Cursed (2020)

It takes quite a few episodes for the terminally serious “Cursed” to gain steam, but once it does, this show offers characters worth sticking around for.

Langford (“Knives Out,” “13 Reasons Why”) is effective if not exceptional, somewhat mirroring the entire enterprise. The gore quotient here runs high, but unlike “Thrones” and “The Witcher” there is no underlying erotic throb fueling things and humor is scarce.

If you crave originality or weirdness in your fantasy TV, there’s plenty to enjoy here. But beyond some clunky and predictable dialogue, the biggest flaw is Nimue — whether it’s on Langford for failing to really sell key moments or the writing for leading the character to make dangerous or at times even dumb choices, the ostensible focus of the show fails to come together.

Despite its confusing plot, overly complicated mythology and sometimes cheesy effects, there's a watchability to "Cursed," in part due to its young star Katherine Langford.

Sadly not [the next Game of Thrones] but it’s a perfectly serviceable slice of escapism while we wait for the next contender.

It's an OK show with the raw materials to have been much better given just a bit more commitment to its premise.

It’s occasionally enchanting, if often confused about what plot it’s following at any given time.

Turn off your brain, and "Cursed" is fun and more evenly paced than other recent genre debuts. But at best, it feels like a small plate meant to keep our bellies full until we get a new season of "The Witcher," a yarn that's far and away wilder and messier but also a reliably better adventure.

Cursed works when it sticks to Nimue and Arthur, and doesn’t when it comes to just about anything else. But it still may be worth watching for those who want to scratch their fantasy itch.

The Arthurian legend represents a fertile screen playground, explored and revised from practically every conceivable angle. Yet other than its visual style, Netflix's "Cursed" represents a pale addition to that mythology, approaching the story from the perspective of Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, without yielding many dramatic ripples.

Langford has a star’s charisma, but has been presented a brief that the show’s writing can’t quite resolve: playing both a fierce leader and a vulnerable young person. ... Breeziness, though, is a double-edged sword, as it were. And the story’s lack of fealty to the roles particular characters are meant to play in myth or the way they have traditionally looked can give way to a leaning on modern cliché that suggests a dearth of better ideas.