Cursed

[svalbard]

As an Arthurian know it all and therefore an almighty bore on the subject I sat down to watch this with a sense of trepidation. Unfortunately my worst fears came to fruition, although the last few minutes of episode 1 were quite good. I will continue to give it a go as I am a glutton for punishment. Cranky Post 2 of the day.

 

[Elckerlyc]

I gave up after one and a half episode. It was cursed with bad scripts and unlikely scenes. Not meant for a mature audience, I suppose.

 

[Droflet]

Not meant for a mature audience, I suppose.

I haven't seen it but that was my impression.

 

[Dave]

I wasn't going to bother with this as Arthur, Merlin and Excalibur have all been so overdone, but I saw the pictures of the sets and fae creatures in SFX magazine and it looked very different. It is much more mystical and Merlin portrayed as a drunken has-been is a little different. However, I've only watched the first episode, so I guess i still have plenty of the "bad scripts and unlikely scenes" to see yet!

 

[svalbard]

Binged 4 more episodes and none of it makes sense. Very poor plotting, average acting and it gets worse with each episode.

The Red Paladins are laughable as the bad guys. They are not even in the 'so bad it's good' category.

Gustaf Skarsgaard makes for a good Merlin and the scenes in the Underworld looked good. I like Pym's character too. Unfortunately that's about it.

Anyway onto the next episode...

 

[Dave]

The Red Paladins are laughable as the bad guys.

To me. they looked like all bad guys in these things always do, no worse. Terrible shots and swordsmen, but die from one single arrow or sword cut. Run like they are hobbled. Wait and come at the heroes one at a time, rather than altogether, for ease of picking off individually. Talk far too much before killing their victims. They also seemed to have trouble setting thatched cottage roofs alight though. I expect that it was the new fire retardant thatching?

I'll keep watching since you are, and it therefore must still have some redeeming qualities. Or, has the lockdown lack of new TV really come to this? Do you know that there is always Line of Duty streaming on iPlayer?

 

[Dave]

The other thing about the Red Paladins is that the cloaks make them really easy to pick off. They would be far better to dress like the Darth Maul character who conveniently and frequently escapes death. If this continues I may have to stop watching.

Also one traitor in the ranks is unfortunate but two of them is careless.

 

[svalbard]

The Trinity Guard have shown up, a sort of elite version of The Red Paladins.

We have also got Sir Gawain as the Green Knight.

Visions of Merlin in the past as some leader in Boudicca's Rebellion.

A Norse King called the Ice King.

And the Pope makes an appearance with his Trinity Guard.

It is all a bit of a mess, some of it excellently shot but overall not great.

 

[Dave]

I've watched to the end. The final episode...

unlikely scenes.

That about sums it up.

The Arthur and Niume morning after scene. Iris becoming one of the Trinity Guard. And the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Bridge of Death!

 

[svalbard]

Finished the series today.

Finally got to see the Trinity Guard fight and they were woeful. I must say I liked the little twist on The Weeping Monk's character at the end.

The show exhibited all the problems of recent shows of a similar ilk. Dodgy pacing, major plot holes, no sense of time or place. People were popping up all over the place with no idea of how long it far they travelled.