Rehashing history

Manpriya Singh

Any spin on the legends of historical fantasy characters is often modern, but rarely progressive. However, it’s truly ladies first in the recent outing of Netflix titled Cursed, as the Lady of the Lake or Nimue is the first to wield the sword even before the legendary King Arthur chances upon it!

Based on the illustrated novel by Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler, you know Cursed is a spin on the tales of King Arthur when it rehashes the history and sequence a bit in the first few seconds of introduction, “Before Arthur The King, The Sword of Power chose a queen.”

Scorned as a sorceress, the young woman Nimue leaves her tribe to start afresh. Like we said, Katherine Langford, playing the titular Cursed, is a character that is quite aligned with a few populist ideas of the 21st century feminism. After she runs away from the village (along with her sweet and supportive friend Pym, played by Lily Newmark), she doesn’t mind sitting down for some ale with a young mercenary named Arthur, whom she just met and is bold enough to roll the weighted dice, “at the risk of a kiss and in lure of ten silver.” However, Father Carden and the Red Paladins won’t let the fantasy series be a fairy tale. They have burnt at least two dozen villages of Nimue’s tribe Fey, the otherworldly beings. Nimue is force-assigned the task of delivering Excalibur (the sword) to Merlin by none other than her dying mother.

Character wise

Gustaf Skarsgard as the eternally drunk and always conflicted Merlin, the magician, is likeable during every bit of the screen time. Not to forget the coolest, witty spin on the old-bearded Merlin that has found its way in any imagination of medieval literature. So Merlin is still ‘reading the omens’ even when there is a blood rain in the castle of the one he serves — that is King Uther Pendragon. However, Skarsgard stealing the show could also have a lot to do with the TV series Vikings and Westworld, and the hangover that the audience is still likely to suffer from.

In the background, the metal clangs at the right moment and the leading lady, Katherine Langford, is convincing, but not quite as much she was in 13 Reasons Why! The grandiose of any battle or war is judged from the sense of the number of those fighting it and a lot many times the Fey villages appear nothing more than a hamlet, and the deep woods a bit too glossy.

Nimue’s accomplice Arthur (played by Devon Terrell) could have been handed over smarter lines, the best of which have been reserved for funny conversations between King Uther and authority- defying Merlin. The geographical locations such as Hawksbridge, Sheep Herd and Burned Press fit into the narrative. There is also enough to cringe; beheaded bodies, dead foetuses and all the Medieval blood and gore, which also explains the ‘R’ rating. Whether it is real or believable is not relevant here, as long it is transportive and surreal. Which it is, but it is also an over-stretch.