Daily Wire’s ‘Pendragon’ Series Brings Early Christian Britain to Life; Will Leave Audiences Wanting More

Stephen R. Lawhead’s retelling of the classic King Arthur story isn’t afraid to present the rise of Christianity in Britain, and the first two episodes of The Daily Wire’s new series, “Pendragon: Rise of the Merlin,” brings that story to life—and will leave audiences wanting more.

From majestic views of Britain, to arresting scenes of Merlin’s mother “dancing” with bulls in the mythical city of Atlantis, to spiritual battles surrounding Merlin’s father, the first two episodes present a fantasy world on par with “The Lord of the Rings” or “Game of Thrones,” but more grounded in history.

Merlin’s father Taliesin, played brilliantly by James Arden, emerges as a spiritual warrior, rejecting Britain’s pagan past and accepting the gospel of Jesus. Merlin’s mother Charis, brought to life by Rose Reid, unites an English clan with the survivors of a lost Atlantis.

The Daily Wire brings out some of the best elements of Lawhead’s first book in “The Pendragon Cycle,” “Taliesin.”

The first two episodes left me wanting more, but not always in a good way.

World-Building

The singular key to fantasy as a genre is world-building, and presenting a fictional world to an audience is a delicate and daunting task.

A good storyteller has to trigger the audience’s emotion while slowly introducing new aspects of the mystical world. You can’t just give an “info dump” with ten minutes of boring exposition, but you also can’t present a battle or key defining struggle without sufficient context to explain why this matters.

Lawhead’s book introduces mystical events with enough backstory to fill them out. When the book begins with the “unlucky” Elfin (played by Duran Fulton Brown in the show) becoming lucky by discovering a frozen baby Taliesin on the river, the book explains why this matters, and it resonates with readers. The Daily Wire begins the story with the same discovery, but the characters’ dialogue about Elfin’s luck falls flat because the series doesn’t take the time to show what it means.

Similarly, the arresting scenes in Atlantis where Charis faces angry bulls in the arena lack the same emotional core that they have in the books, not because The Daily Wire failed to deliver a spectacle but because the show doesn’t give the audience a reason to get emotionally invested in the action.

Pacing Struggles

The show forces a lengthy book into two episodes, and the pacing suffers as a result.

I loved seeing this story brought to life, because I remember enough of the book to appreciate these moments. But The Daily Wire can’t count on audiences reading the book first—the show needs to connect the fantastic spectacle it delivers with the audience’s emotions.

The first two episodes come at a rapid-fire pace, and fail to give the great world of Stephen R. Lawhead time to breathe. The show tells us that Charis is the savior of her people without explaining why: her willingness to heed visions of impending doom led Atlantis to prepare for escape before their world sank. The show features a spiritual battle inside Taliesin between the powers of paganism and Christianity, but it doesn’t take the time to build up his pagan backstory, which makes the battle feel hollow.

Lawhead’s rich presentation of paganism—with good and bad elements but ultimately fulfilled by Christianity—doesn’t emerge from the brief scenes we get in the first two episodes.

While the actors gave solid performances and the cinematography rises to the challenge of high fantasy, the pacing undercut much of this excellent work. The first two episodes about Taliesin needed time to breathe, and would be far better as four episodes. I would love to see The Daily Wire re-release this part of the story, with new scenes revealing Taliesin’s past with paganism, showing what bull dancing means in Atlantis, and giving our characters a bit more time to resonate with audiences.

One Other Quibble

While the Daily Wire presents the show as family-friendly, some of the bull dancing scenes focus a bit pointedly on Rose Reid’s barely-covered posterior.

Reasons for Optimism

All that said, I remain excited and optimistic about the show.

When The Daily Wire chose to adapt “The Pendragon Cycle,” writers focused on the character of Merlin, rather than Taliesin, for a good reason. Americans are familiar with King Arthur and his sorcerer, Merlin, and most of us couldn’t name Merlin’s father or his mother.

The focus on Merlin (played by Tom Sharp) gives me reason to suspect that the show’s pacing will slow down in future episodes, and give the story of King Arthur’s future advisor more time to breathe.

The Stephen R. Lawhead version of Arthurian legend deserves to be told on screen, and I remain optimistic that The Daily Wire’s final product will rise to the challenge.

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