemy tank named Goliath, and wins.

Yes, it's David vs. Goliath. And yes, David has six older brothers, which makes him the proverbial seventh son. And yes, the last name of Shepherd is symbolic, too, just as the warrior Goliath in the biblical account came from Gath. And so on.

David was a busy guy, and not just with a slingshot -- or, in this telling, a hand-held missile launcher). He later was crowned king (thousands-year-old spoiler alert!) and had an illicit, child-bearing affair with Bathsheba. David, as a religious leader, figures in stories revered in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

And now here he is on NBC, as played by Chris Egan. By slaying Goliath, and simultaneously saving the life of the king's son Jack (Sebastian Stan), David is ushered instantly into the opulent, treacherous royal court of McShane's King Silas.

David isn't seduced by the big city, but he IS seduced, or at least enchanted, by the king's daughter Michelle, played by the very enchanting Allison Miller. (The Old Testament calls the king's daughter Michel, and the king Saul, but the broad strokes are familiar.)

Other prominent players in this TV court include Susanna Thompson as Queen Rose and Eamonn Walker as an influential reverend, Ephram Samuels. (Quality TV lovers will recognize them both: her from Once and Again, him from Oz.) Almost no one is to be trusted, and even David, in the first four hours, shows he is capable of being tempted by less than noble virtues.

"We give up what we want when we want power," King Silas tells his closeted son at one point. "Hope lies in bravery," another character intones in another scene. "We need hope."

In Kings, the lessons learned and the topics tackled -- uneasy peace negotiations with hostile enemies, a nation's rebirth through dynamic leadership, and cynical opportunists threatening to stifle progress at every point -- may be biblical in origin and inspiration. But they're no less timely than the Middle Eastern conflicts recounted in both biblical and newspaper accounts.

Michael Green, who wrote for NBC's Heroes, is the creator of this unusual new series, and populates it with characters who are often duplicitous, seldom saintly, and almost never predictable.

The entire enterprise, in tone and scope, feels like an attempt to make a weekly TV series by modernizing, in diluted but recognizable form, both the Bible and Shakespeare. And there's symbolism almost everywhere, especially in the butterflies and pigeons.

As aspirations go, you could aim a lot lower. NBC almost always does, so give it credit for Kings, and give Kings a chance.