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Cursed's first season isn't as subversive as its source material, but strong plotting and a heroic performance from Katherine Langford make for an enjoyable escape. Read Critics Reviews
- 5. The Joining
Reviews Morgana urges Nimue to use the sword to her...
- 10. The Sacrifice
Reviews With the future of the Fey hanging in the balance...
- 4. The Red Lake
A Quiet Place: Day One First Reviews: A Tense, Surprisingly...
- 9. Poisons
A Quiet Place: Day One First Reviews: A Tense, Surprisingly...
- 8. The Fey Queen
Reviews With Red Paladins closing in on the Fey hideout,...
- 3. Alone
Reviews Nimue wakes up in an abbey surrounded by strangers,...
- 5. The Joining
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Jul 17, 2020 · Cursed is a new exciting fantasy series on Netflix which takes the King Arthur legend and turns it on its head. The show is based on a story by comic book maestro Frank Miller (The Dark Knight,...
65% Avg. Tomatometer 55 Reviews 51% Avg. Audience Score 1,000+ Ratings In a retelling of the Arthurian legend, teenage sorceress Nimue joins forces with a young and charming mercenary named...
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- 1
- TV-MA
Cursed: Created by Frank Miller, Tom Wheeler. With Katherine Langford, Devon Terrell, Gustaf Skarsgård, Daniel Sharman. A teenage sorceress named Nimue encounters a young Arthur on her quest to find a powerful and ancient sword.
- (33K)
- 2020-07-17
- Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
- 60
- The Frank Miller/Tom Wheeler foray into Arthurian legend should’ve left the sword in the stone.
- Cursed Season 1 Gallery
- Verdict
By Emily Tannenbaum
Updated: Jul 18, 2020 2:57 pm
Posted: Jul 17, 2020 5:29 pm
This is a mostly spoiler-free review of Netflix’s Cursed: Season 1.
Normally, one should never judge a show based on its opening credits, but when watching the intro of Cursed, Netflix subscribers might assume it's an off-shoot of another teen heroine series, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
Therein lies one of the biggest struggles the streaming service faced with its foray into Arthurian legend starring 13 Reasons Why's Katherine Langford: The tone of the series speaks to a Gen Z and Millennial audience that's perpetually hungry for gritty, female "chosen one" adventures. It’s an audience devoted to Buffy, Sabrina, Katniss Everdeen, and Tris, but, I would argue, has little emotional connection to King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and all of the various men that wield swords in those tales.
Perhaps this is an egregious overgeneralization. Maybe I’m off-base and most of Cursed's viewers will be fascinated by medieval lore (or at least have dads like mine who discuss Lancelot's trysts as if they were historical fact akin to his extensive knowledge on World War II and the Battle of Normandy). Either way, Cursed is messy. The show feels overproduced — the colors too bright, the makeup and gruesome effects not quite right. The pacing is clunky at best — at random points throughout the season, there are multiple comic-like illustrated transitions between scenes that feel like a random placeholder for lack of a better way to progress to the next point.
These elements suggest a level of camp similar, coincidentally, to Merlin, but with material that takes itself far more seriously. Nimue is repeatedly abused by her own tribe (making it slightly hard as a viewer to care about avenging them), then victimized some more by random scavengers and hunted by the grotesque Paladins. Even with attempted comedic levity in scenes between the hapless King Uther and inebriated Merlin, the series is mostly weighed down in woe.
Cursed never finds its sweet spot, designed as it is for an audience that might be more devoted to Katherine Langford than fascinated by a Lady of the Lake origin story. Beyond that, almost every aspect of the series is timidly recycled from Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, without half the impact. Even its mistakes mimick its recent Netflix ...
Jul 18, 2020 · Reviews. The biggest flaw of the new Netflix fantasy drama 'Cursed' is its central character, the nascent Lady of the Lake played by Katherine Langford.
Jul 17, 2020 · 4.5 out of 5. Netflix’s feminist Arthurian retelling, Cursed, is a refreshing new spin on a classic legend that puts the spotlight on the story’s women for once.
