Camelot: Season 1 [Blu-ray]

Camelot was a series that aired on the Starz Network that was a version of the King Arthur mythology. It starred Joseph Fiennes as Merlin, Jamie Campbell Bower as King Arthur, Eva Green as Morgan Pendragon, and Tamsin Egerton as Guinevere. The story is set around the sudden death of King Uther which sends the kingdom into chaos. Merlin installs Arthur as the king but his claim to the throne is challenged by his half-sister Morgan, who uses dark magic to try and take the throne. For those who get the Blu-Ray, the show looks and sounds great in HD. The 10 episodes are spread across three discs and there are a series of featurettes that range from about a minute long to nearly 15 minutes. The longest is a making-of documentary that features interviews with the cast and crew. There is also a five-minute blooper reel. A good amount of material for those who like watching the bonus features. Overall, the show was very good but was not around long enough to really establish a foothold. Green is really a stand-out as Morgan, the main antagonist of the series. It definitely has some of the main elements of the Arthurian legend, but definitely puts its own spin on the story. It does have a lot of violence and sex as many of the series on the premium cable stations have. The show was ultimately canceled not because of bad ratings but because of scheduling conflicts for Fiennes and Green. It was a well-written and acted series that should have had a longer run.

The tone and visual of this series lies somewhere between The Tudors and the first season of Spartacus: a fair heaping of graphic sex, lots of action and fighting and blood, plus sorcery and magic to boot. I thought they did a good job of making the show appeal to both women and men, which is not an easy task - could easily have too much historical emphasis and costuming & pomp, or too much blood and action. We must keep in mind there was no real King Arthur but only many myths and theories. I have seen and read many retellings and think they've done some clever and creative things in this show. They strike a nice balance between the barbaric and the noble in the lifestyle of the time - no gleaming armor, but rough furs and leather armor instead, with rough thrones and much smaller castles and armies than usually pictured. In a way, it makes every struggle more urgent and visceral when there are only a handful of men against each other in this way. They have cast some quite good actors such as Joseph Fiennes, Eva Green and others. I like this trend of movie actors doing television and especially cable which can be more intense. I also recognized some other faces such as the lead from TV's short lived "Crusoe" (really, how long could a show based on that book go on?). I hope that fans of both fantasy and action check the show out. Starz is definitely doing some interesting things and I look forward to seeing thier other upcoming shows such as Torchwood (one of my favorite shows, which I was crushed when it was cancelled).

This series is a little off track from the original Shakespearian take, but enjoyable non-the-less. If you enjoy watching Eva Green in a great role, this is for you. Character build and story line don't take too long to establish, plus. There is plenty of battle scenes and of course a couple of steamy sex scenes with Eva. A msut see, probably should limit little eyes when watching this.

Ya know what? Every now and then I like a different twist on an age old story. "Let's try something different for a change", say I. Well, this series does not disappoint along this line of thinking for these very reasons: King Arthur is NOT the manly Richard Burton we knew on the Broadway stage or the Richard Harris of the movie...he is an awkward teenager barely aware of his own existence on this earth who has to learn everything about being a king from the ground up as he goes along...he's a boy king who grows up to be a man and a leader of men. Guenevere is NOT a virtuous Julie Andrews or Vanessa Redgrave...she's a young woman betrothed to another who has a failing for young lads like the teenaged king! Sir Lancelot is NOT Robert Goulet or Franco Nero with a deep baritone voice...in fact, I don't think I've heard him sing even once in this series! Merlin is NOT the spritely Roddy McDowell or clever Laurence Naismith...he is a believable "magician" of curious and questionable background who successfully uses his magic only to serve and protect the new king, yet he is shown to have vulnerabilities and human frailties at certain points in the story...he is NOT the omnipotent creature we have come to know in past versions. Camelot is NOT the utopian "Emerald City" of modern Arthurian legend...it is an old, moss-covered, overgrown, rundown heap of stones that the new King Arthur and his knights decide to make their own because nobody else wants it! And Morgan is just plain.......Morgan! This version of the story is refreshingly different than the stories we've previously encountered. My wife and I find ourselves sitting together on the couch, bowl of popcorn precariously balanced between us, saying, "Oh, that was clever!" and "I didn't see THAT coming!" In short, we have found this version of the Arthurian legend to be very entertaining, and we like it a lot.

Over the top on sorcery, but a good interpretation of "The Knights of the Round Table."

I am shocked to see such bad reviews for this excellent adaptation of Camelot. I found it well cast, especially Eva Green and Jamie Campbell Bower who portrayed a new version of their characters instead of churning out the same old chestnut. I see a lot of critisicm of JCB as Arthur but it was refreshing to see a younger more vulnerable version of Arthur and I thought his performance really progressed through the series which I guess was the whole idea, that the audience see Arthur slowly mature and change his behaviour. I also liked the spin on the old legends, like the lady of the lake and the sword in the stone and thought it was a clever twist on the original tellings and that held my interest where a direct rehashing of old ground would have been dull. All in all, I found it a great series and am saddened that there will be no series two. I would have liked to see the characters continue to progress and see the story develop.

Latest research about Tintagl Castle was not ignored in putting the script together. I liked several historical details blended in: 1.) The Romans left an infrastructure of buildings and roads, which where now deterioating. 2.) Christianity did not have a firm grip on the island yet. 3.) Close detail was given to the weapons, armor and fashion of the period. Very little about King Arthur, except the legend is known about. The producers did a very fine job to create the ambiance of the period with carefully mixing in the the mysticism of the period. So magic does not get too much overboard. The charactors are not black and white, like in real life they have baggage, inner conflicts and doubts. Greed, lust and envy come to play at all levels. The idea of an earthly organized State is the goal of King Arthur, that is fed to him by the sourcerer Merlin. After all it is the period of the dark ages, the time when the roman organisation went down and no organisation prevailed for 400 years, until history started to be recorded again. The minseries records the struggle in a very suspenseful and nailbiting fashion. Some historical and political sound viewers could draw paralels with the current struggle. History repeats itself today, and the miniseries does an excellent job mirroring it. Technologies have evolved but not our social behavior.

J’adore cette série, je suis trop contente de l’avoir trouvée. Très contente de mon achat, merci.

剣や魔法のバトルや、陰謀策謀有りの最高のドラマでした。シーズン1で終わったのは残念でした。

Ich habe mich - aufgrund der Vormeinungen hier - nur schwer getan, diese DVD-Reiche zu kaufen. Da ich weder "Games of Thrones" noch eine der anderen genannten Serien kenne, habe ich mich dann aber doch entschlossen. Somit bin ich also hier total unvoreingenommen, da ich keine Vergleiche ziehen kann. Ich finde die Bildgewalt sehr, sehr schön.... da möchte man doch gleich in den Urlaub in Richtung Schottland oder England aufbrechen. Auch die Special Effects sind meiner Meinung nach gut gemacht und sehr sehenswert. Die Schauspieler finde ich ALLE super ausgesucht. Und es gibt - meiner Meinung nach - keine Rolle, die nicht vollkommen super besetzt und verkörpert wäre. Es macht Spaß, sich mit allen Facetten der jeweiligen Figuren auseinander zu setzen. Da ich mich an den vielen Artusgeschichten schon etwas satt gesehen habe (ist ja unterm Strich doch immer das Gleiche) war ich auch hier ein wenig skeptisch. Aber... ich muss sagen, hier sieht man die Artussage mal von einem ganz anderen Blickwinkel. Ich finde es toll, dass sich hier mal Gedanken gemacht wurden, wie Artus so ein großer König geworden ist. Das kein großer Regent einfach mal geboren wird und dann gleich ein super Herrscher ist - wird hier sehr deutlich gemacht. Es ist schön zu sehen, wie ein junger Mann von einer Sekunde auf die andere aus seinem sorglosen, geborgenen Leben herausgerissen wird und sich von jetzt auf gleich mit Dingen auseinandersetzen muss, die ihm vollkommen fremd sind. Er muss lernen.... sich auf sein Bauchgefühl verlassen... sich Dinge von sogenannten "Vorbildern" abschauen. Dass das mit Schmerz, Tränen, Verlust und auch Leid verbunden ist, wird hier sehr feinfühlig dargestellt. Was mich auch ein wenig irritiert hat ist die Tatsache mit den nackten Tatsachen. Ich denke mal, dass es im Mittelalter schon sehr zügellos zugegangen ist. Aber das hätte man sich hier und da auch gut sparen können. Leider nimmt die deutsche Überarbeitung viel und macht auch so einiges kaputt. Wenn es also möglich ist, dann sollte man sich die DVD`s im Original ansehen. Da kommt "mehr" rüber. Zusammengefasst finde ich, dass es mal eine interessante und andere Sicht auf die Artuslegende ist und wer sich nicht an jedem winzigen Detail - das vielleicht nicht stimmen könnte - aufhängt, der wird viel Spaß beim ansehen haben.