Camelot...
Feb. 28th, 2011 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fajrdrakoI watched the new show Camelot this evening.
Loved it. It's very Maloryesque, and they're taking the story seriously in a way they don't take it seriously in Merlin, which I appreciate mightily. I like the sets, costumes and actors - one episode, and I'm feeling quite excited about it.
- It has some actors I love: Sean Pertwee, Eva Green, James Purfoy. And more coming up, to judge by the credits.
- I wouldn't previously have listed Joseph Fiennes as a favourite actor, but his wonderful depiction of Merlin shot him to the top of my estimation. At last, someone portrays Merlin as I've always pictured him - sinister and clever. A grey eminence, a dark mastermind, a world-shaper who is well aware of the dangers of magic and is willing to pay the price. I wonder if we'll meet Nimue. Hah! In this version, it's inevitable. Complete with sex scenes, I predict. Or maybe I'm just hoping.
Merlin has always been my favourite character in the Arthurian legend - ever since Mary Stewart wrote about him, in any case. I never pictured him as a wise (or dotty) old man, but as a hardened warrior-mage. - The young man playing Arthur looked familiar; it must be because he was in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, where he played Gellert Grinelwald. I think he looks like Keira Knightley, which is odd, but not a bad thing. I like Keira Knightley.
- Loved the look of Camelot, all decayed and overgrown, with a broken roof and ruined towers. Like the setting of a medieval warlike fantasy videogame, or a fairy tale where the castle in enchanted and sleeping.
- Loved the shot where we approach Camelot from the landward side, then swoop round to see the cliffs and the sea. Gorgeous. (And very like Cornwall, as done by CGI.)
- Chris Chibnall; hmm. His presence may explain why there are several ex-Torchwood people about.
- Morgan is suitably beautiful and strong-willed. She has a wonderful glower.
- I see there's an LJ community already. Anyone know of any others?
- I never have a problem with naked James Purefoy.
- I like the way they're handling the magic.
- I like Arthur's manner. Young, but not without character. Inexperienced, but not stupid. Not quick to take offense, but not a pushover, either..
- I liked it that when we first met Arthur he was having sex. That bodes well.
- Peter Mooney as Kay is lovely. Pim was seeing slash potential there.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 12:00 am (UTC)I don't like this series much, so I'm intrigued by your review. I came out of it feeling that they made Morgan extra super evil in order to gloss over the fact that she's actually been completely screwed, their father was a rapist and Merlin was a rape-abetter. Arthur hasn't done anything and suddenly he's got all these people following him and they are really Merlin's crew, not his.
It's really pretty. I like the scenery and I appreciate that the costumes aren't Renaissance or later for something that happened in the 5th-6th c, but I guess I have the problem with this show where I don't actually like anyone in it except possibly Kay and Arthur himself, Arthur being a kid after all and Kay being kind of amusing. I want to like Morgan but of course they have conflated her with Morgause and made her extra super evil so that we don't have any sympathy for her at all, even though she has been screwed.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 03:47 am (UTC)I can see Morgan's point of view, if she were written differently; but she's written as wronged but evil and vengeful (like Gray in Torchwood) so she comes out as magnificent and bad at the same time. Being wronged does not make one good, just wronged.
The costumes are sort of random-theatrical - at one point PiM asked, "Where did that Roman come from?" I rather like the combinations.
I like Merlin a lot; not sure about Arthur yet.