Day Watch, Twilight Watch; Camelot
So these reviews are doubling up because for different reasons I don't really feel like I can write a comprehensive review of either, but I want to jot down I finished them all within the past few days. I think I'll keep it brief, but I'll put the Camelot (the Starz series) stuff behind a spoiler cut because I have more spoilery things to say about that. However, I doubt much of it will be that surprising to people familiar with the legends; some of it is straight from, other stuff is easy to guess.
Day Watch and Twilight Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko: This is sort of a weird series to try and review, since I haven't read Night Watch (this one) (as opposed to the Pratchett one) (or the one by Sarah Waters) in ages and I've finally finished the next two at![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
relia's behest. To an extent reading a book translated from another language, you don't know if you're reviewing the writer or the translator -- in this case I suspect the translator, since the series is clunky in a didn't-try-too-hard-to-translate-this sense, but I wouldn't know. I also don't know just about anything about Moscow, so I have no idea how the translation fared on the Moscow front. As a result, my only substantial review-thoughts are about the fantasy story and fantasy worldbuilding itself, and again, I've got no clue how much authorial intent and emphasis might've gotten lost in translation here.
Aside from that: they're urban fantasy books about a war between initiated agents of Light and agents of Dark, basically, and the Xanatos gambits and Xanatos roulettes undertaken in the service of this. I really dig a lot of the worldbuilding (the Dark and the Inquisition appealed to me especially) and the complicated/twist-filled plots that are set up; I was enh on the contrived Xanatos masterminds do everything devices often needful to pull off said complicated plots, because it's gotten to the point where the everyman POV characters are resigned to how little difference they can make in the hands of chessmasters, and that's no fun; I disliked how preachily in-the-right the Light protagonists always seemed to be even when the Dark was humanized somewhat, it had a a very "and goodness knows the wicked's lives are lonely!!" feel to it. But the world is cool, if you're into urban fantasy in a sort of fantasy-otherworld-war-on-civilian-turf setting, and the plot arcs are interesting and all wrap together, especially in Twilight Watch.
Camelot: Hmm. I'm not reviewing-reviewing this either (episode by episode, anyway) because I haven't actually seen all the episodes, but I've seen almost all. Overall I'd say it's better than I'd feared, not as good as I'd hoped, but at least it's, uh, better than Merlin. It should also be called Morgan, or maybe Morgan Pendragon, or The Mighty and Powerful Morgan, because she is the entire reason to watch the show. Hot DAMN is she the entire reason to watch the show.
MORGAN. MORGAN MORGAN MORGAN. I'm not even just biased because she's my beautiful French celebrity fantasy girlfriend Eva Green! She's also a charismatic, sympathetic badass who does bad things but for reasons you can't help but understand, and would make hands-down the best ruler, especially over her whelp of a brother. I love her. I wish she could win. I love her, I love Sybil, I love their relationship, and it was the saddest fucking thing when Sybil decided to take the fall for treason to save Morgan in the end. I'm not sure how one is supposed to root for Arthur over Morgan here; Morgan's gritted, slightly-crazed, determined "I just slept with my brother so I could birth a king" smile at the end heralding the Mordred plotline was fantastic. So yeah, I love Morgan and I love everything about her. Sybil is also amazing, and I'm fond of Vivian.
So it's a pity not all the female characters are this well-handled. Guinevere unfortunately is tied up with Arthur, and I really couldn't care less about their petulant childish Romeo-and-Juliet affair, particularly to Leontes' detriment. Igraine I really couldn't have liked, given she had nothing but sneering patronizing high-and-mighty pity for Morgan, but I also don't think Claire Forlani's acting was great. But I mostly had an issue with both as they were founded on and existed to prop up Arthur's rightful heirness, and I found him about as sympathetic as a gnat; I was fine with that when it seemed intentional, but it didn't always, and I think I was supposed to buy his having grown up by the end, which I didn't at all.
My favorites after Morgan were Gawain and Leontes, andrelia agreed they spent the whole thing smouldering like fucking Valentino at each other, especially during their UST-laden spar at Morgan's keep. It didn't matter I saw it coming a million miles off, I was so irritated that Leontes got fridged just so *~Arthur~* could have his *~girlfriend~* without *~guilt~*. You can argue what you like about sticking to the legend regarding Arthur-Guinevere, but when the legend requires irritating and predictable storytelling, the legend's really not worth it. Or I'm just annoyed still about Leontes being dead and all the sex he and Gawain can't be having now, I dunno. They were both good, though, and I miss them.
Merlin was interesting, though not wholly likeable. I feel like I was supposed to feel about Morgan how I feel about Merlin (interesting, but I'm not sure I support him) and feel about Merlin how I feel about Morgan (flawed, but I'm backing her all the way), and I think there's some sexism to how male sorcerors get treated compared to female sorcerors in myth and media that Arthurian media could really do to stop perpetuating now. Altogether I'll probably try and watch episode by episode next season, but I'm concerned about where it's all going.
Day Watch and Twilight Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko: This is sort of a weird series to try and review, since I haven't read Night Watch (this one) (as opposed to the Pratchett one) (or the one by Sarah Waters) in ages and I've finally finished the next two at
relia's behest. To an extent reading a book translated from another language, you don't know if you're reviewing the writer or the translator -- in this case I suspect the translator, since the series is clunky in a didn't-try-too-hard-to-translate-this sense, but I wouldn't know. I also don't know just about anything about Moscow, so I have no idea how the translation fared on the Moscow front. As a result, my only substantial review-thoughts are about the fantasy story and fantasy worldbuilding itself, and again, I've got no clue how much authorial intent and emphasis might've gotten lost in translation here.Aside from that: they're urban fantasy books about a war between initiated agents of Light and agents of Dark, basically, and the Xanatos gambits and Xanatos roulettes undertaken in the service of this. I really dig a lot of the worldbuilding (the Dark and the Inquisition appealed to me especially) and the complicated/twist-filled plots that are set up; I was enh on the contrived Xanatos masterminds do everything devices often needful to pull off said complicated plots, because it's gotten to the point where the everyman POV characters are resigned to how little difference they can make in the hands of chessmasters, and that's no fun; I disliked how preachily in-the-right the Light protagonists always seemed to be even when the Dark was humanized somewhat, it had a a very "and goodness knows the wicked's lives are lonely!!" feel to it. But the world is cool, if you're into urban fantasy in a sort of fantasy-otherworld-war-on-civilian-turf setting, and the plot arcs are interesting and all wrap together, especially in Twilight Watch.
Camelot: Hmm. I'm not reviewing-reviewing this either (episode by episode, anyway) because I haven't actually seen all the episodes, but I've seen almost all. Overall I'd say it's better than I'd feared, not as good as I'd hoped, but at least it's, uh, better than Merlin. It should also be called Morgan, or maybe Morgan Pendragon, or The Mighty and Powerful Morgan, because she is the entire reason to watch the show. Hot DAMN is she the entire reason to watch the show.
MORGAN. MORGAN MORGAN MORGAN. I'm not even just biased because she's my beautiful French celebrity fantasy girlfriend Eva Green! She's also a charismatic, sympathetic badass who does bad things but for reasons you can't help but understand, and would make hands-down the best ruler, especially over her whelp of a brother. I love her. I wish she could win. I love her, I love Sybil, I love their relationship, and it was the saddest fucking thing when Sybil decided to take the fall for treason to save Morgan in the end. I'm not sure how one is supposed to root for Arthur over Morgan here; Morgan's gritted, slightly-crazed, determined "I just slept with my brother so I could birth a king" smile at the end heralding the Mordred plotline was fantastic. So yeah, I love Morgan and I love everything about her. Sybil is also amazing, and I'm fond of Vivian.
So it's a pity not all the female characters are this well-handled. Guinevere unfortunately is tied up with Arthur, and I really couldn't care less about their petulant childish Romeo-and-Juliet affair, particularly to Leontes' detriment. Igraine I really couldn't have liked, given she had nothing but sneering patronizing high-and-mighty pity for Morgan, but I also don't think Claire Forlani's acting was great. But I mostly had an issue with both as they were founded on and existed to prop up Arthur's rightful heirness, and I found him about as sympathetic as a gnat; I was fine with that when it seemed intentional, but it didn't always, and I think I was supposed to buy his having grown up by the end, which I didn't at all.
My favorites after Morgan were Gawain and Leontes, and
relia agreed they spent the whole thing smouldering like fucking Valentino at each other, especially during their UST-laden spar at Morgan's keep. It didn't matter I saw it coming a million miles off, I was so irritated that Leontes got fridged just so *~Arthur~* could have his *~girlfriend~* without *~guilt~*. You can argue what you like about sticking to the legend regarding Arthur-Guinevere, but when the legend requires irritating and predictable storytelling, the legend's really not worth it. Or I'm just annoyed still about Leontes being dead and all the sex he and Gawain can't be having now, I dunno. They were both good, though, and I miss them.Merlin was interesting, though not wholly likeable. I feel like I was supposed to feel about Morgan how I feel about Merlin (interesting, but I'm not sure I support him) and feel about Merlin how I feel about Morgan (flawed, but I'm backing her all the way), and I think there's some sexism to how male sorcerors get treated compared to female sorcerors in myth and media that Arthurian media could really do to stop perpetuating now. Altogether I'll probably try and watch episode by episode next season, but I'm concerned about where it's all going.
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Leontes: You say you need no one. That’s not true, is it?
Gawain: Shut up.
Leontes: The truth is . . . you can’t handle your own company.
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