Frank Miller’s blade-y of the lake saga heads up our reviews of the latest telly.
After 800 years of knightly tales, it’s about time a girl got a grip on Excalibur. In Netflix’s pacey, violent YA fantasy series, King Arthur’s legends are smartly reforged into the quest of reluctant young sorceress Nimue (13 Reasons Why’s game Katherine Langford) to wield the magical Sword Of Power for her beleaguered fairy people.
Influenced by The Hunger Games’ girl power and Game Of Thrones’ ruthless clash of kings, creators Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler magic up a richly detailed mud-and-murder medieval Albion, riven by warring factions. Revitalising tired old tales by tracking the oppressed Fey People’s outsider struggle against the Red Paladin monks, Cursed’s twisty, packed plots whip Nimue, wary sell-sword Arthur (a dashing Devon Terrell) and conflicted nun Igraine confidently through lavish CGI enchantments, betrayals, and graphically bloody battles.
With less frenetic hardcore fantasy than The Witcher and lacking The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance’s exquisite strangeness, the show’s at its moody best exploring the emotional journey of Langford’s alternately brave and bewildered Nimue. Miller’s animated inserts of deathly forests and forbidden loves create a melancholy, fatalistic mood that elevate the show and its conflicted characters. But the grabbiest thing is Gustaf Skarsgård’s drunken, manipulative Merlin. Deftly using wit to zig-zag between clashing clans, he’s absolutely wizard. Kate Stables