Camelot! It's only a model

We English love our legends. Robin Hood, Saint George, King Arthur, Jesus, they’re all off the fucking chain. We even treat Sherlock Holmes as if he were a real person. The Americans probably think he is real. It’s no surprise that we have a penchant for legends considering our gruesome history. We can’t celebrate an actual historical figure because most of them were bastards, so we turn to the more mysterious dudes who have morals and ideals we can be proud of, though in reality they were probably pricks as well.

These legends are adapted on screen more often than you and I have meals, you’re actually more likely to be cast as Robin Hood than win the lottery. The latest adaptation (at the time of writing!) is Camelot, a rejigging of the King Arthur legend. In contrast to the usual hench, masculine depiction of Arthur, this one is a young scrawny blonde guy, and the series focuses on his earlier days as king.

Written by the guys who brought us The Tudors, Camelot is very similar, though somewhat more historically accurate. It’s also much more entertaining, free from the shackles of a tangible history, the writers have been able to create something a little less rigid, there was always this feeling of contempt for history with The Tudors, as if it was getting in the way of the drama. This isn’t a problem with Camelot, creative license has gone ape shit and there’s all manner of magic and mysticism happening.

Much like The Tudors there are some fairly big names in Camelot, and like their Tudor counterparts they too partake in gratuitous sex, nudity and homoeroticism, but doesn’t every swashbuckling television series these days? Some might say that no sex is gratuitous, but when it’s extras in a crowded court you have to seriously question the relevance of it. Maybe some viewers doubted that sex existed in those times and it serves as a handy reminder? Don’t get me wrong, sex and tits are great, but they have a time and a place.

The same goes for crude language, it can at times make for a punchy dialogue, but this isn’t Clerks, it’s King Arthur, and if you want to be picky, cunt wasn’t even a word back then. Admittedly James Purefoy’s “ah fuck this” made me laugh, but it also reflects the producer’s opinions as they’ve already pulled the plug on the series, which seems a little harsh considering The Tudors made it to 4 seasons, even with Joss Stone in it!
I haven’t watched all of it yet and there’s still time for Joss Stone to make an appearance, maybe it deserved to get cancelled. I may never know as I’m questioning whether it’s even worth watching the rest of the first and only season, or if I should just give up and watch Game of Thrones instead. That surely won’t have any gratuitous sex in it.