With NBC’s new part-political drama, part-soaper Kings, it’s good news and bad news.

The good news first. If you’re going to have a fictional king, with all of the trappings and failings absolute power brings anyone, you can’t do much better than casting Ian McShane in the part.

McShane has shown before the various facets of what power can do to a man with his near-legendary turn as Al Swearingen, the boss of Deadwood, HBO’s Western drama of a few years back. Swearingen was at times drunk on power, other times using it measuredly, always both trying to be above it all and very human and down in the mix.

His King Silas is cut from the same cloth, albeit a finer variety as ruler of Gilboa, a modern kingdom apparently stitched together out of a devastating war of uniting. Here again, he understands what his power brings, yet remains human.

There are other great roles as well — Dylan Baker playing Silas’ eventual enemy who is bankrolling the nation; Wes Studi as Silas’ loyal general; Susanna Thompson as Queen Rose, and especially Eamonn Walker as Rev. Ephram Samuels, the king’s religious advisor who turns on him at a critical point.

The parts of the younger characters are played by what sometimes seems a cast of a different show. This is not necessarily all that bad.

Christopher Egan does well as the David to McShane’s King Saul in the modernized David-and-Goliath story. However, when Egan, his love interest, played by Allison Miller, and his rival, played by Sebastian Stan are on screen, it almost plays like a completely different show. As if they tacked Gossip Girl or The O.C. onto it.

Not that this is a bad thing — Stan gives off almost a Chuck Bass-ian vibe as Jack, the king’s son who is passed over after he’s saved by David on the battlefield. (David saves him from a rival army’s tank division — the tanks are called Goliaths.)

It’s more off-putting than anything.

And that’s part of the problem — and likely part of the ratings problem the show had in its first week, which is the real bad news here. The show could only muster a 1.4 on Sunday.

While Kings is a good show, its split personality keeps it from being great, and makes it very hard for a lot of audiences to gain a foothold.