Review: The Pendragon Cycle is a Terrible Show – Season Finale Review

Finally, the confusing slog that was The Pendragon Cycle is over…and I have so many questions.

Overall, the visuals, music, and a few of the performances were good, but everything else was crap. I don’t want to waste too much time on the intro, so let’s just jump in.

As I’ve said throughout my reviews of this show, so many problems could have been avoided if the pacing of the show was better. For the first episode, I complained that it felt like Jeremy Boring’s ego trip where it spent more time on the special effects and less time on the actual story. In the parts where the story actually came through, it felt wildly rushed, as they were trying to get a 1-hour long episode to cover everything in a 496-page book. This problem then began to resolve itself somewhat as the series progressed, but the overall pacing was terrible as it jumped from place to place instead of going in a linear fashion. What was Episode 6 needed to be Episode 2, Episode 2 needed to be 3 if I’m remembering correctly, and so on. As it is, because it jumps around so much, it becomes harder to understand why anything that happens is important or why we should care.

On that note, because the series doesn’t progress in a linear fashion, it also becomes harder to figure out why we should care about the characters. As the stories bounces around, we see them doing stuff but are unable to really connect well with them or know what drives them. The only people we get to know fairly well are Merlin, Charis, and Uther, but other than that, we have no clue.

Another issue with the show is how terrible Aurelius is. Aurelius in the book, from what I remember, while not as strong as Uther, was still a good leader, though not without his flaws. In the show, however, Aurelius sucks. If any of you are familiar with how bad Henry III was as a king, Aurelius is like that, but worse. At least Henry III tried to avoid war at all costs, but Aurelius, having to unite Britian, has to fight and sucks at it. In the season finale, for example, instead of rallying his troops and leading them into battle as the High King of Britian as many are deserting in the face of the Saxon hoard, he instead leaves it to Merlin and Uther to lead them.

Would such a leader inspire confidence in you?

This leads me to possibly one of the worst parts of the show, which are the battle scenes. Some were okay, but the final, big battle, made absolutely no sense.

The first problem was that Uther’s army (I’m not going to say Aurelius’ army since he does nothing) goes into an open field to fight. This was almost never done if it could be avoided in the medieval period because it makes you an open target. If it was done, you did everything you could to get the most advantageous ground possible.

Further, the field that they’re fighting in isn’t just any field. It’s a random, rectangular clearing in a forest, surrounded by lots of dense trees. And when the Saxons come in, we see that they’re in the trees. This means that Uther’s army, if this were a real-world scenario, would have been trapped, as any competent military leader would employ guerilla tactics at this point, surrounding the enemy and killing them as they try to flee.

From there, Uther’s army in of itself is almost as disorganized as the Saxons’. He has people on horses, which, while that wouldn’t be bad, becomes an issue because instead of having the horses in front to perhaps charge in, they’re behind the foot soldiers for some reason. To make thing worse, however, is the fact that during the period in which the show is supposed to take place, horses weren’t used for war. The stirrup hadn’t made it to Europe – much less England – yet and wouldn’t for another 400-600 years. Thus, fighting on horseback hadn’t really become a thing, and horses were mainly used for transportation. You would ride to where you were going, dismount, and put the horses somewhere while you fought. So why they’re even in the battle as a part of it, I don’t know.

The horse issue aside, however, we also need to address timing. After the shield wall is put up (which is good), the Saxons start charging. They keep coming, and Uther orders the archers who are way in the back to draw their bows. This is a good thing, except when he orders them to fire, many of the Saxons are so close that they’re functionally out of range. Congrats, you’ve killed some of their buddies in the back, but they’re already at the gate.

Remember, too, Uther is Roman. He should know better than to make such a blunder. After all, it’s not like the Romans were known for their shield walls…or the Welsh for their archery. Once the Saxons were within range, he needed to order volley after volley be shot at them.

Additionally, there’s the armor. For some reason, almost everyone is lacking a helmet in the final fight…you know…the thing that’s probably what you want most out of everything else. For the poorer kings, I could maybe look over this since some helmets could be expensive, but for the richer ones, I have no idea why they wouldn’t give their soldiers helmets or wear ones themselves.

Then there’s the fact that there’s nurses with them.

Look, I like the idea of battlefield medics and stuff in stories and it’s something that could theoretically work in medieval fantasy with the right plot armor that makes sense. However, if we want something that’s somewhat historically based (such as The Pendragon Cycle), these ladies should not be there. They especially shouldn’t be super close to the battlefield, as if something awry…well, we all know what happens to women after a battle. And the fact that Charis, a highborn lady is there, is also ridiculous, especially since there’s no one to protect her or any of the other nurses.

I could continue on with my critique of the last battle since there is so much wrong with it, but I need to move on to talking about Morganna, because I have some issues with her character, too.

Overall, Morganna (or Morgian, as she’s called in the show), for all of her power, feels overblown. Is she creepy? Yes. Is her character well played? Also yes. Does she seem to ignore all ideas of what the words “personal space” mean? Absolutely. But does she feel especially menacing?

No.

While you can understand how she moves people somewhat to do her bidding, it feels like she’s only a small part of the bigger picture. She seems more like a power-hungry, angsty weirdo who’s willing to use her charms to get more power by teaming up with people she thinks will win. It almost feels like she’s not really directing anything but is more feeding off of what’s already happening.

Compare this to the books, and while she wasn’t much better, she was better in the sense that she could be scary at times. In the books, I think she’s supposed to be representative of the whore of Babylon in the Bible, and as such, while she’s extremely beautiful and tempts many of the characters with that, she’s also extremely dangerous in her own right. She doesn’t have to rely on directly influencing other people to do her bidding as much. There’s even one scene in the books where it shows just how far she’s gone in her devotion to the devil as it starts outwardly manifesting itself in her appearance via symbols on her skin. That’s also not mentioning the fact that she has a daughter in books (Morgaws) who’s basically Morgian 2.0. She’s not just a scary lady in the books; she’s basically become the gender-swapped version of Satan and absolutely earns her title as the “Queen of Air and Darkness.”

Additionally, the reasons the show gives for her turning evil are a very watered-down version of what’s given in the book. Basically, in the show, the entire reason behind it is that she is jealous of Charis, and while that’s true, it’s only partially true. In the book, while Morgian is jealous of Charis, that’s not the only reason why she wants power. In the books, Morgian’s mother played with magic, so Morgian was pretty interested in it. She was also close with Anubi, Atlantis’ resident sorcerer who saw potential in her and began teaching her. However, learning magic also made her extremely power hungry, something that grew worse as she grew up in Charis’ shadow. And as the books progressed, her lust for power and eventual devotion to the devil became so intense that she becomes consumed by it.

Unfortunately, though, much of this is glossed over in the show, making Morgian a less threatening character than she otherwise would have been. She is supposed to be the main enemy and is set up that way but ends up largely being a side character. Once again, this is another thing that could have been fixed if the pacing was better, as we could’ve seen more of why she is the way she is and how she influences others. Heck, even without the magical powers, with better pacing, Dailywire could have easily made her into a villain on the level of Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones. This not only would’ve made Morgian more menacing, but it also would’ve helped us understand some of the politics of Britian and made the connection between the two main villains of the show smoother.

Another issue I have with this show is how it tells you where things are. While in the book, it provides you with a map of where everything is, making things like how the people in Ynys Avallach didn’t know there were more Fair Folk up north make sense, the show has no idea where it is. It throws names at you like you know where they’re supposed to in Britian. Thus, I was under the impression that most of this stuff was happening in Southern England and Wales, which opened up so many plot holes about timing, who people were, etc. It would’ve been better if the show, when throwing names at you could’ve clarified where in Britian they were.

Finally, the way the season ends was just bad. It ends on a cliffhanger and there are loose threads everywhere. You’re left asking: What happened to Aurelius? What happened to Uther? Why is Ygerna a widow? Why is everyone fighting? What happened to Morgian? Where the heck is Arthur? Did Aurelius truly become the high king? Why is Merlin putting the sword in the stone? How is that piece-of-crap sword still a thing? Why does that stone look like that…?

I’m getting off track.

Basically, the show desperately wants a season 2 and frankly, needs one to tie up the loose ends. But a season 2, with how bad season 1 is, would be a terrible mistake. It would be like if the M. Night Shamalan movie adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender got a sequel. It would possibly be a massive financial black hole.

I’m giving this show a 3.75/10 stars. The entertainment value is there but the story telling sucked.

Until next time,

M.J.