I’m only a couple episodes in, and honestly, it doesn’t take much to keep me watching a show. I must say I’m a little underwhelmed.
Not a big fan of drunk Merlin.
The lead character is kind of boring?
I don’t like that Uther Pendragon is in the show but Arthur is not his son. Maybe that will be addressed later.
Not a fan of the inconsistently applied animated scene transitions.
Some sequences do not make sense. In episode 2, Arthur and Nimue are in an abandoned house and talking about her sword, he tells her to sleep an hour before they ride again. Then they cut to Merlin walking around and finding Nimue’s dead mother. Then they cut to Arthur holding Nimue walking down a hall where she wakes up in his arms? Huh? Arthur just carries her around while she’s sleeping? Maybe this gets addressed later but this seems very weird.
Puzzlewood as a location is overused in this show and in cinema generally lately. This is like the Wilheim Scream of fantasy locations.
Physical logic is weird. She can climb on a rock easily but wolves keep falling off? A bear stands up and gets caught in a narrowing crack when he easily could have just walked right through on all fours? Maybe explained later. It seemed possessed, so maybe it stood up like a human might if it was possessing a bear.
Gore is inconsistent. Seems like they had to bow to the censors a lot. Lots of CGI blood, but then the camera cuts away from other stuff. In one scene, she does a spell on a crusader, the camera cuts away, she looks at it horrified, there’s a lot of gross sounds going on, she pukes. Later we find out the guy is just caught up in some moving vines. Nothing gross at all.
I was planning to watch it but the reviews were even worse than Warrior Nun. Maybe down the line, but there’s other stuff in my queue that’s more promising.
We enjoyed it but I knew nothing about Nimue in the myth.
To answer some questions. Merlin being drunk is explained. Whether you like it is another issue.
This is not really Arthurian, imo. I’m no scholar but Arthur not being Uther’s son is one of many ways that they change things.
The animation worked for me but there are several times where they do use it to further the story, including a few times where it was jarring. Why not show it? Again, a matter of taste, and it was okay for me.
In that wolf scene, there is a point where she has her back turned and a wolf doesn’t attack. It nicely waits. That annoyed me as well as the non climbing. I guess something made it tough?
I also didn’t think what happened to the red paladin was that gross but that may be a bad statement about me. There is a scene later that might explain something but not sure.
In the end, my wife and I liked it. I can’t argue that it took it’s time in some places, is inconsistent with the Arthurian myths, and does lose logic at times. It entertained us enough to finish it across two nights.
Interesting on Warrior Nun, although a non sequitor. We started it, watched several episodes in a row, and I hope to get back to it. I enjoyed it but we haven’t finished it yet.
Warrior Nun, I watched a difficult portion of the first episode - it really felt like the worst of the CW shows, and, despite being desperate for new TV, I removed it from my list.
This show I will stick with through this season, anyway. I share many of the complaints/criticisms/confusions mentioned above, but it is just barely interesting enough for me to have on while I browse the internet.
I feel like there’s some worthy stuff in it, but overall it’s just sloppy.
I noticed a research issue in the second episode, when one of the Red Paladins read a proclamation “in the name of the Holy Roman Emperor”. Aside from the fact that the HRE didn’t yet exist in the show’s time period, Britain was also never a part of it, so the HR Emperor had no authority there anyway. It came off to me as a poor attempt at throwing a “Christians BAD” message in there.
I’m rather enjoying Warrior Nun. It gets better as it goes along, and I like the lead actress.
The Missus and I just finished Cursed tonight. We both enjoyed it. I can’t disagree with any of the quibbles mentioned in this thread, but they weren’t enough to make us not enjoy it. The characters were engaging, the dialog was entertaining, the action was quite good. The climax was excellent. Sure, they played fast and loose with previous Arthurian legend, but I don’t think there is any “canon” when it comes to the genre; there are lots of contradictory stories out there.
Warrior Nun, on the other hand, I just found toooooo tedious for words. Mrs. Mortiss is still watching it, which pretty much means I’m still watching it with half an eye. It isn’t getting any better.
Hmmm. Maybe I’ll try one episode, can’t hurt I guess.
I think the main problem I’m having with Cursed is none of the characters are really that likable. I mean, the main character isn’t that bad, she’s just… there.
Finished up Cursed last night. Given some of the revelations since I last posted (when I had only seen the first 2 episodes), I guess I’ll just suck it up and ignore the historical issues and consider it an alternate universe. I am wondering now if we’re going to eventually get alternate versions of all of the Knights of the Round Table. Was there a Sir Percival in the Arthurian legend? It’s been a while since I read any of that.
Wow, they took their sweet time officially bringing the hammer down, didn’t they? And I’m not aware of any special efforts to shop it elsewhere, which would at least provide some kind of explanation for the delay. I think somebody’s “REMINDER: ‘CURSED’ IS TOAST” sticky note fell off the edge of their monitor, and then one day they were cleaning up around their desk and found it and finally jumped into action. I can’t say I’m surprised it didn’t get a second season. I liked it fine, and had it kept going I would’ve stayed with it, but it just didn’t pull me in that deeply.