Camelot Season 1 Episode 1 |VERIFIED|
And with that we, the audience, have reached the finale of CAMELOT season one. It has been an interesting season in both good and bad ways. The first few episodes of the series seemed to set a pace that was breakneck and moving forward with a strong surety of the direction the season would end. Then unfortunately somewhere in the middle, the season seemed to lose direction and to start meandering all over the map. The stories went from being dynamic to being kind of washed out and lacking the fire and direction of the first few.
camelot season 1 episode 1
Merlin (Joseph Fiennes) spends a good portion of the episode in chains or the stocks once again compliments of Morgan, but once freed he has one of the BEST scenes of the series to date with the passing of Lady Igraine. The death scene was so beautifully acted by both actors, that I found myself torn between which should live and which should die; since Merlin was willing to expend his own energies to bring her back.
Nun Sybil (Sinead Cusack) finally got her just desserts in this episode and I had not even one iota of sadness when he head left her shoulders in a bloody arc to fall into an unmarked grave. I also liked the fact that Merlin was there to deny her any kind of peace of mind as she dies by telling her there is no God.
The 10-episode epic drama, redefines the classic medieval tale of King Arthur with an exciting ensemble cast including Joseph Fiennes reimagining the iconic role of Merlin, Jamie Campbell Bower as the young and reckless Arthur, and Eva Green in her television debut as the darkly powerful Morgan. The character-driven series also features Tamsin Egerton (Guinevere), Claire Forlani (Igraine) and Peter Mooney (Kay).
Advertisement The earliest known writings about King Arthur date back to the eleventh century publication ofHistoria Brittonum. Over the next thousand years people have been writing about Arthur with a fair degreeof regularity and fact and fiction have become comingled almost to the point of convolution. Hundreds of authorslike Sir Thomas Malory, T.H. White, John Steinbeck, Mary Stewart and Mark Twain have all dabbled in the Arthurianmythos at one time or another so much so that the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the round table hasbecome deeply ingrained in our culture and quite frankly in fantasy circles, it has almost becomecliché. So when it came time to watch the premiere of the new Starz series Camelot, Iwas nonplussed. Yes, it is great to see another fantasy series on television to accompany HBO's fantasticGame of Thrones, but if Starz could have possibly chosen a more played out storyline, I can'tthink of one. When you consider the fact that fantasy literature, for the most part, is virgin territoryas far as the big screen and television go and the fact that there is an enormous amount of high qualitymaterial out there to choose from makes Starz decision to create another version of King Arthur and Camelota rather boring, yet safe, choice to base a new television show.The pilot episode begins with the poisoning of Uther Pendragon at the hands of his daughter MorganPendragon. Merlin gets Uther to sign over the succession of his kingship to his bastard son Arthur who has beenkept hidden away and his identity unknown, even to himself, until Merlin shows up to gather Arthur up to takethe throne and repair the now crumbling monarchy. In subsequent episodes Arthur establishes his court bygathering his knights and rebuilding the ancient fallen Roman stronghold known as Camelot while Morgancontinues to plot for the throne using her dark powers.After the first few episodes, a couple things became readily apparent. First of all, Starz was going to takea much starker, more realistic approach to the story of Arthur then has been common in the past. You won'tfind any knights in shining armor, majestic castles or Merlin with his traditional long white beard andwizard's cap. What you will find if you're able to sort through the jumble of facts that is the actualhistory of King Arthur, is that Starz is creating their own vision of Camelot based on some very accuratehistorical research comingled with a bit of artistic license and, of course, sex and violence. Throughoutthe series viewers will see alternative takes on commonly know elements of the Arthurian mythos like thesword in the stone and the lady of the lake. Morgan's and Merlin's magical powers are very well handledand, at times, even seem plausible.Yes, the cast are all a little too pretty to have lived in England in the fifth century, but hey that'stelevision for you and for the most part the cast is excellent. Eva Green as Morgan Pendragon, theincredibly beautiful and wickedly sexy half sister of Arthur, is an exceptionally well donecharacter. She was a Bond girl so you know she is amazingly sexy but she also happens to be a verytalented actress. She steals the show for me as she will for most male viewers between the agesof 15 and 85. I would be remiss if I failed to mention the other cast member that really stands outin my mind and that would be British actor Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth)as Merlin. He is terrific and his acting along with the show's writers give this version of Merlin amuch different feel than what we have been used to in the past. Overall, I think Camelot isvery well done. I was pleasantly surprised at the approach Starz is taking to this series and for fantasyfans it's well worth your time to catch the first season. It's not exactly ground-breaking television,nor is it going to be worthy of any Emmys for drama, but this is highly entertaining television withenough original ideas mixed in with the traditional Arthurian mythos to keep the show entertaining and fresh.Copyright 2011 Dominic CilliWhen asked to write a third-person tag line for his reviews, Dominic Cilli farmed the work outto an actual 3rd person, his friend Neal, who in turn turned it over to a second person who thenasked his third cousin to help out and this person whom Dom doesn't even know then wrote in 8thperson Omniscient mode "Dom's breadth of knowledge in literature runs the gamut and is certainlynot bounded by the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. One thing I can say with certainty is that of allthe people I don't know who've ever recommended books to read, Dom's recommendations are the best."If you find any errors, typos or anything else worth mentioning,please send it to editor@sfsite.com.Copyright 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide
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