Netflix: Review of CURSED: Arthur from Another Angle

August 5, 2020

One thing about this quarantine is the extra time it gave me to actually binge on entire TV series, something I never did before. There are excellent ones which were an easy binge, like "Trollhunters" or "The Umbrella Academy." Some may be flawed, but they may have something interesting in them that somehow engaged you follow it all the way to the end despite its faults. "Cursed" is more of the latter kind.

Nimue (Katherine Langford) was a rebellious girl from the Fey tribe. She was shunned by her neighbors for being a witch because of her ability to call on plants to hurt her tormentors in times of distress. One day, her village was attacked and destroyed by a band of red-robed priests called the Red Paladins, under the leadership of the heartless Fr. Carden (Peter Mullan) and their deadly hooded warrior called the Weeping Monk (Daniel Sharman). 

On her deathbed, Nimue's mother Lenore (Catherine Walker) told her to bring a powerful enchanted sword to the drunken wizard named Merlin (Gustaf Skarsgård), adviser to the weakling King Ulther (Sebastian Armento). Along her way, Nimue encountered a dashing mercenary named Arthur (Devon Terrell), who stole the sword to win a tournament which he hoped would gain favor from his cruel guardian, Sir Ector of Gremaire (Peter Guinness).

"Cursed" was a young adult series recounting the tumultuous coming of age of a gifted Fey peasant girl who would later become way more powerful in more ways than one. Nimue regarded her abilities as a curse because these were the reason for her social ostracization. As she faced a series of betrayals and persecutions along her way, facing mortal danger from both politicians and churchmen, Nimue would have to finally accept her powers, develop them and use them to help her people survive. The winsome Katherine Langford portrayed her inner conflicts and growth quite well. 

Its connection to the Arthurian legend really tenuous, but this was the aspect that hooked me to stay. This was even if the names of various characters here actually had nothing to do with the Camelot stories. Aside from Arthur and Merlin, we would also hear the names of several knights of the Round Table, such as Bors, Gawain, Percival and Lancelot. Arthur had a sister here named Morgana (Shalom Brune-Franklin), who used the name Igraine when she was a nun. These were the names of King Arthur's half-sister Morgan le Fay and her mother in the legends.

The casting was very much of this day, with an all-inclusive group of actors. There was interracial romance as well as lesbian romance. The feminist leaning was unmistakable with the triumvirate of Nimue, Morgana and ebony Amazon warrior Kaze (Adaku Ononogbo) leading the resistance, as well as an 11th hour entrance of Red Spear (Bella Dayne). There were also three major female antagonists: the creepy Sister Iris (Emily Coates), the imperious Queen Regent (Polly Walker) and Nordic warrior Eydis (Sofia Oxenham). 

The target older teen audience would appreciate the aspects of dark magic and horror, folkloric fantasy, and perhaps even the gory scenes of computer-generated violence. For me, these things can get rather corny. There were even some sneaky references to "Game of Thrones" as well, with all its medieval political maneuvering and having a character called the "Ice King". Because of the last-minute revelations in the final episode, a second season is in the works, but I am not sure if I will still watch that though. 6/10.