I couldn't get into it for quite a few episodes. I was having flaily "But but but but" anachronism head-go-boom stuff. And then I said to myself: "Fay, this is not England. This is NOT any particular period. This is cloud cuckoo land. Which, as it transpires, looks a lot like a Waterhouse painting, with lots of rich blues and reds and porcelain white. Also, man, get a load of the Uther/Morgana over there! Mmmm...tasty!" And then it was all fine.

I'm with you there (I just started watching it in boxset form, having missed most of it on TV). I did a course on Arthurian legend when I was studying Eng Lit, and generally getannoyed at silly reimaginings of such - but with this, it's fairly easy to suspend disbelief.

To be fair, there's that many versions of Arthurian legend already, from Mallory to Tennyson to Marion Zimmer Bradley, that it's become vague enough for playing with. (I do love how Arthur's considered a quintessentially English myth, but was actually mainly developed by the French.)

I suspend disbelief pretty easily, but this one takes the cake. And I just cringe at the complete and total shitting on the story. It's like when they make movies of Anne Rice novels. They take the characters and maybe a soupçon of the storyline and then fuck the story in the ass with no lube.

...well, but the thing is, there are SO MANY MANY MANY totally contradictory versions of the stories. I mean, Guinevere and Lancelot are comparatively recent additions to the legend, ffs - they're already pretty much Chloe from Smallville, they've just been around for a while by this point.

I found the colourblind casting admirable but very distracting, initially, but then I went with (a) there would be a fair few biracial Britons after the Romans buggered off (although probably not quite this many, and not in such a range of social roles, maybe?) and (b) it's not set in any real historical period or in Britain, really. Which worked for me, bur I grok that your suspension of disbelief may vary.

...well, but the thing is, there are SO MANY MANY MANY totally contradictory versions of the stories.

true, but there tends to be some consistencies, and this has none except all of the characters in one place.

I found the colourblind casting admirable but very distracting, initially, but then I went with (a) there would be a fair few biracial Britons after the Romans buggered off (although probably not quite this many, and not in such a range of social roles, maybe?) and (b) it's not set in any real historical period or in Britain, really. Which worked for me, bur I grok that your suspension of disbelief may vary.

Ha! I tend to be so happy that actors of color are working that I let it go completely.

Barroman not happy about BBC treatment of Torchwood:

[link]

So I just got spoiled as to what went down in the Smallville finale from the Tubey Awards. It was partly what I suspected, but...WTF? Oh, show. Why are you still on?

I don't think spoiled is the right word, P-C, since the finale aired a long time ago. You just found out what happened in it.

They killed off Jimmy Fucking Olsen!

I don't think spoiled is the right word, P-C, since the finale aired a long time ago. You just found out what happened in it.

There needs to be another word for personal spoilage, then. Because I use "spoil" for any spoiler regardless of whether the thing has aired or not.

They killed off Jimmy Fucking Olsen!

But apparently he wasn't actually Jimmy Olsen? Or something?

I think that his little cousin will grow up to be canonic Jimmy Olson.

I thought it was his brother. A relative, regardless, will be the real deal. I wonder how long ago they thought that one up.