Cursed is losing that Arthurian magic in Episode 5, “The Joining”

Morgana urges Nimue to use the sword as leverage, Father Cardin faces a bitter humiliation, and Uther loses patience with Merlin.

Although it has its strengths, Cursed just doesn’t seem to know what to do to make its story take off. The show is good, but “good” probably isn’t good enough to get the Netflix show re-upped for a second season, considering the number of high-quality shows running right now, including on Netflix.

Halfway through Cursed’s first season, we have “The Joining.” The viking warlord Cumber the Ice King (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) and his raiders invade King Uther’s territory. Arthur and Nimue’s relationship heats up as they join Morgana, Gawain and the Fay refugees in Nemos. The wretched Pope Abel (Clive Francis) and his gold-faced Trinity pressure Father Cardin for results. Pym finds a place among the Vikings. Nimue meets the ancient Fay witch Yeva (Olwen Fouere) and manages to meet Merlin in the Between, where she learns he is her father.

The narrative chugs along, dutifully checking in with legendary names we know from Arthurian lore such as Morgana, Igraine and Sir Ector (not to mention Arthur, Nimue, Uther Pendragon and Merlin). But with the exception of Nimue and Merlin, every character has been stripped of their mythical aura and had it replaced by far more mortal characterizations. That would be fine if the replacement characters were up to snuff, but despite a decent cast, they’re not.

Thus far, Cursed hasn’t been able to develop its characters much beyond giving them new but largely shallow, bog-standard backstories. Merlin and Nimue are more interesting, but don’t feel as iconic and mysterious as they do in the original works.

The latest classic characters to be given this treatment are Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. This duo face off in one of the most well-known challenges in Arthurian lore, and yet Cursed has decided to merge them.

CURSED (L TO R) OLWEN FOUƒRƒ as YEVA in episode 105 of CURSED Cr. Netflix © 2020

That’s an interesting choice, but does it work? Gawain, played with suitable hunkiness by British actor Matt Stokoe, arrives at the Fay “joining” celebration and immediately gets in between Arthur and Nimue. For me, Gawain’s appearance was a disappointment. Little about him harks back to Sir Gawain or the awesome Green Knight with the exception of one emerald-colored shoulder pauldron. Thus far, he’s just a guy; perhaps a highly capable Fay with some supernatural potential, but just a guy.

Herein lies Cursed’s problem: its great to cherry-pick Arthurian tales for names, story devices, plot elements and relationships and mash them up with new characters and ideas, but if you can’t replicate the original’s well-tested sense of deep meaning and mystery, you’re screwed. I think Cursed can do it. I can see the building blocks its setting up. But doing things like splicing Gawain and the Green Knight into one dude and introducing him as part of a potential love triangle with Nimue and Arthur is, well, deflating.

If you’re sticking with Cursed up to and past Episode 5 you’re either enjoying it for what it is or hoping the show will ramp up on the rocket fuel of its potential. If you’re part of the latter group, as I am, then your patience may be wearing thin.

EPISODE RATING: B-

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