Netflix's Cursed is the radical reimagining of fantasy that TV desperately needs

TIME

"The first thing you notice about Cursed is how different it looks from most fantasy shows," says Judy Berman. "It opens with a sweeping shot of a pristine lake surrounded by mountains. The camera dives underwater just as the silhouette of a woman plunges through the aquamarine surface, a ring of white light rippling around her. An arrow pierces her torso, fresh blood diffuses through the water and her breath is a stream of bubbles. The images are so mesmerizing, you might miss on-screen text that reads: 'Before Arthur the King, the Sword of Power chose a Queen.' So, yes, the hero of Netflix’s new Arthurian epic is actually a heroine: Nimue (Katherine Langford of 13 Reasons Why and Knives Out), the canonical Lady of the Lake, a young woman whose fearsome magical powers have made her an outcast in her village and driven a wedge between her and a mother she always seems to disappoint. If the absurd backlash other recent female-led entries in male-dominated genres (Wonder Woman, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) have faced is any indication, her gender may well become a focal point for those who hate the show as well as those who love it. And that would be a shame, because as empowering as Nimue’s journey may be for many female fans, there’s so much else about Cursed—its vibrant visual style very much included—that distinguishes it within the crowded field of fantasy series."

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• Cursed ultimately fails its young female protagonist: "Netflix's Cursed, an R-rated fantasy series reimagining Arthurian legends, has a lot on its plate," says Jennifer Bisset. "A coming-of-age tale following a teenage Nimue, aka the Lady of the Lake, its 10 episodes try to juggle war, a love story, a medieval land-spanning quest and a famous destiny that's ripe to be subverted. Yet after a promising start, it becomes clear that Cursed doesn't have a firm grasp on what kind of show it wants to be, failing to tie all those elements into one connected entity. Torn between young adult drama and R-rated violence, Cursed seems to decide it's best to wander into Game of Thrones territory, with political intrigue and a single impressive one-shot battle sequence. The sweeping English valleys are beautiful, and some of the imagery evokes co-creator Frank Miller's comics -- Sin City, 300 and the graphic novel the show is based on. But disappointingly, Cursed's biggest, yep, curse, comes down to its main character."
• Cursed is an OK show with the raw materials to have been much better given just a bit more commitment to its premise: "I never was able to fully give myself over to Cursed, but I never really got bored and I think there's a better show laying in wait for a second season," says Daniel Fienberg, adding: "With its legion of magic practitioners, forests full of mystical creatures and warrior clans battling for supremacy, Netflix's Cursed is the latest potential TV franchise sure to face Game of Thrones comparisons. But leaving aside whether or not it's the next Game of Thrones, is it even the next Witcher? The drama, based upon the graphic novel by Frank Miller and TV showrunner Tom Wheeler, lacks the inspired fits of lunacy that made Witcher watchable. That is to say there's no nudity and nobody is transformed into an eel. It also, however, lacks the long stretches of utter amateurism that sometimes made Witcher unwatchable."
• Cursed should be applauded for its diverse casting, but that's marred by the treatment of its Black characters' hair: "The fantasy drama is ... refreshing for its diverse casting in not just background and supporting characters, but lead roles as well," says Kayla Sutton. "Still, Cursed suffers from what remains a widespread industry issue: The lack of a key hairstylist trained in Black hair to help oversee styling. This is a particularly frustrating aspect of the show because many of the non-Black/POC actors’ hairstyles are intricately crafted to embody the period and spirit of their characters. While the costumes take this adaptation beyond other shows in the genre, it would’ve catapulted to another level with hairstyling that was uniform in its quality. What is a heartening development is the lighting throughout, which manages to capture the many different skin tones that appear on screen, something that has been an issue for other high-fantasy shows."
• Cursed is the King Arthur prequel nobody was crying for: "Netflix abrades us, in more ways than one, with Cursed," says Lucy Mangan. "This is the expensively made, atrociously written, chaotic, borderline-barmy tale – adapted from a 2019 book by Tom Wheeler and Frank Miller – of Nimue (13 Reasons Why’s Katherine Langford). She is a child of the fae who will – if the script doesn’t kill her first – grow up to be the Lady of the Lake, the enchantress with cameo-to-main roles throughout the Matter of Britain."
• Cursed slots neatly into the new tradition of genre television that subverts classic myth and aspires to cross over: "Katherine Langford has a star’s charisma, but has been presented a brief that the show’s writing can’t quite resolve: playing both a fierce leader and a vulnerable young person," says Daniel D'Addario. "It’s not that these traits can’t coexist (to wit, they did in Daenerys, the modern archetype of a certain sort of character), but the feints by Cursed toward present-day patterns of speech and thought make Nimue’s moments of higher dudgeon seem random. When she tells Arthur that she wants to run away with him to a place where 'we could just be us,' or when she says, of Arthur, that 'it’s kind of hard to describe what we are,' the clattering 21st-century tones make the trappings feel less like medieval times than like the restaurant Medieval Times...Breeziness, though, is a double-edged sword, as it were. And the story’s lack of fealty to the roles particular characters are meant to play in myth or the way they have traditionally looked can give way to a leaning on modern cliché that suggests a dearth of better ideas. Placing the characters in unusual arrangements, with a young woman destined to be the Lady of the Lake at the center of the myth, is a creative notion; giving her first-thought dialogue and often schematic motivations suggests that the creativity here has limits too."
• Cursed offers a refreshing twist as it builds on the on the world of King Arthur
• Cursed's ending is best explained with a deep dive into Arthurian legend
• Netflix launches a Cursed interactive website along with the series
• Katherine Langford is aware Game of Thrones' Arya Stark legacy looms large over the fantasy genre: "It's kind of sad that there are so few women that we see fighting or with swords in this genre—at the epicenters of this genre—that as soon as there's one that's kind of similar it becomes a talking point," she says, adding: "As a credit to Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, the fantasy genre has amassed such a huge mainstream audience. What makes these fantasy pieces stand out is they put their own stamp on the genre. We know what Game of Thrones looks like; we know what Lord of the Rings looks like. As we were filming, (we were) finding out what makes this Cursed, what makes this unique identity ours."
• Langford on filming an epic battle on one of Britain's hottest days of the year: "It was, I think, 101 or 105 (degrees), and we were under lights," she says. "I was wearing three layers of leather and everyone else was basically wearing red blankets and it was wasp season, so I would roll around in fake blood and then someone's job after every take was to pick the wasps off of my costume. Which sounds crazy, but it was actually a lot of fun."