Cursed Season 1 (Netflix) TV Show Review

Arthurian legend gets reimagined (again) for a teen audience (again) and I realise I would rather watch Excalibur (again)

by Tom Davies

Who’s the best Merlin?...
WRONG! It’s Nicol Williamson in Excalibur.

Wait, did I hear somebody say Sam Neil?
Come on now, you’ve embarrassed yourself.

I love a Merlin. Merlin is the best character in Arthurian legend. Easily the most interesting. But…he’s been done. To death. And the sooner we’re able to forget that awful BBC nonsense the better. So, it’s with trepidation that we welcome a new iteration of the character. If only to wash that bitter taste away. And here it is (sort of) with Netflix’s new Arthurian YA baloney, Cursed.

I’ve missold it to you a bit here based on my own ridiculous fascination with wizards. It’s not actually entirely about Merlin. It’s about that other big hitter in the legend. Arthur? No. Lancelot? No. Gawain? Nope… Yvain the Bastard of Gore? YOU WISH! No, this is a show about the Lady of the Lake. Yep. With the sword. Only she’s not actually in a lake yet. She’s just a normal teenage girl trying to fit in with her peers and falling for the new boy, Arthur. What makes her different is that she got mauled by a devil-bear in a cave when she was little but because she could “call to the Hidden” she managed to violently de-bear herself with a bit of roof. So now everyone thinks she’s a witch. Which she is. A witch. I think. Or a faerie maybe? Or a fae? Is that the same thing? I’m not actually clear on that point. Anyway, she gets given a sword (probably not important but Arthur seems to dig it and waves it around like a tool) and has lots of MTV edited visions of the future which she shares with…MERLIN!

 

[Skarsgård]'s doing some acting, for sure, thus making him the best thing about the show.

Okay, back to Merlin. This latest Merlin is played by Gustaf Skarsgård (they’re surely just making up Skarsgårds at this point) who appears to be Gary Oldman halfway through a transition into Tom Hardy via Captain Jack Sparrow. He’s doing some acting, for sure, thus making him the best thing about the show. The other cast members…let’s just say it’s a good job they don’t find themselves stuck in a paper bag. Only one other person seems to really try: Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why, Knives Out) as lead character Nimue is acting so very, very hard which, it turns out, is almost worse than the legions of bit parts settling for “do me a bleedin’ accent, wouldjah?” The script doesn’t do them any favours either.

Cursed
Did you really just say "this will make a great Rick Wakeman concept album"? You've gone wrong.

There is blood splatter everywhere because (checks credits) oh, Frank Miller co-wrote the source material and is an executive producer. Oh great, you think, now we’re expecting some gratuitous violence and problematic depictions of women. Well, you’re half right. This might be the first thing with Frank Miller’s name on it that I’ve seen that doesn’t relegate its female characters to whores, hags or daughters, so that’s nice! Buuuut in the first episode we’re treated to the corpse of a baby and the beheading of a rubbish CGI wolf. Then we have a bit of unnecessary dentistry, pulling tree roots out of a windpipe, some self-harm, a spider in the mouth. So many people are missing an eye that I was surprised not see one gouged directly. I don't often say this but it’s too gross to be fun.

Other mildly irritating things include the opening credits, theme music (good lord the theme music is awful) and the weird parchementy animated transitions which seem to occur just once or twice an episode at random points.

 

There were moments where I forgot that I didn’t like it.

To give the show its due, there were moments where I forgot that I didn’t like it. I got caught up in some of the daffy plot. I don’t know if that’s because the pure fantasy elements and Merlin’s scheming are actually sort of fun or if it’s some personal failing of mine. It probably has a lot to do with my irrational soft spot for Arthurian legend because there are some satisfying moments of reference to the stories. It is shot imaginatively: there are moments of really great framing and some dynamic sword fights . The plot, once it really gets going and we see the fantasy races in preparation for war, has something going for it and although the final battle seems a bit half-hearted, there are some fun moments in the finale (if you get that far). The sets are lovely too. Really nice production design, especially all the neat, gross violent twisty tree magic. Also, in this version of the story Arthur is black and that is going to really annoy some segments of the internet, which I am very on board with.

In short, it’s not irredeemable and there’s a bit of fun to be had in it as it settles down to mapping out the warring human and Fae factions but, all in all, it’s pretty hard work and the fact that it looks lovely and is shot well is probably not enough to make the clunky script and really bad acting worth your time.

The legend goes that Arthur will reawaken in our time of greatest need to lead the country back to nobility and prosperity. Firstly, he’s late, and secondly, if this show is anything to go on, maybe he should just stay asleep.

Scores

Verdict

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4

4
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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