[Netflix] Cursed

[Orby]

Cursed is based on the illustrated novel of the same name by Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler. Its just made its way to Netflix. Currently Season 1 is 10 episodes long and am interested to see if anyone else has watched it?

This is supposed to be a pre-Arthur/re-imagining story, telling the story of the lead character Nimue, a young woman with a mysterious gift who is destined to become the Lady of the Lake from the myth.

I haven't read the novel but as someone who did watch the show and only just finished it, I really struggled to get through this. I was dying for some more fantasy-esque shows but this one is so disjointed and awfully put together. The writing is beyond awful, the dialogue is some of the worst I have seen in fantasy since Dungeons and Dragons. It plays out like some modern retelling but in a fantasy setting, its hard to explain but then again the show does a horrible job of that too. Not that I expect everyone in it to speak ye old English pagan speak, but at least put in an effort not to sound like the cast of Eastenders playing the Arthurian legend.

Gustaf Skarsgård plays Merlin (as most will know as Flóki in Vikings) and I'll be honest, he's the best character in this show. Everytime he was onscreen I was hooked. The lead Nimue played by Katherine Langford is frustratingly uninteresting and Devon Terrell who plays Arthur is just dull, so dull. In fact this whole show is just dull.

The sets, as cheap as they look, look interesting and feel like something of the time. there is some nice musical score too, the fight scenes are a lot to be desired though.

There's also some pretty cool political messages in this show especially with the current events that I seemed pretty into but its very lost in the dull plot making it feel underdeveloped..

I am not sure if this is maybe aimed at the Twilight-tween audience, a coming of age teen drama type thing. Would explain why I struggled to get into this show.

There are so many good ideas here, the idea of a story based on the would, soon to be, Lady in the Lake, was instant interest to me, which is why I wanted to watch it. But it left me feeling glad it was over. I am not sure i'll be watching season 2 if it ever happens.

Is this just me, did anyone else enjoy this? Did you watch? Do you aim to watch?

[Sanguinerd]

This, much like "Warrior Nun" was just crap and alot of wasted potential imo and like you said it was a struggle to get through.

Not sure whats up with Netflix lately but they're pumping out some truly shitty shows for god knows what target audience.
(also making Arhur a person of colour is just hilarious at this point)

[cloudbuster]

I objected to the wokepropriation of the British national myth. "Diversity" where there should be none, A black Arthur and Morganna, blacks, asians and indians all over the cast, woke feminism and lgbt everything, a "Christians bad" plot where none existed in the original myth, pretty much all the White men evil and/or ineffectual. Strong and Brave warrior women everywhere. Virtually no connection to the original myth -- it's like they just tossed names and story points in a hat and matched them up randomly.

[Erous]

This show's first season was just epic and has made it to my must watch list.

[Saltysquidoon]

My wife made me watch this with her and it's absolute tosh, I'm genuinely surprised Miller attached his name to this bunk.

Why is there like 1900 years of British history folded into one time period? It just makes nothing make any sense. But like seriously it would have been so much better if it was just bronze age celts.

I know the British superstar comic writers are the certified lords of fedora tipping but occasionally I wish someone would adapt some of their work that isn't a thinly veiled attack on Christianity. Like I don't even care, I'm an atheist but portraying the church as the bad guys stopped being edgy and rebellious in the 2000s

The show also leans way too hard into the "What if the character is the opposite of the Myth" trope. What if the 'pure' was foul-mouthed? What if Merlin was a drunk? What if the demure lady was a 'badass'.

The 'battle' with the wolves was embarrassing, I can't believe they actually left it in the final cut.

Like every Netflix show (seriously everyone) that knows its getting a second season, the entire first season is an extended origin story that stretches itself too thin and introduces too many paper-thin characters you don't care about because the writers know they'll have to option to flesh them out down the road.

[Super Kami Dende]

Did you watch? Do you aim to watch?

No, because it looks like woke trash. The moment I saw a non-white Arthur "Story" I realised it was just more pandering bullshit.

[TheRainman]

I objected to the wokepropriation of the British national myth. "Diversity" where there should be none, A black Arthur and Morganna, blacks, asians and indians all over the cast, woke feminism and lgbt everything, a "Christians bad" plot where none existed in the original myth, pretty much all the White men evil and/or ineffectual. Strong and Brave warrior women everywhere. Virtually no connection to the original myth -- it's like they just tossed names and story points in a hat and matched them up randomly.

Pretty much this.

[Vargrik]

Sounds like I should check it out if it’s pissing off racists this much.

Instead of considering them racists, wouldn't you agree it would be a lot of better if people of color had stories and characters created specially for them (and, even better, BY themselves), instead of eating from the scraps of White people's stories, so to speak?

[Orby]

Sounds like I should check it out if it’s pissing off racists this much.

Its not awful, there are some really good moments. Gustaf Skarsgård who plays Merlin is really good in the role. But the plot is just all over the place and the dialogue is school play levels of laughable.

I couldnt give a shit about the casting. Just wish what they were given was better materal

[Rozz]

I think Warrior Nun was better, but I disliked both. The side characters in WN were more interesting, but I couldn't get past the first episode of Cursed and skimmed the rest to see if it would pick up. Didn't for me.

[Swnem]

Yeah, netflix tried to bother me to watch this one, but i'm really tired of King Arthur stories. Merlin already squeezed everything that could be squeezed out of it.

Instead i watched Snowpiercer, and even though the science is wonky, i didnt regret it. Liked it a lot.

[Ladey Gags]

Gag. I haven’t been able to watch anything on TV in months. Everything is trash. Literally everything made recently is trash. I have not seen one piece of media come out of Hollywood this year that hasn’t been absolute shit. Maybe I just can’t enjoy tv and movies anymore, but idk man everything is just absolutely horrible. I’m surprised anyone can enjoy trash like this.

[Beej]

I objected to the wokepropriation of the British national myth. "Diversity" where there should be none, A black Arthur and Morganna, blacks, asians and indians all over the cast, woke feminism and lgbt everything, a "Christians bad" plot where none existed in the original myth, pretty much all the White men evil and/or ineffectual. Strong and Brave warrior women everywhere. Virtually no connection to the original myth -- it's like they just tossed names and story points in a hat and matched them up randomly.

I honestly didn't even notice any of this until you brought it up. I enjoyed the show.

[Zaelsino]

I feel like I'd enjoy the show more if the entire thing was just about Merlin fucking around. The best stuff so far has been when he's off on his own interacting with other pagan weirdos.

[Dziubla]

Tried to turn it on, since I usually like all the Arthurian legends stuff, but...nah, it was just too painful, like most of netflix crap they're making lately. Already cancelled my sub, I've been overlooking their bullshit propaganda for a while, but lately even the quality of the shows, propaganda aside, has just become...way too low. Would rather watch Prime stuff.

Sounds like I should check it out if it’s pissing off racists this much.

Well, if you're one of those wokesters who sees racism everywhere, and who likes eating shit, as long as the shit is diverse enough, I'm sure you will enjoy it, you're definitely the target audience.

[Zarc]

I'm a sucker for fantasy, so I watched it. Episode 1 made me disappointed right away because it seemed very obviously aimed at children, but then in the end there was this huge splash of blood at the camera, so then I was just bewildered by what demographic it was meant for. It continued like that, the story, characters, costume design and dialogue felt like it was for children, but then you had these graphic bloody incidents sprinkled in there, I was really confused by that. But then I remembered that teenagers exists, so I guess these half-adult, half-children creatures are the target audience for this show. I watched it to the end regardless, so I guess I'll grade it as watchable, but probably the worst of the shows I've been watching during my summer holiday. Definitely worse than Warrior Nun, I actually thought that one was OK. Running out of things to watch!

[oplawlz]

What color the actors are has no impact on anything - the story is right around twilight level and the acting slightly below. If you liked that you'll probably like this.

[Zarc]

Tried to turn it on, since I usually like all the Arthurian legends stuff, but...nah, it was just too painful, like most of netflix crap they're making lately. Already cancelled my sub, I've been overlooking their bullshit propaganda for a while, but lately even the quality of the shows, propaganda aside, has just become...way too low. Would rather watch Prime stuff.



Well, if you're one of those wokesters who sees racism everywhere, and who likes eating shit, as long as the shit is diverse enough, I'm sure you will enjoy it, you're definitely the target audience.

Not sure how it is propaganda, I can't remember them making an issue of anyone's skin pigmentation in the show? They pretty much just ignored that. I don't see how Arthur's skin pigment is any more of an issue than say the color of his hair, his eyes, his height, or the shape of his nose. If there was a source material, which this doesn't have, the actor never looks the way the character is described in the book anyway, so why should any attribute matter? And actors who play characters who are supposed to be related rarely look like each other anyway. I mean who seriously believed that Adam Driver was Harrison Ford and Carrie Fishers son? He looks nothing like them at all, they could have found an actor with dark skin that looked more like any of them than Adam Driver.

This actually reminds me of this movie, which ignored the actors' physical attributes too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pe...id_Copperfield

Characters with fair skin had children with dark skin and vice versa, Benedict Wong had a daughter with dark skin and curly hair. Nobody said anything about it. In the end if you are going to make a modern adaption of a piece of classic English literature in 2020's UK, your pool of actors will look different than your pool of actors did for a 1950's adaption. In the end you are probably ignoring how the characters are described in the book in terms of physical attributes anyway, so why should the attribute of skin pigmentation be any different? Just cast the actor that best captures the personality of the character.

[Daedius]

Tried watching it...

It. Sucks...

[Skorpionss]

No, I don't watch any series that has less than a 7 IMDB rating, unless I really like the premise a lot. I'm more permissive with movies, because they aren't as much of a time drain as tv shows are.