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Couch Potato
The legend of King Arthur is captivating from the start. A boy is spirited away at birth, grows up not knowing he’s the king’s son, and ends up taking the throne himself. From there, the story’s loaded with all kinds of adventure, romance and tragedy, because it’s actually many legends — the stories of each knight of the Round Table — for the price of one. For these reasons, the tale has been reworked in literature for centuries. So why is Disney’s The Sword in the Stone still the closest thing we have to a definitive film version?
Being an avowed King Arthur nerd, I get excited whenever a new movie adaptation of the stories comes out, so I was eager to see Camelot, a series that debuted on Starz last week.
With The Tudors a hit, the time was clearly ripe for another gratuitously sex-fueled romp through British history. The trailer suggested it would be just that: The Tudors set a few hundred years earlier. My hopes were shaken.
At the start of the show, my doubts seemed justified. It was seriously melodramatic, and the writing was so clichéd — Merlin, dramatically bowing: “The king is dead. Long live the king” — that it made good actors look absurd. The anachronisms were blatant: Would a man in 600 A.D. have a shaved head and goatee? Would a young Arthur really unleash sarcastic phrases like “thanks a lot”? Also slightly bothersome was the fact that Arthur, as played by Jamie Campbell Bower, looks like the love child of Chris Martin and the middle Hanson brother. How had Joseph Fiennes and Eva Green, two respectable actors, gotten themselves into this mess?
But despite myself, as Camelot went on, I began to accept it on its own terms — putting my surface concerns aside to enjoy aspects of the show. It remained difficult to fully suspend disbelief and immerse myself in its world; not for a moment was I unconscious of the existence of actors and writers. But if you ignore the haircuts, Camelot has plenty of visual appeal, with its rich depictions of the countryside, medieval villages, and ruined castles. Beyond that, it effectively explores what may be the legend’s most important, and often forgotten, theme: national unity. Arthur comes to power at a time when British warlords are killing each other left and right, and it’s his task to bring them together. But, as T.H. White’s Merlin points out in The Once and Future King, it takes more violence to end the bloodshed. Is that violence justified? Does Arthur have a right to impose his will on the country for its own good? Camelot looks poised to reflect on such questions.
Meanwhile, I did start to like Bower’s Arthur for his mixture of wide-eyed uncertainty and a desire to do right. Maybe it’s just because I’m addicted to the legend — but I’ll give this show a chance.
Rihanna's new music video rivals Lady GaGa for overt sexuality and eye-grabbing costumes (That polka dot dress is to die for). It's uniquely RiRi though, who's softer and more playful with an urban flair. And, oh boy, do we love the kink. Anyone who expresses offense is decidedly lame and unsexy, and should probably stick to board games. S&M is reportedly banned on YouTube in 11 countries (mostly southeast Asia). But it's far more pleasing to the eye than the crotch. The pastel latex, Perez Hilton on a leash, pink popcorn, and bondage are all more fun and cute than raunchy. The song lyrics are pretty clever and so racy that BBC Radio 1 won't play it before 7 p.m. This is odd since there aren't any expletives or explicit sex acts in them. Was it the "Sticks and stones may break my bones/but chains and whips excite me" part? What happened to being afraid your kid would join a gang? If he or she is sophisticated enough to understand innuendo, it's time to curb your censorship and have that talk. Either that, or play Kidz Bop and leave the rest of us alone.
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