Camelot - Episode 1.01 - Review "Gritty Camelot Seduces the Viewer"
27 Feb 2011
Cancelled ShowsGritty CAMELOT Seduces the Viewer
By Erika Blake
multipleverses.com
I’ve only been partially waiting for CAMELOT to arrive on STARZ, mostly because I’m a self-proclaimed Arthur snob and purist. While growing up, King Arthur was my second character love following Luke Skywalker after I discovered Mary Stewart’s wonderful MERLIN series. In those books Arthur is wonderfully rich and fleshed out. I’m always open for retellings of the classic tale, but there are things that will rapidly turn me off of an Arthurian retelling, such as Uther being portrayed as a bastard (Excaliber) or Arthur being stupid and weak (take your pick from films,) or the story being outright silly (Merlin.) Up until this point about the only telling that I fully approve of was the film KING ARTHUR; Clive Owen’s strength and grit as the king won me over.
I was optimistic about CAMELOT since it was going to be derived from the original source material. I’m happy to report that CAMELOT has everything that I’ve been looking for in an Arthur story and I can’t be more excited. With only a few familiar faces in the cast (Joseph Fiennes as Merlin, Claire Forlani as Irgraine, Eva Green as Morgan, Jamie Campbell Bower as Arthur, and Phillip Winchester as Leontes) the rest of the roles have been filled with fresh faces.
The story begins with Uther’s untimely murder and Merlin races across the land to change young Arthur’s life forever by revealing his true heritage and destiny.
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http://multipleverses.com/2011/02/26/gritty-camelot-seduces-the-viewer/
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I really liked Camelot, though I'm the opposite of you, I think King Arthur with Clive Owen was the worst of all the arthurian legend films. I like the casting choice of Arthur, I like the idea of him being young and naive and having to grow into the role of king.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget James Purefoy as King Lot. He Was Marc Anthony on Rome. Also found it fun that Cain mocked Arthur saying "You're no Anthony"... maybe more coincidence but I giggled.
ReplyDeleteAt first the choice of Arthur seemed odd to me, but he grew on me as the episode went on.The only concern I had with the pilot was the sex scenes seemed shoehorned in. I hope it doesn't turn into Spartacus that way or its a STARZ trait in general. I really liked the Roman twist to Camelot.... the Roman fortress and many of the knights supporting Arthur (future Knights of the Round Table?) had Roman names. Overall it was better than I expected and a pleasant surprise!
ReplyDeleteAgree on Clive. I love Clive Owen, but that King Arthur film was adequate at best.
I have to watch this. I've heard mixed reviews about the show which just made me more curious.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of Spartacus and think that the sex scenes are largely (with a few exceptions) important to the story on that show. Sex is a large part of life, it was then and it is now, skipping over it seems ridiculous. I liked the Lot/Morgan scene, but I do agree the Arthur sex scenes were a little bit out of place, but likely they wanted to show that Arthur is a red-blooded male.
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