Chaos is about to take hold of Britain after the sudden death of it’s king, Uther (played by Sebastian Koch). When the people need unity the most, Uther’s daughter Morgan (played by Eva Green) has returned to take over her fathers land with the help of his sworn enemy King Lot (played by James Purefoy). In hopes to put a stop to her evil plans, Merlin (played by Joseph Fiennes) has found Uther’s unknown son Arthur (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) to help fight Morgan while also taking the seat to become the king that Arthur is destined to be.

KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE:
Camelot is not a new story, it’s been told many times, in many different formats, some have been really good, some not so much but this a story that no matter how many times it’s told there is an attraction to the tale of King Arthur and Camelot. I for one have always liked the story of King Arthur, Camelot, the lovely Guinevere, the wizard Merlin, and many others, which hearing that Starz was doing a series about all the story of Camelot I was looking forward to see how edgy and gritty it would be. With Camelot being aired on a premium movie channel it had the opportunity to do what other incantations of the story could not, be edgy, push the limits, and have a gritty, violent side to it while showing it.

After watching all 10 episodes of Camelot I came to the conclusion that it was yet another one of the incantations of this story being told. The opportunity that the show had of being edgy, gritty, violent, and sexy was not taken advantage of. There is a mild amount more of the violence with this version of the story but not enough to separate it from being aired on a normal channel. However, what does separate Camelot from the others is the nudity that’s in it. It’s not a gratuitous amount of nudity in it and it’s not to the point that it needs to be rated with an x, yet there are topless scenes with the main cast that puts this show in the adult versions of the story on King Arthur and Camelot.

Now aside from the nudity that it has, the edginess that could have been put into this show is what makes it only a somewhat enjoyable show. If this was not about King Arthur, Merlin, and Camelot, I would have become bored with it and would have stopped watching after the third episode. This show is a character driven story that focuses on what the young King Arthur is going to do when faced with the challenge of becoming a king while having to figure out how to fight his sister that he didn’t know he had and still keep the peace in the kingdom.

 
I wasn’t too thrilled with the lead role of King Arthur being played by Jamie Campbell Bower. I can’t default his acting, it’s actually decent and he does a well enough job in making the character of Arthur being someone that was raised in the country who has now had the role of king put upon him. Yet as good as a job as he does in making this character seem lost, whiney, young, and more of a man child who is more worried about what woman he can have next, it’s the other side of the coin that hurts the character. At no time did I feel like Jamie Campbell Bower could have been a good choice to show a strong king who leads a kingdom from chaos into unity. There’s not strength given in this character to make me believe that he is a strong king of a chaotic state. I also didn’t like the character of Merlin who seemed like someone that would make a great car salesman because that’s all he really did, was talk. Oh he has visions, but this is the legendary Merlin, the wizard that all wizards look up to being, so where is all this magic and wonder of the character? I don’t know but it don’t help the show that it’s not there.

However, what I found hurts this show that’s a show about another time, is that a lot of the morals and issues that are shown in it are given a more modern day result. In the world of today some of the actions that happen during the age of Arthur would be wrong and not done, however, for a time of knights and kingdoms, they would not think anything was wrong some of the actions that are done on the show. Camelot is a show that tries to portray a different age yet it gives the present time morals to that age, which don’t work.

Still, with the somewhat loosely played era set plots and story points, the acting by most of the cast is done well enough to make the show enjoyable. Even with Merlin seeming more like the manipulative Morgan, and the weakness of King Arthur, I liked how the story unfolded. Like I said, the story of Camelot holds a certain appeal to it that makes it fun to watch and hard not to enjoy and with this version it’s yet another fun one to be watching. The set pieces are amazing in how they look like they could be from that time period, as well as the clothing, which look amazing and actually fits the characters quite well.

CAMELOT ON BLU RAY:
This show looks really good on Blu Ray, even the scenes that are in the dark, which are a lot, it looks good and sounds good. There are a lot of scenes that are set during the night which could end up giving the picture a grainy look, however this grain and noise is not on this Blu Ray. I was more impressed with the picture quality of this show then the show itself. With it’s sharp features, the good camera angles, and some well places lens flares, Camelot looks really good on Blu Ray.

Though what makes this Blu Ray so much fun to watch is not how well the quality it has but it’s bonus features. Included on this 3 disc set are a lot of really good features like the scene breakdowns and my favorite the blooper reel. And if you are unfamiliar with some of the character in the story there are character profiles, which I looked at anyways just because it was fun to read. There’s enough extras on here that once the show is over with there enough to keep it interesting.