The Winter King is a show on MGM+ about King Arthur, the legendary king of the Britains. It’s based on a trilogy of books called The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell, a trilogy that I absolutely inhaled as a young’un. I loved these books. They were gritty, magical and beautifully written, and I was very excited to see them adapted for the screen.
By and large, I was not happy with the results. The first season of The Winter King has come and gone, and my main takeaway is that while it sometimes worked as a TV show, it was pretty bad as an adaptation. I was disappointed.
Then again, I thought the first season improved as it went on. Did it improve enough to warrant a second season? That I’m less sure about. Let’s run through all 10 episodes of season 1 and see if we can clear that up.
10. The worst episode of The Winter King is Episode 4
I’ll admit I’m a very unbiased observer when it comes to The Winter King, and the fourth episode was the one that most angered me as a fan of the books. One of the things I liked about Cornwell’s novels was how it approached magic. This story is set during a time when pagan beliefs were still common in Britain, although they were slowly being displaced by Christianity. Pagans earnestly believed that figures like Merlin had arcane power (and Christians kind of believed it too, even if they wouldn’t admit it). In the books, Merlin doesn’t ever shoot lightning from his fingertips or anything, but he does know an awful lot, and he has power over the people who believe he has power. And isn’t that a kind of magic?
It’s all deliciously squishy and ambiguous in the books. So imagine my consternation when, in this episode, Merlin walks up to a couple of guards and makes them fall asleep with a wave of his hands. He cast Sleep on them. What ambiguity?
Merlin (Nathaniel Martello-White) was my biggest disappointment with this series. In the books, he’s a wily old coot too unpredictable to ever fully be trusted, despite his obvious genius. On the show, he’s interminably bland, a standard issue mentor figure. We spend a lot of aimless time with him in this episode, which loses it points.
Elsewhere, we spend a good chunk of time with young warrior Derfel as he gets an education in the often slimy practice of warfare. That storyline is more successful, but the episode as a whole is still weak. Also it doesn’t have a climax to call it own, ending with a hand wave of “Maybe something interesting will happen next time.” I’d just about given up on the show at this point. Happily, it would improve…eventually.
9. The second worst episode of The Winter King is Episode 6
The Winter King had a bad habit of looking at the twists and turns of Bernard Cornwell’s books, asking itself, “What’s the lamest way to adapt these?” and then doing that. In particular, it tended to introduce important characters way too early, I’m guessing because it was scared that if we weren’t spending time with characters whose names we recognized, we would watch something else. Irony’s ironic like that.
And so we get messes like Episode 6, which introduces us to Guinevere, an important figure from the Arthurian legend. In the books, Arthur first meets Guinevere at a dance meat to celebrate his engagement to Ceinwyn, the daughter of a lord whose alliance he is trying to secure. In the second Arthur sees her, it’s clear that all of his plans are out the window. He falls hard, alliance be damned. That’s the power of love.
For some impenetrable reason, Episode 6 decides to have Arthur and Guinevere meet cute beforehand near a picturesque lake, meaning that all the subsequent events with Ceinwyn lose all semblance of tension. And this isn’t the only time the show does this. For example…
8. The third worst episode of The Winter King is Episode 1
The first episode of The Winter King has an identity problem. In the books, the main character is Derfel, a young pagan who becomes a warrior in Arthur’s service. In fact, neither Arthur nor Merlin turn up until fairly deep into books. On the show, Derfel does get a decent amount of screentime, and is ably played by Stuart Campbell. But the producers were clearly uncomfortable with giving a little-known character like him the spotlight. Instead of waiting for Arthur and Merlin to make their (fantastic and memorable) entrances from the books, they’re put center stage in the first episode.
This results in a premiere episode that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to do with itself. We need focus, but instead we have sprawl. We need to identify with the characters, but instead we struggle to keep up with the introductions. We need to build momentum, but instead we have filler. It just doesn’t work.
If viewers chose to jump ship after this first episode, I wouldn’t blame them. Happily, these are the only three episodes of the show I consider outright bad. That’s not the greatest average, but at least I can watch the rest of these without bursting a blood vessel:
7. The fourth worst episode of The Winter King is Episode 2
After wasting time in the premiere, The Winter King scrambles to catch up in Episode 2, which gives us real introductions to characters like Derfel, Nimue and Merlin. Happily, they prove pretty able to carrying the story.
Episode 2 also introduces Gundleus, a nasty piece of work who will be a thorn in the sides of our heroes for the rest of the season. He raids Merlin’s compound of Avalon, and kills an infant who we think is King Uther’s child Mordred (actually Morgan switched the babies beforehand). The show commits to the baby murder scene, which may be in bad taste but definitely gives the episode a shot of adrenaline.
Visually, The Winter King is…okay. It obviously doesn’t have the budget of something like HBO’s House of the Dragon, but they do their best…except for this one baffling recurring visual motif where they blur the backgrounds of shots for no reason. I first noticed in this episode and it didn’t stop annoying me straight through to the end. Also, in these early episodes, actors like Stuart Campbell and Ellie James have trouble passing themselves off as earnest teenagers Derfel and Nimue, but they grow up as the story goes on, so I’ll cut them some slack. Campbell’s wig is bad, though.
6. The fifth worst episode of The Winter King is Episode 3
Episode 3 is our first proper introduction to Arthur. He’s saddled with sorting through the fallout of the Gundleus-sacked-Avatar-and-tried-to-kill-the-baby-king situation, which is fraught with complications. Arthur will need the alliance of Gundleus’ uncle Gorfydd if he hopes to fight against the invading Saxons, but he’s beset with calls from his own people to execute the rogue. And it’s unclear how much power Arthur is supposed to have; is he merely a caretaker for the baby king Mordred, or does he want to seize power for himself? In navigating all of this, Arthur shows himself to be a canny political operator. And actor Iain De Caestecker plays him him well. His Arthur is smart but supple, a modern man in a backwards time.
The problem with Episode 3 is that, once again, it’s an episode about Arthur on a show about Derfel, and it doesn’t really have a proper ending. It leads into Episode 4, which as we already discussed is a big pile of something.
5. The fifth best episode of The Winter King is Episode 5
Once again, we find Arthur tasked with navigating a tricky situation as a leader: does he excuse the crimes of his advisor Owain, with whom he’s been friends for years, or suck it up and bring his buddy to justice? He chooses the latter, which climaxes in a well-choreographed sword fight in the rain. It’s the show’s best action scene. I also like Derfel’s arc in this episode. This is when his hero worship of Arthur blooms into a lifetime commitment.
The episode is dragged down by a shoehorned-in subplot involving Nimue and Merlin deciding whether to abort her child. It definitely feels like something the show invented to give their characters something to do before they cycle back into the story. But overall, not a bad episode.
4. The fourth best episode of The Winter King is Episode 10
The season 1 finale of The Winter King tries too hard to be something spectacular. In one storyline, Arthur and Guinevere negotiate with the Saxon leader Aelle, which is pretty good — if unremarkable — watching. Meanwhile, Derfel travels to the Isle of the Dead to retrieve Nimue, who has been unjustly imprisoned there. It’s cool to see their bond reinforced, but their death-defying journey back to the world of the living — which comes complete with medieval zombies and an improbable sequence where Arthur destroys a brick wall with Excalibur — is all a bit much.
The finale ends on a bit of a flat note, with many conflicts remaining unresolved. Someone might as well hold up a sign: “Renew us, please!” Still, after spending a season with Derfel and Nimue, I felt something when they reunited, which is what counts.
3. The third best episode of The Winter King is Episode 9
By the end of the season, The Winter King had spent enough time for all the characters to rightly call itself an ensemble show. They didn’t have to give Arthur screentime just because he was famous: he’d earned it, and he shares it with other characters like Derfel, Guinevere and Morgan. And in this episode they’re all mad at him over his decision making.
To make a long story short, Arthur upset some powerful people when he spurned Ceinwyn to marry Guinevere, and he’s not handling the aftermath particularly well. This episode does a good job of showing how even a smart and considerate man like Arthur can let down the people around him. When you’re in charge, it might even be inevitable.
This is one of those episodes that basically ends with a “come back next week” banner, but that’s inevitable in a serialized show like this. Minute for minute, it might be the most tightly written hour of the show.
2. The second-best episode of The Winter King is Episode 7
And here’s where Arthur makes the choices that screw everything up. Episode 7 is set almost entirely at King Gorfydd’s compound in Powys, where Arthur is supposed to marry Gorfydd’s daughter Ceinwyn. Instead he falls for Guinevere, and she for him. The episode does a good job of teasing out all the consequent conflicts. We understand that Arthur’s in love, but also that he’s risking the lives of not only everyone in his party but maybe even all of England, if his alliance with Gorfydd falls through. The characters know they should do one thing but want to do another. There’s a lot of good tension in that conflict.
Ceinwyn emerges as perhaps the episode’s MVP. She takes Arthur’s rejection a lot more gracefully than a lot of people would, I imagine. If the show gets another season, she’ll be back, at least if the series follows the books.
1. The best episode of The Winter King is Episode 8
Episode 8 is nice and expansive, with several storylines taking place in several locations. All of them are interesting. In Arthur’s stronghold of Ynys Wydryn, Arthur’s new wife Guinevere tries to ingratiate herself with her husband’s court, to mixed success. Meanwhile, Arthur tries to put down a potential rebellion in the nearby kingdom of Isca, and is reminded of how some of his recent decisions have weakened his position. And Morgan and Derfel head off to Powys to try and placate King Gorfydd after Arthur spurned his daughter.
By this point, the show had earned enough trust to sprawl out a bit, and for us to watch it without fear that everything was going to fall apart. Also, Episode 8 had what I thought was the only genuinely surprising twist in the show: King Gorfydd, who is no mood to be placated, crucifies Arthur’s advisor — the kindly Bishop Bedwin — to send a message. A united England will have to wait.
Missteps aside, I did more or less enjoy The Winter King by the end. But getting there could be rough. We haven’t heard whether MGM+ plans to renew this series. What do you think: does it deserve to come back?
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels