The series finale of Camelot ran this weekend, and it pulled the season to a powerful conclusion.
The big strength here is that the character of Arthur has finally come into his own. The events at the battle for Bardon Pass, while oddly Home Alone-esque at points, were starkly defining, and fully rousing.
The character seems here to finally stop being a boy, and really act like a noble, selfless king, with his people’s needs in mind well over his own. Of course, it’s impossible not to note the selfishness that drives many of the actions, but it’s difficult not to root for him.
The Guinevere character was probably the most dynamic of the bunch. She goes from being feisty and likable in the beginning of the season to a despicable drama-llama near the midpoint and back to a lovely and likable character in the final few episodes.
The real gem however is Claire Forlani as Igraine, having to not only play the role of Igraine herself, but also of Morgan posing as Igraine.
I personally never really considered Igraine’s place in the court of Camelot before, and in the first episodes, it seemed in the beginning as though the character would settle mostly to the background of the tale, but as the season went on, she became more and more interesting and integral.
Especially interesting was her relationship with Merlin, and the development therein. With both characters gone from the show at the end of the final episode, however, it seems we won’t get to see any more of that subplot.
Joseph Fiennes was also fantastic as a new interpretation on Merlin, but that’s not really a surprise. We all knew from the start that he would steal the show.
The writing for the entire season was excellent, and while not all of the actors were top notch, the episodes played together cohesively thanks to the adroit writing. My immersion was such that I was even surprised by some of the twists, despite understanding well all versions of the source material, and even talking about some of these very possibilities before the show aired.
If you don’t have the Starz channel, or if you simply failed to catch this show, I’ll tell you it’s worth picking up when it finally hits DVD.
No word yet if there will be a second season, but I can’t imagine that they would let this one go, so I think we’re just waiting for the announcement. I would be very surprised if it didn’t come back, even if the ratings weren’t all that great since, like HBO, Starz isn’t particularly guided by ratings.
