Arthur makes a good impression in Episode 3 of The Winter King

The Winter King starts playing the long game in Episode 3, and it’s mostly, generally, on the whole…fine.

As a big fan of Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles books, part of me is incapable of enjoying this show as much as the producers want me to, because they’ve changed so much. Morgan, who in the books is an envious pagan fanatic who yearns to supplant Nimue as Merlin’s favorite, is downright reasonable here, which is better for the other characters but not as fun. Merlin himself is also a lot less interesting than he is in the books, and I think this episode is better for him barely being in it.

But even divorcing myself from my book fandom, the show is…lacking in some areas. For instance, it’s pretty obvious that the budget isn’t very big. The clearest evidence of this is the way backgrounds will regularly be blurred out, as if someone dipped the lens in vaseline and only wiped off the center. If this is an artistic choice, it’s bafflingly off-putting, so I’ll just assume that filming in forests is hard and expensive.

For all that, The Winter King is a coherent show that serves up some edible meat and potatoes storytelling, even if it’s not the most delicious meal you’ve ever had. So I’ll try and give Arthur his due.

The Winter King Episode 3 review

Arthur — not King Arthur yet, that comes later — is at the center of Episode 3, possibly too much so. In the book, it’s clear that Derfel is the main character, but the show has shifted focus. At least Arthur doesn’t feel as shoe-horned in here as he did in the premiere.

Arthur finds himself in the midst of a precarious political situation: he has captured Gundleus, the would-be king of Dumnonia who killed Queen Norwenna and raped Nimue last episode. He would have killed baby King Mordred as well had Morgan not duped him long enough for Arthur to come to the rescue. Pretty much everyone wants Gundleus dead, but Arthur opts to imprison him instead, hoping to use him as political leverage to unite the warring British kingdoms against incursion by the Saxons.

That’s a pretty big move for someone who isn’t even technically in charge of Dumnonia at this point; that honor goes to Owain, who at first is happy to see Arthur but quickly starts to suspect that Arthur is after his job. And given how popular Arthur is with the locals and his own men, it’s not a crazy thing to think.

I like that bit of characterization. Arthur is a new kind of man for medieval Britain: he’s a warrior but he doesn’t like war. He’s a leader, but he tries to lead with compassion and strategy rather than vengeance and violence. He seems like a great guy, but the script leaves enough ambiguity that we may wonder if it’s all a ploy. Maybe Arthur is violating the norms of the age to serve some secret purpose…I mean, probably not, he’s King Arthur, but we can see how other characters might think that.

Nimue certainly disagrees with him. If it were up to her, she’d string Gundleus and his druid wife up in the town square and paint the town with their blood, then trap their souls in a bottle and bury them six feet under the smelliest bog in Britain. And it’s easy to see why she wants vengeance after what Gundleus did to her. But Arthur will not be moved. Nimue tries to enlist Derfel in a plan to trick Arthur so she can get to Gundleus, but Arthur sees right through it, which is bad for Derfel and Nimue’s friendship but means that Derfel’s hero worship of Arthur just went from 10 to 11.

Nimue has an unstable intensity that does feel true to the books, and I think that actor Ellie James is mostly selling it. Iain De Caestecker is also solid as Arthur, a modern man in a savage time. I wouldn’t say any of the performances on this show are spectacular, but several will do.

Episode 3 isn’t as much a story onto itself as Episodes 1 and 2 were. It ends with a cliffhanger, as Arthur lets Gundleus go in the hope that he’ll convince other British rulers to attend a ceremony in Dumnomina. Arthur’s idea is that once everyone is together they can make plans to fight the Saxons rather than squabble amongst themselves. Will he succeed? We’ll have to wait until next week to find out. I can be there, sure.

The Winter Bullet Points

• There are a few scenes where the characters are talking over maps of England, and I have to ask: what in the hell are those weird grid-like fixtures hanging about their heads? I can’t begin to speculate.
• I could be wrong, but I think Stuart Campbell is wearing a long blonde wig as Derfel and I think I hate it. I’m looking forward to a time jump and picking up with him when he has shorter hair.
• The relationship between Derfel and Nimue reminds me of the one between Uhtred and Brida on The Last Kingdom, which is based on a different book series by Bernard Cornwell. Lead male character has intense childhood relationship with wild-willed woman from whom he eventually grows apart. And if you watched The Last Kingdom, you may have some idea where the Derfel-Nimue relationship is going.

Episode Grade: C+

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