"Kaamelott" (2005) TV series 2005-????

Creator:

Alexandre Astier

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | unknown

Release Date:

3 January 2005 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Adventure | Fantasy

Plot:

In this off beat account of King Arthur's quest for the Grail, virtually every journey, battle or adventure...

Plot Keywords:

King | King Arthur | Knights Of The Round Table | Castle | Sword

Cast

Alexandre Astier

...

Arthur, roi de Bretagne / ... (349 episodes, 2005-2009)

Runtime:

3 min | 52 min (2 episodes)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Company:

CALT Productions

Trivia:

This show came as a replacement for the hit sitcom "Caméra café" (2001) (created by and featuring Yvan Le Bolloc'h and Bruno Solo) and is produced by the same company, CALT. This came about when Le Bolloc'h and Solo moved their characters from "Camera café" to the big screen and decided to end the TV series, leaving broadcaster M6's access prime time slot empty. Luckily for all involved Kaamelott proved also to be a hit.

Quotes:

Arthur, roi de Bretagne: Oh, no. I hate this habit of bringing breakfast up to bed.
Angharad, Guenièvre's maid: I don't like it either. Madame has no idea how much work we have.
Guenièvre: It happens like that in Rome.
Angharad, Guenièvre's maid: In Rome, the houses are flat. Servants don't have to lug trays up six flights of stairs.

Movie Connections:

Follows Dies irae (2003)

Addictive comedy

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.