(Two-part TV miniseries premiering
8 p.m. Sunday, July 15 on TNT)
review
by Sylvana Silverwitch
It opens with a beautiful woman with long black hair, standing in a small boat, gliding through the swirling mists, while Loreena McKennitt plays eerily in the background. She begins to speak, telling us that she is Morgaine; she begins to narrate a retelling of her past.
Have you ever watched a movie and had a memory of being there? I don't mean a vague sense of understanding or connection, but an actual memory, like of what you did yesterday? I had that feeling while watching The Mists of Avalon. Even with all of my exploration into past lives, I was unaware of any lifetime I spent in the Arthurian era covered by the miniseries. Neither had I read Marion Zimmer Bradley's book on which the miniseries is based, and I have not had a particular pull toward Arthurian legends. So it was interesting for me to watch this series; as many emotions and memories washed over me, it was almost as if I knew what the characters would say and do before they did it.
Okay, I am a big, sappy Pisces fishy. I have been known cry over AT&T long-distance commercials and game-show wins. But this miniseries moved all of us watching, men and women alike. Even the not-very-pagan among us were misty-eyed in places.
The contrast between this series and The Craft or Practical Magic or any other recent witchy movie or television show (like Sabrina) is enormous! Will someone please tell me why aren't there more pagan-affirmative films being made? It just does not make sense that the Hollywood machine hasn't caught on to us by now. When you can find spell kits at Larry's Market and healing spell candles at Fred Meyer, you'd think that Hollywood would get with the program and make some more believable movies about mythology and paganism.
Mists is as true-to-life a view on Goddess-oriented religion, magick and paganism as I have ever seen. It is great! I found it well-acted for the most part, and it featured believable special effects (the visual effects created by a local Seattle company, Pinnacle Studios) and beautiful scenery and music. Of course, the Arthurian mythology always makes a good tale. In any case, I highly recommend the series. Everyone should be watching TNT July 15!
As I say, I never read Mists the book -- I am something of a cultural orphan, my coven members and friends tell me. So I am not going to compare book and miniseries, though those who read the book tell me the series is very true to it. Book aside, the series stands well on its own as a pagan-positive retelling of the romantic Arthurian legends.
The story is told from the priestess Morgaine's perspective as she is groomed almost from birth to be the Lady of the Lake or High Priestess of Avalon, the old religion's seat of power, in the land beyond the mists. I found a lot of the Arthurian legend very familiar; what surprised me was the positive portrayal of nearly all the pagans, witches and magicians in the story. Even Morgaine, Viviane and Merlin, who have been somewhat demonized in past tellings, were cast in a positive light in this version.
There is something for everyone in this series, including love, war, incest, betrayal, gossip, honor, murder, magick, glamour, sex, intrigue, secrets, curses, sin and love at first sight. I did have a problem with how the sex was handled. As in so many myths passed down to us through the Christian perspective, sexuality was portrayed negatively. The underlying message about sex and sexuality was that if you have sex, bad things happen to you. If you are in love with someone besides your husband, you'ill be unable to conceive. If you enjoy sex outside of marriage or with the "wrong" person, eventually death and destruction will come to you. Mordred, played by Hans Matheson (who is a total babe by the way!), as the product of an interesting sexual encounter, ended up a really bad guy!
But that's a relatively minor issue. Among the other characters, Anjelica Huston did a grand job as a credible Viviane, and Julianne Margulies, who I was previously unfamiliar with, was Morgaine -- I totally bought it. Most of the women were beautiful, powerful and capable; the men were a bit testosterone-driven and somewhat simple. One thing I really liked was the method of psychic communication used by the priestesses, which Anjelica Huston in an interview compared to an old-time version of the Internet.
All in all, The Mists of Avalon was the finest and most accurate telling of a pagan story that I have ever seen. The series resonated with me genuinely and sincerely as a witch and priestess. I must commend the makers of the series and, belatedly, MZB for the story. I highly recommend the story to witches and mundanes alike. The series is a good one, too, for your Christian family that does not understand what it is that you believe or do.
I would love to see more of this kind of programming on television. Be sure to tell all your friends and family to watch -- and call, write or e-mail TNT Broadcasting with your opinion!
The series was a Mark Wolper production, and a co-production of TNT, Leaway Limited and Constantin Film AG. It was produced by Lisa Alexander and James Coburn and was distributed by Warner Brothers International Television Distribution.