"Lady of the Lake"
As we begin to approach the halfway mark of the first season of Camelot we begin to see a glimmer of Arthurian charm with the inclusion of the Lady of the Lake tale and the acquisition of Excalibur. But with the first season already nearing the middle-age mark is it all too little too late? Is there anything left in Camelot that's salvageable for those who have been thoroughly disappointed from the start? And with no noticeable improvement from episode to episode is Camelot simply going nowhere fast?
As with the prior episodes, Lady of the Lake is broken down into three separate sections that focuses on the three main characters, Arthur, Merlin and Morgan. The morning after the wedding of Guinevere to Leontes offers no solace for the love sick King, in an attempt to quell his jealously he begins the training process of his army lead by the outspoken warrior Leontes and Arthur's brother had recruited in the prior episode. It's upon this exercise that Arthur realizes he needs a real sword, a sword made for a King. Merlin sets off to obtain a sword from a man named Caliburn, who has been spoken of as one of the greatest sword makers in Britain.
Meanwhile Morgan is planning a visit to Camelot to meet and congratulate the newly married Guinevere, obviously a move with an ulterior motive as it's presumable Morgan is aware of Arthur's feelings for her following the conclusion of Episode 3 (Guinevere) when Morgan performed a spell that allowed her to see through Arthur's eyes, and possibly sense his thoughts. But Morgan's recent dabbling in dark sorcery has continued to take a toll on her and she's forced to turn back, only to discover a familiar face from her past has come to visit her, a person whose arrival is in such good timing that they might save Morgan from enclosing death.
Merlin's story-line puts an interesting twist on the Lady of the Lake lore and Arthur's acquisition of Excalibur, two well known portions of Arthurian legend which oddly enough in this story Arthur has absolutely no part in! Without spoiling anything, essentially Merlin's determination to acquire this sword entices his previously subdued use of sorcery which ends up having nothing but horrible consequences for those around him.
As the series progresses I'm beginning to find myself in the position of many viewers as I struggle to discern exactly what the point of this series really is. So far Camelot appears to resemble a varied cliff notes version of the Arthurian story, all the major characters and events chronicled but done in such a flippant and mundane manner that the audience is having trouble identifying and caring about the characters. Adding to the problem there simply does not appear to be a cohesive plot, aside from Morgan seeking the crown, that binds the series together to give you a reason to want to keep watching.
While it was nice to finally see a little fantasy thrown into the series, and I actually found the writer's twist on Excalibur and the Lady of the Lake interesting, nothing in the series appears to be gelling and for a season that's only ten episodes long I'm beginning to lose hope that the series is going to get much better. When the story isn't formulaic and chopped up it's just plain confusing, the plot-line of Morgan continues to make me scratch my head and wonder what's going on? For a series that hasn't proven itself in any fashion continuously leaving the audience in the dark about a main character isn't the brightest move, as the mystery isn't going to hold viewers who would have otherwise given up on the show. Overall, Camelot has seemingly become stagnant, with only six episodes remaining in the season it's hard to imagine the series improving much unless once the writers have cracked out their cliff note story-lines centering around the typical Arthurian legend they'll be able to bring something fresh to the table, but so far nothing has clicked.
*BEWARE, SPOILERS!*
ReplyDeleteWe're in complete agreement this week. I did welcome the inclusion of at least some action, finally. Though, I don't approve of the way it was introduced. More specifically, I'm referring to Merlin killing Caliburn and Excalibur - it was very poorly brought up.
I mean, what? Caliburn, the greatest swordsmith in Britain, is killed because for some reason Merlin couldn't have brought him to Camelot to present the sword to Arthur? Why? What would it have mattered? It may have been because of the 'vision', but it was vague, and all we saw is a fleeting glimpse of an unknown man that we don't even know was Caliburn stabbing Arthur?
Certainly, I found it a very weak justification for dispatching Caliburn and his innocent daughter. I have to say, Merlin came across as a villain. Not an anti-hero, or a tragic-hero, but a downright despicable human being.
Then, the whole Morgan angle? What was that? She screamed and moaned and writhed at the verge of death, but with no explanation at all as to the cause other than "the consequences of dabbling with magic".
Well, to hell with the writers. And to hell with this show. I will watch it till the end, because I'm already halfway through and spending 50 minutes a week on it is not much, but this is far from quality TV.
I'd fire the writers, all of them. Since they messed the show up completely, it can't get much worse, so I'd take a drastic turn to the absurd. Introduce a Necromancer, call him Merlin's evil brother Berlin, and let him revive King Lot and put him in charge of leading an army of the dead against Camelot. Also, have Merlin open up a ripple in time and space and bring a one-liner spewing hero from the future a la Ash Williams from 'Evil Dead' to help them.
For some intrigues, Berlin would seduce Guinevere and ultimately make her cross to the 'dark side', Leontes would form a pact with the devil to save his beloved, but fail and die valiantly; the hero from the future would get Morgan (because he likes his women fiesty), and escape with her back to his own timeline. It would turn out that Merlin made a mistake and Arthur wasn't really the 'chosen one', but instead his brother Kay who has far more charisma. And finally, Kay would rescue Guinevere, she would see that he's 10 times the man Arthur was, and would marry him and they'd live happily ever after.
At least at the end of the day we could all laugh at a good joke.
@Ventilation Shaft - Haha! I'm beginning to share your pain, and confusion. The way they're handling Morgan and Merlin's shadowed pasts makes me believe they're simply making it up as they go. We're getting half the story and therefore left with jumbled messes of character back-stories and present story actions that make absolutely no sense. The only positive thing I can say at this point is the series has stayed consistent in it's ways, even if those ways are quite sub par, so I don't think we have to worry about the series getting worse unless it just completely dives off the deep end.
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