The Fantasy Review‘s Review of The Winter King, Season 1, Episode 1.
The Winter King is the latest adaptation of a series of books by Bernard Cornwell. This fictional story of Arthur Pandragon in 5th Century Britain follows the similar, gritty and low-budget tone of The Last Kingdom, but it is a great introduction to this world and these characters.
The episode begins with Arthur reeling from having been ambushed, as he takes his deceased brother, Mordred, back to their father, High King Uther Pendragon.
Fans of The Last Kingdom, Vikings, and Knightfall will find a new TV series to obsess over in The Winter King. The atmosphere is dark and unforgiving with beautifully shot locations, whether we are inside a gloomy castle or out on the battlefield.
The politics of the tribes seems like it is central to the overarching plot, with a similar feeling to Game of Thrones. You can just sense that there is going to be some backstabbing, some viscous victors and very dead losers.
Iain De Caestecker gives us a very grounded performance of Arthur, surprising all who know him as Fitz from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I look forward to seeing more of him bringing that character to life.
Other stand out performances so far are Eddie’s Marsan’s Uther Pendragon who is riddled with anger, pain, and guilt. Those emotions look like they will be his downfall. And we have Nathaniel Martello-White’s Merlin who seems to be born for this role, with his rather cheesy lines but fantastic presence.
This first episode of The Winter King was a great introduction to this new series. Hopefully they continue the momentum in the following episodes.
