Camelot: Season 1 Review

I was so excited when I heard about this series. I love the Arthurian legend, love knights in armor fighting each other, enjoyed Eva Green's turn as a Bond girl, and the previews looked excellent.

The opening sequence of the show drew me in immediately with beautiful music and cinematography.

Unfortunately, it was a steady downhill from there.

Some time after one too many annoying Arthur-Guinevere scene, I lost interest.

The knights of Camelot? A bunch of character-less faces. The only one with any substance was Gawain. And Leontes was just... boring. Merlin? Overacted and with not much to do. Arthur? Dragged down by weak acting and a weaker script. Guinevere? Please die--I felt the same way toward her as I did toward BBC Robin Hood's Maid Marian after a while. Camelot? Lame. Fight scenes? Meh. Storyline? A frequently nonsensical snoozefest. Characterization? What's that?

The only remotely redeeming aspect of the show was Morgan. I found her relationship with Sybil the Nun mildly interesting. Eva Green did well with what she was given, but unfortunately she really wasn't given very much. I made myself finish watching the series, hoping that it would get better, but it became an afterthought--an "oh, I guess I have nothing better to do" rather than a "I can't wait to watch the next episode!"

To illustrate, Camelot killed off 3 main characters in its Season 1 finale. I was bored, nearly fell asleep during the episode, and said "ho hum" when they died. Contrast that with my reaction to Game of Thrones. I didn't care about a single character in Camelot, so killing them produced no dramatic payoff. In fact, doing anything with them provides no dramatic payoff.

I'm going back to BBC's Merlin series, which at least didn't take itself too seriously. And has Anthony Stewart Head, who is awesome as Uther. Goodbye, Camelot! Even if you scrape by a Season 2, I ain't watchin'!

Where was the magic in Camelot? Well, guess I'll have to wait until Harry Potter 7 part 2 comes out for any magic.