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CAMELOT |
Arthur Pendragon - Jamie Campbell Bower Merlin - Joseph Fiennes Morgana - Eva Green Guinevere - Tamsin Egerton Kay - Peter Mooney Igraine - Claire Forlani 
OTHER FANTASY SHOWS Merlin Mists of Avalon Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire Legend Of The Seeker 
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Homecoming/The Sword And The CrownKing Uther is killed by his daughter Morgan, poisoned. Merlin returns too late to save him, but instead reveals that Uther had a son born of witchcraft. Morgan seduces King Lot to take the throne in alliance with her, but theirs is not an easy alliance. As Lot's threat grows greater, Merlin decides that Arthur will need to carry out a legendary act and pull the sword from the stone. Unfortunately, the stone is halfway up a waterfall. There have been so many versions of the Arthurian legends that it is hard to know what new might be gained from yet another version, especially with the BBC's version MERLIN doing so well with its youthful take on things, but GAME OF THRONES has made fantasy a genre of the moment and so this new version we get. It's handsomely mounted with some lovely visuals and a sweep of epic nature, but it suffers from some poor casting. For one thing, Jamie Campbell Bower is a charisma vacuum as Arthur and a man who is relying on only the fact that he might have been Uther's son would need more than his fair share of personal charisma to get anyone to flock to his cause. His delivery of the speeches he has to make fail to raise the hairs as they should. Though we see little of her in this opening double bill, Guinevere (Tamsin Egerton) is just as pretty and just as vacuous. It's early days, but these are the critical people and if they don't convince then the show won't. Also critical is the character of Merlin and the fact that he is played by Joseph Fiennes was cause for hope, but he has chosen to play the part by simply glowering from under his eyebrows and delivering every line through clenched teeth. Thank goodness then for Eva Green's Morgan who is at least intense and more than a little complicated. CAMELOT wants to be considered as grown up fantasy, but the script alone won't carry it. If the bad language was taken out then it could be shown pre-watershed quite easily. To combat this, the makers have chosen to throw in some serious language that will guarantee the later showings and some totally gratuitous nudity that doesn't make it seem more adult, just more desperate. It's not all bad. The scene taking the sword of the gods (not Excalibur, notice) from the waterfall is a nice twist on the normal legend, but the show is going to have to work a lot, lot harder if it is to make a mark. TopGuinevereArthur and Guinevere are in love, which is something of an inconvenience since she is to wed Leontes, the King's champion. Hoping to escape his infatuation, Arthur accepts an invitation from his sister Morgan to visit her at their father's castle. After the variable and yet promising double episode opening, this is something of a let down. Opening with the equivalent of two teenagers discussing boys (in almost contemporary language yet), it manages to be a medieval soap opera without real interest or conflict. Since the two lovers are the two least accomplished performers, the love story lacks the passion and bite that the lead story needs to have. Much more interesting is the sparring between Merlin and Morgan which the talents of Joseph Fiennes and Eva Green manage to turn into something fascinating despite the fact that nothing at all happens. Morgan gets nothing out of the exchanges and Merlin is drugged only hours after being wary of being drugged. It is almost as believable as Arthur riding into the castle of the sister that recently tried to have him killed with only Merlin as an escort. Add on to that a truly pointless sub story about the recruiting of Gawain (interesting character though he risks turning out to be) and the promise of the opening episodes is running out fast. TopThe Lady In The LakeWhilst Arthur agonises over the fact that Leontes now has Guinevere as his wife, Merlin determines that the king must have a worthy sword and so sets out to gain just such a sword. The price, though, will be higher than he could imagine. Morgan also struggles with the price of her previous magic as she is brought close to death. Whilst there is a lot of character stuff going on in Camelot, not a lot is happening in terms of plot. It's therefore fortunate that the twists placed into the story of Excalibur and the Lady of the Lake make it such a strong backbone. Here there is character drama, action and tragedy with a little bit of magic thrown in for good measure. It displays, once again, that the show is at its best when putting a new spin on the existing legends. By contrast, Arthur's mooning about over Guinevere has all the dramatic quality of a schoolboy pout and Morgan's seemingly neverending bout of sorcerous illness drags out what could have been much more dramatic and telling in a shorter form. CAMELOT is still running at below par, but maintains flashes of excellence that show what it can be. TopJusticeMerlin is locked away struggling with his loss of control of the magic within. Arthur is left to deal with a lynch mob himself, setting up Camelot's first court. Morgan, for her parts, exacts her own brand of justice for a beaten servant. This episode marks a great improvement in the show, combining the various threads into a strong and coherent storyline. Admittedly, whilst Morgan is giving her speech to gathered merchants at night Arthur is fighting villagers in broad daylight, but we're willing to take that as poetic licence. By contrast, Arthur's mooning about over Guinevere has all the dramatic quality of a schoolboy pout and Morgan's seemingly neverending bout of sorcerous illness drags out what could have been much more dramatic and telling in a shorter form. Joseph Fiennes gives a startlingly intense performance as Merlin, wracked by his failures and guilt, but Eva Green matches him as the imperious Morgan. CAMELOT is starting to look up. TopThree JourneysGuinevere journeys to see her dying father and Arthur goes to protect her since his knights are travelling with Merlin to collect books from the home of Arthur's adopted parents. Morgan is challenged over her nun advisor. This episode is pointless in the extreme. Guinevere travels to see her father who promptly dies so she and Arthur ride back again. Hardly the stuff of legends, no matter what it adds to the love triangle story (not a lot). It seems even less likely that all of Arthur's strongest knights would be sent on an errand to find some books and Morgan's challenge over the fate of the nun helping her comes so soon after the nun's arrival as to have little impact. TopThe Long NightMorgan invites Arthur's court to a feast and invents a seige in order to learn the weaknesses that she can exploit. If even one person questioned anything that Morgan or her soldiers said then it would be obvious that there was no enemy out there in the night, but nobody is allowed to do so because there would be no plot as a result. It's so plain that they're being taken for a ride, however, that it's hard to believe nobody would pick up on it. As a result, there is no tension and no mystery and fabricating a pointless duel between Gawain and Leontes doesn't help. TopIgraineWhilst Igraine tries to find a way to escape Morgan's prison cell, Morgan masquerades as her to set Camelot's court at each other's throats, but learns something about herself along the way. An uneven episode that has a pointless hunting trip for Arthur and the boys revealing nothing of any importance at all contrasting with the building relationship between the faux-Igraine and Merlin. The scenes in which they play happy families with an orphan are genuinely touching, though the dramatic outcome for the boy is somewhat manufactured. Claire Forlani does a good job of playing the two roles and making them obviously different, though the show undermines her efforts with the leering soft-porn obsession with Igraine's naked body. TopThe Battle Of Bardon PassMorgan's scheming sees Leontes devastated by the truth of what passed between Arthur and Guinevere. The King is drawn out to a battle that he cannot win even were his men completely with him and Merlin finds that taking revenge on Morgan is more difficult than he assumed. The character of Merlin has been many things in this show, but intensely stupid hasn't been one of them until this episode. He marches into Morgan's castle to arrest her without any armed backup at all and then is surprised when she is not willing to go quietly. In the time that Arthur's been at Camelot he hasn't yet built up an army worth a damn, surely a major failing in a king and only the response to his infidelity seems in any way believable. At least there's a battle at the end and a cliffhanger to get us through to the next episode. TopReckoningArthur is left alone to face the onslaught of Morgan's men. She is in Camelot, plotting to take the throne. There will be a reckoning and people will die. Arthur goes all Rambo as he fashions all manner of traps for his attackers, taking out a ridiculous number of them before the inevitable arrival of assistance. There is almost nothing about this final episode that is not predictable. This hampers the satisfying ending that might have sent the show through to a second season, but the various fates handed out to the characters are at least appropriate and even once mildly surprising. Arthur is once again shown to be a man of astonishing stupidity and indelicacy to set up the cliffhanger that will not be resolved. Top |
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