Merlin

(Season One, 2008)

I was propelled into watching this by a friend. I had heard little of it and had no interest, but she spoke in such glowing terms that I thought I would give it a try. I've enjoyed a pretty good run with Brit TV, so it wasn't like it was that long of a shot. And anyway, I'm well-versed in Arthurian lore, so I'm familiar with the material. Except that this is more like Smallville in its approach, or even closer to describe it as Harry Potter and the Once and Future King. Any Arthurian knowledge you have should be tossed out the window; characters may share the names of their mythic counterparts, but little else. Merlin (Colin Morgan) is a teenager who is blessed/cursed with a powerful connection to magic (which is outlawed in Camelot), so he is sent away for training to the old court physician, Gaius (Richard Wilson, apparently the 'name' used to sell the series). Uther (Anthony Stewart Head) is still king, and Arthur (Bradley James) is his headstrong but talented heir apparent. Oh, and there's also Morgana (Katie McGrath, bearing a striking resemblance to a younger Rachel Weisz), an orphan who became Uther's ward upon the death of her father, and her handmaiden Gwen (Angel Coulby) - yes, that Gwen. Oh, and to spice up the fantasy element, there's all allknowing, all-seeing dragon chained up in the dungeon (voiced by John Hurt). The first season (thirteen episodes) spends a lot of time developing the bromance between Arthur and Merlin - apparently neither can realize his true destiny without the other, so we are told every single episode - but the leads play well off one another and do have chemistry; their friendship develops over the course of the season and is believable. The plots are largely episodic in nature - stop the evil druids, stop the evil sorcerer, foil Nimue's plot - much is made of the plot thread that Uther has outlawed all magic, and apparently the twelve zillion magic users in the realm are pissed and want revenge. Much like a high school show (which at its heart, Merlin is), there's a lot of romantic hinting but little happens (Morgana maybe likes Arthur, Merlin maybe likes Gwen, Gwen maybe likes Merlin, etc.); though no doubt romance will take center stage later in the series, it's only briefly suggested here - these are at best flirting kids. Parts of the approach of Merlin 90210 work very well - the camaraderie between the kids, for example, and the slow unraveling of the story of Uther's rather violent rise to power - but often, at least for me, the complete dismissal of the backbone of the mythology, coupled with a flagrant disregard for any sort of historical authenticity at all (Merlin runs around essentially wearing a hoodie) can irritate at times. It took me more than half the season to get over the fact that the English - who are normally so obsessed with historical detail (see- please - Robin of Sherwood) really just don't give a damn here at all; as long as it looks like it fits in a Ren Faire, that's good enough. But again, that's not the focus; part of it is telling "the story before the story", like Smallville, but the main emphasis is crafting something for TV that will have the resonance with younger folks like Harry Potter does - and there the series succeeds marvelously. Again, sometimes this

works very well - the budding friendship between Arthur and Merlin, especially - and sometimes it fizzles. Both Morgan as Merlin and James as Arthur are terrific, and that really carries the show; not all the performances are that good. Coulby is just dang flat out wrong as Guinevere, and Wilson's Gaius arches his eyebrow so often one wonders if his face got stuck that way. McGrath is hit and miss as Morgana, but I suspect that's more the writing; until the very end of this season, she vacillated wildly, but she seems to be on a more consistent (and interesting) path as the season ends. The show makes mostly good use of guest stars, from Julian Rhind-Tutt (Inspector Monty Pippin!) as a scarred sorcerer seeking revenge to Alexander Siddig as a ruthless bandit lord (in an episode shamelessly 'borrowed' from The Seven Samurai). One striking misstep, however, was the casting of Michelle Ryan as Nimue; yeah, she's pretty, but she's just awful. But there's something to the show that draws you in, despite its obvious flaws and teenaged approach. Part of it, I suspect, is seeing the story presented in a fresh new way, much like, again, with Smallville; some of it is done well, and the leads are fun to watch. The last two episodes of the season also raised the bar, being far darker and more dramatic than what had gone on before, and hinting that better, more mature themes are to come. You can do worse than have a comely cast parade around spouting fantasy buzzwords at one another (this was the entire premise behind Mutant X, that if your people are sexy enough, your show can suck), and Merlin has enough fun and intrigue to draw me back in for at least one more season (they are currently airing season four). I'll let you know how the next chapters of the saga turn out in a few weeks. If you're curious about the show, I would say it's certainly worth a look, although give it about six episodes before making any long term decisions. It starts off a tad slow, but once it hits its stride, is agreeable fun. December 23, 2011