Okay, so . . . I had low expectations and ended up pleasantly surprised.
[WARNING — this is a frivolous discussion. And it’s a wee bit spoilery.]
Things I liked:
Eva Green is AWESOME, as expected.
The Irish locations are breathtaking.
Camelot is a ruin. You know how I love a ruin!
James Purefoy certainly made an impression. (Lot’s “Eff this!” was priceless.)
Kay is a nice guy. How refreshing!
Jamie Campbell Bower works just fine for me as a young Arthur. But is he Keira Knightly’s long lost baby brother? They have the same snarly mouth. (Omigosh he is engaged to Ginny Weasley! So cute, but they are BABIES!)
I’m warming to Joseph Fiennes as Merlin. Wasn’t sure at first, but he grew on me.
The writers include traditional elements of the Arthurian legends, but put their own spin on them. I liked the sword in the stone scene — nice re-imagining of a rather stale Arthurian convention. I also was intrigued by how they took the “Mordred gets speared and then pulls himself toward Arthur to stab him” (one of my favorite gory moments from Malory) and assigned the roles to Ector and Lot. The writers must have decided to use this early in case the series is cancelled!
Things I didn’t like:
Guinevere. Why did they have to give her contemporary hair and makeup and dress her in VELOUR? (Maybe it was supposed to be velvet, but did velvet even exist that far back? Yes, it’s a fantasy, but they’ve tried to create a pre-Saxon world in this show, right? Oh, and I hate how she’s dancing like a teen girl at homecoming when Arthur approaches her at the party. Yuck. It was all yuck. But then again, I love hating Guinevere. So maybe this is a positive instead of a negative? (And I DID enjoy Merlin’s agitated reaction when he was spying into Arthur’s sexy dream about her. That was cool.)
Speaking of contemporary hair, what’s up with Philip Winchester (Leontes)? How can he see through that flop of hair when he’s sword fighting? He looks like the lead singer of a band, not a knight of the Round Table.
This is old ladyish of me, but my main complaint is the sexual content. In many cases the scenes had some faint connection to plot or character development, but on the whole it seemed a matter of “insert boobs at regular intervals.” My dear husband, being a guy (a key demographic for STARZ), did not complain. I, however, was rolling my eyes.
Who else watched? What were your thoughts?
Up for discussion next week: The Killing on AMC. (Enjoyed the two-hour premiere — will report in more detail after the next ep!)
[Cross-posted from Livejournal]
