Four Torches (Out of Five)
Warning: The review contains plot-spoilers for the “Lancelot” episode of Merlin.
So Lancelot finally showed up in last night’s episode of Merlin, the series’ fifth, and I was immediately wary.
I had read a plot synopsis that talked about how Lancelot wants to be a knight of Camelot, but can’t because he isn’t of “noble” blood, and I thought to myself, “If Lancelot proves himself ‘worthy’ by the incredibly obvious act of killing the griffin that is terrorizing the kingdom, I just might never watch an episode of this show again.”
But I should have trusted that this show, which I’m really starting to love, wouldn’t go the obvious route.
Lancelot of the Hairy Chest (played by Heroes‘ very hunky Santiago Cabrera) wants to be a knight, but the rules clearly forbid it. So Merlin suggests impersonating a noble, in order to “bend” the rules. Lancelot balks, arguing that knighthood isn’t just about being good with a sword; it’s also about not lying and cheating — about holding yourself to a higher standard. But in the end, he acquiesces to Merlin’s plan.
Their lie is soon exposed, of course, but that’s when things get interesting.
Yes, Lancelot ends up “killing” the griffin. Sort of. In truth, it’s Merlin’s magic that kills it, for it is a magical creature that cannot be killed by sword alone.
But Arthur and King Uthur don’t know that. Arthur is on the verge of convincing the king that Lancelot has proven himself worthy of knighthood, that the “rule” that a knight must be a noble should be changed.
Then Lancelot of the Hairy Chest himself steps in to speak: “No,” he says. “I’m not worthy.” He can’t say how the griffin was really killed — he’s promised Merlin he wouldn’t reveal his secret. But he can’t take the credit for it either.
In other words, the only way Lancelot of the Hairy Chest can prove he truly is knight-material is … by declining to be a knight, at least for the time being. Which is exactly what he does.
Noble blood? Please. Lancelot’s clearly got that in spades — real nobility, that is, not the phony lineage kind that Uther is so hung up about. And in a nice moment, Uther seems to realize that too.
Nice job, Merlin writers and producers! They say the perfect ending to a story is both unexpected and inevitable — and that’s exactly what this ending was.
What else worked in this episode? Well, Gwen measuring Lancelot of the Hairy Chest’s inseam was interesting. And you gotta love when Merlin asks her, “If you had to choose, just for the sake of argument, would you pick Arthur or Lancelot?”
“But I don’t have to choose,” Gwen says, “and I never will.”
Ah, clearly she’s never read any of the 50,000 adaptations of the Camelot story. Eventually she will have to choose, and the fate of the kingdom just might turn on her choice.
What didn’t work so well in the episode? That opening sequence when Lancelot saves Merlin from the griffin scored pretty high on the contrive-o-meter. Why is it that Merlin uses magic effortlessly at all times — except those times when the plot requires that he doesn’t.
Also, regarding the CGI griffin, well, perhaps the less said about that, the better.
Though not as good as the book on which it’s based, this 2001 TNT miniseries showcased a feminist reimagining of Camelot, where the women did the heavy lifting when it came to pushing the plot forward. For a made-for-TV movie, the production values were pretty admirable, and it boasted some surprisingly good performances, most notably Julianna Margulies as Morgaine and Angelica Houston as Vivianne. Despite the slightly dragging pace toward the end, and the fact that Arthur and Lancelot suddenly appear out of nowhere in fake beards and Prince Valiant wigs to show the passage of time, this is still one of the better versions of the story out there.
Though dated within an inch of its life, this movie still pretty much rocks. Artfully directed by John Boorman, Excalibur is a compressed, 120-minute version of almost the entirety of Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, which is one of the best known works of Arthurian literature, and what many people consider “canon.” The film covers all the bases: Uther wining the kingdom, the sword in the stone, Arthur’s young life, Merlin being trapped in a tree, Lancelot and Guinevere, Mordred, the quest for the Holy Grail … name it and it’s in there. Nicol Williamson chews the scenery — but in a good way — as Merlin, and Helen Mirren steals the show as Morgana. Come to think of it, when is Morgana (Or Morgaine, or Morgan le Fay, whatever you want to call her) not a scene-stealing role?
Taking a well-known and well-loved fantasy story, removing all of the magic, and turning it into a gritty, severed-limbs-and-all war movie is an awfully risky move, as evidenced by 2004’s lukewarm Troy. But Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur, which came out the same year, was so much better than it should have been, and took many people by surprise with just how slick and watchable it ended up being. Much of its strength is in its casting: Clive Owen is a strong and fascinating Arthur, Ioan Gruffud makes for a sympathetic and earnest Lancelot, and then there’s the film’s secret weapon in Keira Knightly, who is the most bad-ass Guinevere you will ever see. Here the character has been reimagined as a “Woad” (the film’s version of Picts, native people of Scotland), and she fights harder and more viciously than any of the men in the final epic battle scene. Plus she’s not too hard to look at in her leather and green body paint.
Renowned thespian Martin Lawrence, perhaps best known to many for his work on the London stage as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company, brought his theatrical charisma and dramatic gravitas to the role of Jamal Walker in Black Knight, a fiercely intelligent and moving adaptation of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Though it was robbed of the Academy Award in a shocking upset to Daddy Day Care, Black Knight remains in the heart of the public as the definitive cinematic glimpse into life in Camelot.
