First Thoughts: Camelot

Hi guys, welcome to a new section of my blog where I check out the latest tv shows with a fantasy/sci fi theme. I did something similar to Game of Thrones when it first came out, so thought that I would make this a regular occurance with new shows coming out. And here's my first one, where I look at the newest program from Starz Entertainment - Camelot.

(It's only a model)

(Shh)

I think it’s fair to say the story of King Arthur is one of histories most endearing legends, told and remade more times than the Star Wars series. And seeing as Fantasy shows seem to be in the in thing right now, what with the major popularity of Games of Thrones, it seemed natural that someone should have another attempt at one of histories most told legends.

(NOTE: I am aware that Camelot came out BEFORE Game of Thrones in the states, but Camelot has only just come over to the UK so for all intents and purposes, Game of Thrones came first)

And so we have the latest telling in the Arthurian legend, produced by Starz Entertainment, who gave us such family friendly delights as Spartacus: Blood and Boobs... er, I mean Sand! So expect a lot of kid friendly action, with little to no nudity or blood. Hold on, let me just turn off my sarcasm button.

As an interesting side note, the executive producer of the show is Chris Chibnall, who is most famous for his work on shows like Life on Mars, Doctor Who and Torchwood. Surely we must be in good hands, you would think? Well, I saw the opening two episodes last night so here’s my view.

So anyway, the story basically follows young Arthur (played by Jamie Campbell Bower), illegitimate son of Uther Pendragon, who at the beginning is poisoned by his daughter Morgan (played by a smoking hot Eva Green. Having been separated from his real mother as a child, and given to a foster family, Arthur is now contacted by Merlin (played by a surprisingly bland Joseph Fiennes) to take his rightful heir as king and... well, you get the idea.

 

Now, you think that as this was done by Starz Entertainment, it would be chock full of sex, blood and nudity. But surprisingly, it’s quite restrained and unlike Spartacus, it’s not shoved in your face as much. So those of you expecting a sexy romp every five minutes may be left slightly disappointed.

 

The biggest challenge I found in watching this was trying not to make any Monthy Python and the Holy Grail references. Especially when they arrive at Camelot itself (you know the scene I mean!). But that’s not the biggest problem I found. For a show that was supposed to be ‘Adult’, it felt little more than a glorified kids show. The dialogue is clichéd beyond belief, the acting is substandard at best and you can clearly see the twists a mile off! And the problem is that it takes itself so seriously as well, even though the dialogue is so cheesy it may as well be a cheese factory!

 

Now, onto the roles. Jamie Campbell Bower as Arthur, to be honest, just bland and uninteresting. The actor clearly doesn’t look comfortable in the role and, even when he’s trying to sound hard, his voice is just too weak to carry any weight. I know that this is Arthur at the beginning of his life, so he has to show some weakness – but they could have a much stronger actor to carry this off. As it stands, he’s only slightly more interesting that the boy that played Anakin in the Phantom Menace.

 

Next, we have Merlin. Whilst I do like Joseph Fiennes, in this he is just dull. Whilst I like the idea that they’ve gone from a different look to Merlin than the usual bearded wizard archtype, Fiennes just doesn’t give any real performance to his character. He has one expression for everything and, to be honest, this version of Merlin is just a prick! He took Arthur away as a boy, now he takes him away from his otherwise idyllic life and puts him directly in harms way without him giving him any say whatsoever. Also, everytime Arthur tries to ask him a question, he just respondes “you must do this! It is destiny!”. Try to imagine Yoda mixed with Gunnery Sergeant Hartman and you may get an idea as to what I’m talking about.

 

The only two role worth mentioning are James Purefoy as King Lot and Eva Green as Morgan. The writers have gone out of their way to make King Lot as big an asshole as possible (such as when he was asked how his parents died and he just says ‘I killed them’), but Purefoy plays him with such charisma and charm that I found myself cheering on for him! Green is pretty good as Morgan and has potential to be a really good Femme Fatale villainess, but these first two episodes, other than killing her father, she doesn’t really do anything other than whine and, occasionally, get her baps out. Hopefully she’ll be given more to do as the story goes on.

 

The one thing I will say for the story is that it doesn’t have any of that stupid slow down/speed up that Spartacus had. Indeed, we get close up shots with flashing images to make it hard to see what’s going on. The fight scenes, for the most part, are pretty well choreographed. I’m hoping for some big battles later on.

 

Now, after seeing these first two episodes, I did actually do some research and it looks like this show has got some pretty positive feedback, so I’m going to give this show the benefit of the doubt and see how it goes from here. However, as it stands, this show is going to need to do a lot to gain my interest.

 

SUMMARY:

Bland characters and clichéd storylines make this more like a kids program with nudity and some swearing. I wouldn’t even go so far to call it a guilty pleasure like I would with Spartacus, at least that didn’t take itself too seriously and was over the top enough so that it had some enjoyment. This one though, does take itself seriously, and for the terrible dialogue, it does make you wonder how the writers thought this would sound good. For all the hype, I came away somewhat disappointed. I just hope the later episodes are good, as if it carries on like this, I may lose interest before it reaches the halfway mark.

 

If you want a good Fantasy series, with strong story and characters, I recommend Game of Thrones. As far as this goes, I say let's not go to Camelot... it is a silly place.

 

Pandragon

 

 

Camelot and Monty Python is Copyright of their respected owners.

No infringment is intended and the images above used only for reviewing purposes..