Kaamelott

First, I must say that I'm far from being a fan of french humour or french comedies. But this TV-show, in spite of its shortness, is brilliant. Some of its lines have already become mythical, as the "For example, you take the present day, you wait for a week, well you'll end up with the same day as today! But be careful, you might make a mistake, it's not an accurate science..." (approximately translated). Perceval, King Arthur and Leodagan are real funny characters. I have rarely met such smartness on words, on images, I recommend this show to any amateurs of parodies and besides the costumes and sets are great and well used.

I have been watching Kaamelot since it came out. It is probably the funniest TV Show ever made (even compared to the US TV Shows). It describes King Arthur's Legend with great sense of humor and a really nice way of filming it. Don't even think in terms of respecting the history here or you will be disappointed. But my point is this : as old the show gets as old it getting better in terms of content and realization. I've heard that about 15 countries have already bought the project for local diffusion and Ican't do nothing else than encourage people to turn their TVs on whenever that show airs. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

In the beginning, I thought, "Oh no, not yet another mockery of the search for the Holy Grail!" I watched, though, and by the end of the first mini-episode, I was totally taken in. The dialogs are brilliant, witty, absurd, and screamingly funny. I honestly don't find any faults with this little jewel. I didn't know we, french, could be as good and daring as Monty Python... We can. It's a relief. Thanks to Alexandre Astier, who dared come out with a preposterous idea (King Arthur is the only intelligent guy in a environment of dorks, dimwits and blockheads: namely, the knights of the Round Table), the tradition of Audiard carries on. The best french TV series I've seen in a very long time.

This is one of the best comedies I've ever seen. As a translator, I'd be hard-pressed to put this into English - it pushes the envelope to the limit in its own language. The wordplay is amazing.

Each episode is about 3.5 minutes (!), over 6 seasons. In the first three seasons, the episodes are stand-alone, with a few seeds planted for the story arcs that arise in the 4th and 5th, which take a serious turn while remaining funny. I haven't yet seen season 6. Every episode, very intelligently written, has us coming back for the next (for the time being, they can be seen on YouTube).

A humorous take on Arthurian legend, other than Père Blaise, the Roman-educated Arthur is the only erudite person in Kaamelott. He's surrounded by a bunch of "billes", "marteaux", "clodos" and what not, who exasperate him with primitive values and general ineptness, a misuse of the language, and misunderstanding of the simplest instructions.

Each character is distinct from the others. Perceval, for example, is an idiot-savant who simply can't get an instruction right. Leodagan, Arthur's father-in-law, is the irascible knee-jerk rule-by-force male member of the "couple infernal" in which he's married to the shrew Dame Seli. Their battles are legendary. Their daughter, Guenevièvre, is the twit who's married to Arthur. Their son Yvain is a lazy oaf whose best friend, Gavain, is not much better. Bohort is a febrile coward whose face is always contorted with tension, Merlin is addle-pated, the Lady of the Lake is visible only to Arthur, which Arthur can't get others to understand, and so on.

Despite all this, it's quite faithful to the actual legend and the story manages to build up a lot of tension as well as tenderness through season 5. It has earned an ardent following in France and Canada. If you have any understanding of French, you gotta see it, otherwise, you might find some episodes with English subtitles on YouTube.

Imagine the legend of the Grail, arthur, broken in pieces by the Monthy Pythons, but in french. Awesome comedy. Very french I admit.

What if the Great King had to deal with everyday people, everyday trouble ? What if his knights were politicians, or cowards, or idiots ? That's King Arthur for you here.

What are they rioting about ? "sire, we can't take it any more !" "more of what", "We don't know, but it's big"