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dhampyresaGiven that the Kaamelott movie(s) are happening supposedly sometime soon, I decided I was going to rewatch the whole series. That turned out to be more of a watch than a rewatch, because while I'd seen some of the first four seasons I had seen pretty much nothing of the last two.
So. Kaamelott is a French TV show that's a retelling of the Arthurian legend, in which dealing with the Knights of the Round Table is worse than herding cats. It starts as comedy 3m30 shorts and turns into a 45m episodes drama for s5 and s6. It's got six seasons, it ends in an awful cliffhanger (Arthur's destitute and suicidal in Rome, Lancelot is ruling the kingdom and burning the Round Table) and has been left on this cliffhanger since 2009. Mind you, that's still a better cliffhanger to leave things on than the one at the end of s5.
S1 is comedy. Everyone is varying degrees of incompetent, but while it can get really frustrating, everyone still basically gets along.
S2 is comedy. Everyone is still incompetent and it is seriously getting on Lancelot (and Arthur's) nerves.
S3 is comedy. Lancelot is splitting his time between advising Arthur and being knight errant to be away from the idiots. Lancelot's absence puts even more pressure on Arthur. Lancelot fucks off to have his own Grail quest without blackjack and hookers so there.
S4 is comedy. Arthur's depression gets worse following Lancelot (and Guenièvre) betraying him. Also everyone is still stupid and incompetent and he still hasn't found the Grail. Lancelot goes off the deep end.
S5 is dramatic. Tbh this is my least favourite of the seasons because it looks so grey and also it's not as funny as the earlier seasons. Lancelot blows his fuse several times -- he's listening to Méléagant, who here is some sort of incarnated bad omen, who wants him to kill Arthur -- and Arthur's depression gets hella worse. Arthur eventually puts the Sword back in the Stone and renounces his kingship. Then he goes on a roadtrip with Méléagant, which goes about as well as you'd expect. The season ends with Lancelot barging into Arthur's bathroom to kill him and finds that Arthur's slit his wrists -- SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT CLIFFHANGERS.
S6 is dramatic. The show basically asked "You know what would make us all feel better? Romans!" and indeed Romans do make me feel better. This season (last episode excepted) is a prequel to 15 years before s1, when Arthur is still Arturus, nameless soldier in Rome's urban militia. The season then takes us on the journey of how he got from there to being, well, King Arthur. The last episode picks up some time after s5, Arthur gives Lancelot the rule of the kingdom (the Sword is still in the Stone, fyi) and Lancelot, despite having turned his life around and healed Arthur, saving his life, at the end of s5 (tbh I had to go back to catch that shot) then proceeds to listen to Méléagant again and go off the deep end. AGAIN.
It's not a perfect show and sometimes it is very much of its time, but it's frequently hilarious, Arthur is the most relatable of the Arthurs and the cinematography is always gorgeous. Also, you can see both the budget increases and where the money went from season to season.
In case you were wondering, yes, there are times where I went "THAT'S NOT HOW ARTHURIANA WORKS", but for the most part it's cool.
The show feels a lot like some guy got his friends and family together to work on his passion project and somehow they landed both a budget and national airtime (on M6 -- this show lead to so many French memes, you guys. SO MANY), probably because it kind of is. The guy who plays Arthur is also the scenarist, the producer, the video editor, the composer and the interpreter for the music. He may also have other roles, idk. When did he sleep. (He is also related to a not inconsequential chunk of the cast.)
It is sometimes very very French.
I like a lot of the humour of the first seasons. My favourite running gag is probably nobody being able to see the Lady of the Lake but Arthur, leading to a lot of confusion when he's talking to her while other people are also there. It's not humourous, but I'm really fond of Guenièvre being friends with Arthur's mistresses (Guenièvre/Demetra OTP, tbh).
I really like how the later seasons and the first ones too, but to a lesser extent, deal with themes of power and kingship. What makes a great king/leader is that "Ils ne se battent que pour la dignité des faibles." (They fight only for the dignity of the weak.) which yeah. Okay.
There are a lot of really fun episodes -- including one where Perceval goes through a dimension door to Tatooine and steals Luke's ROTJ lightsaber (Arthur makes him put it back) -- but my favourite is the one where they get super excited at the idea of killing a Roman, because the Romans are supposedly federating them, but it's cool if they tell Rome it wasn't them. (This turns out to be Arthur's buddy Caius.)
So. Kaamelott is a French TV show that's a retelling of the Arthurian legend, in which dealing with the Knights of the Round Table is worse than herding cats. It starts as comedy 3m30 shorts and turns into a 45m episodes drama for s5 and s6. It's got six seasons, it ends in an awful cliffhanger (Arthur's destitute and suicidal in Rome, Lancelot is ruling the kingdom and burning the Round Table) and has been left on this cliffhanger since 2009. Mind you, that's still a better cliffhanger to leave things on than the one at the end of s5.
S1 is comedy. Everyone is varying degrees of incompetent, but while it can get really frustrating, everyone still basically gets along.
S2 is comedy. Everyone is still incompetent and it is seriously getting on Lancelot (and Arthur's) nerves.
S3 is comedy. Lancelot is splitting his time between advising Arthur and being knight errant to be away from the idiots. Lancelot's absence puts even more pressure on Arthur. Lancelot fucks off to have his own Grail quest without blackjack and hookers so there.
S4 is comedy. Arthur's depression gets worse following Lancelot (and Guenièvre) betraying him. Also everyone is still stupid and incompetent and he still hasn't found the Grail. Lancelot goes off the deep end.
S5 is dramatic. Tbh this is my least favourite of the seasons because it looks so grey and also it's not as funny as the earlier seasons. Lancelot blows his fuse several times -- he's listening to Méléagant, who here is some sort of incarnated bad omen, who wants him to kill Arthur -- and Arthur's depression gets hella worse. Arthur eventually puts the Sword back in the Stone and renounces his kingship. Then he goes on a roadtrip with Méléagant, which goes about as well as you'd expect. The season ends with Lancelot barging into Arthur's bathroom to kill him and finds that Arthur's slit his wrists -- SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT CLIFFHANGERS.
S6 is dramatic. The show basically asked "You know what would make us all feel better? Romans!" and indeed Romans do make me feel better. This season (last episode excepted) is a prequel to 15 years before s1, when Arthur is still Arturus, nameless soldier in Rome's urban militia. The season then takes us on the journey of how he got from there to being, well, King Arthur. The last episode picks up some time after s5, Arthur gives Lancelot the rule of the kingdom (the Sword is still in the Stone, fyi) and Lancelot, despite having turned his life around and healed Arthur, saving his life, at the end of s5 (tbh I had to go back to catch that shot) then proceeds to listen to Méléagant again and go off the deep end. AGAIN.
It's not a perfect show and sometimes it is very much of its time, but it's frequently hilarious, Arthur is the most relatable of the Arthurs and the cinematography is always gorgeous. Also, you can see both the budget increases and where the money went from season to season.
The show feels a lot like some guy got his friends and family together to work on his passion project and somehow they landed both a budget and national airtime (on M6 -- this show lead to so many French memes, you guys. SO MANY), probably because it kind of is. The guy who plays Arthur is also the scenarist, the producer, the video editor, the composer and the interpreter for the music. He may also have other roles, idk. When did he sleep. (He is also related to a not inconsequential chunk of the cast.)
It is sometimes very very French.
I like a lot of the humour of the first seasons. My favourite running gag is probably nobody being able to see the Lady of the Lake but Arthur, leading to a lot of confusion when he's talking to her while other people are also there. It's not humourous, but I'm really fond of Guenièvre being friends with Arthur's mistresses (Guenièvre/Demetra OTP, tbh).
I really like how the later seasons and the first ones too, but to a lesser extent, deal with themes of power and kingship. What makes a great king/leader is that "Ils ne se battent que pour la dignité des faibles." (They fight only for the dignity of the weak.) which yeah. Okay.
There are a lot of really fun episodes -- including one where Perceval goes through a dimension door to Tatooine and steals Luke's ROTJ lightsaber (Arthur makes him put it back) -- but my favourite is the one where they get super excited at the idea of killing a Roman, because the Romans are supposedly federating them, but it's cool if they tell Rome it wasn't them. (This turns out to be Arthur's buddy Caius.)