"Camelot"

The new series of the Starz channel about king Arthur Pendragon's legend was one of the "white hopes" of the TV 2011. Some episodes already broadcast in the United States, the result is unequal: it surprises positively in some aspects, it disappoints in others and it fulfills simply the terms in the main thing. It's always difficult to move Arthur's myths to the screen in a convincing way and some times the size of the wild dream becomes spectacular: good examples is the priceless youthful amusement of the recent series Merlin or the pseudo-historical nonsense of the laughable King Arthur (yes, that drivel where king Arthur was a Roman legionary). But even for a more serious adaptation effort —as Camelot is— turns out to be complicated being at the height of versions that became practically unbeatable (I'm naturally talking about John Boorman's flawless Excalibur: it'll be difficult that somebody beats that adaptation someday). But, comparisons aside and with all of its defects, at least it can be said about Camelot that it belongs to the group of respectable versions. There's nobody here  ambling around dressed as a Roman.

It's an entertaining series. Which is not little. The scripts are fluent, with a good balance between dialog and action; besides there are some intense and surprising sequences in every episode. The only storyline noticeable defect is certain tendency to rewrite some classic chapters of the most known versions of the legend, which doesn't usually work with popular myths. It's the danger of trying to becoming "original": a handful of screenwriters will difficulty find better solutions in some months than all an oral and literary tradition along the ages. But if we except the failed licenses of the script, the series is well constructed, it's relatively intelligent and it never bores, quite the opposite.

Eva Green in her fascinating characterization as the witch Morgana.

What almost —and I say "almost"—manages to ruin Camelot's final result is the cast: a channel such as HBO and its fantastic casting policy could have turned this series into something monumental (see Juego de tronos) but it's hard to imagine what Starz's persons responsible were thinking of when they cast Jamie Campbell Bower as king Arthur himself, a little blonde childlike guy coming from the Twilight saga. Terrible. Joseph Fiennes isn't such a correct Merlin either and queen Ginebra turns out to be equally dull, just naming some main characters. Even though, we've got to say all of it and now's when we get to the strong point of the series, Camelot can boast about having had one of the wisest casting moves of the last years: Eva Green performing witch Morgana. What a triumph. The French actress so effortlessly beats the rest of all of the cast; she's just a couple of stepping stones over the rest of them all. Camelot is going to become Eva Green's vehicle of personal show: we already knew well the sexuality of her appearance on screen, now, besides, we know the reach of her talent and her charisma, too.

To sum up, Camelot is a good series with an irregular cast: an option to consider for epic drama lovers or simply for those who're looking for effective entertainment; you won't feel disappointed. If and when, of course, you'd like to start yearning for Excalibur's supernatural aura... but let's not be picky: it'd be too much to ask for a television series to build whole sequences around Götterdämmerung.