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Given 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.
( Plot summary by season )
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.
( Plot summary by season )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.)
