BBC Merlin

[The Doctor]

Trailer here.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I'll give it a fair chance, though the 'young Merlin' angle means it could be awful. It'll have to be pretty special to compete in my affections with the mini-series 'Merlin' from the '90s broadcast on Channel 4:



Martin

[The Doctor]

I will admit the 'young Merlin' idea is almost a complete turn-off for me and the producers referring to Smallville does not fill me with confidence. Still, I will at least tune into episode 1, purely for Richard Wilson and Anthony Head. And the trailer's not too bad. Hoping for a 'Doctor Who' rather than a 'Robin Hood'.

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

An ad on the radio just there states it's on this Saturday at 7:30pm. I'll give it a go.

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

Very bland, with highly irritating 'you will feel this emotion now' music.

Pish.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Well that wasn't as bad as I expected.

Because of its particular heritage, I allow Arthurian Legend a special dispensation to deviate from canon, though it has to be said that the traditional story of Merlin engineering the conception of Arthur was a superb one, so this series has set itself a challenge in coming up with an equally compelling alternative slant.

OK, so Arthur didn't build Camelot, and Merlin is younger than Arthur. I can go along with that.

Richard Wilson and Anthony Head were both mighty, and the younger actors were I suppose as good as one can hope for given their age and the budget of a TV series. The dragon, nothing special. I think it's a shame that television in 2008 can't do as good a CGI talking dragon as Hollywood managed ten years ago - I guess the time lag must be bigger. (Plus John Hurt can't compete with Sean Connery.)

I think it'll be a decent series if they keep the same balance of adults and youngsters. My fear however is that the adults will get less screen time as the series progresses.

The 1-hour documentary on the legend of Merlin that followed on BBC2 was excellent.

Is it by accident or design though that Channel 4 has scheduled The Two Towers to clash with BBC Merlin? Ian McKellen's Gandalf is probably the best Merlin existing on film today.

Recommended: A fine Walking With Dinosaurs type spoof dragon documentary in ten parts begins here. Puzzling though that Patrick Stewart narrates this US version, while the version broadcast in the UK was narrated by Ian Holm.



Edit: Ah, I get it now. The UK version alternates between Ian Holm's narration and the scientists in conversation. The US version edits out the scientist drama sub-plot and has Patrick Stewart talk over the actors.

Martin

[The Doctor]

To be fair, it was decently acted and competently put together. The locations for the castle were good. But the show just lacked any sense of life at all. It just sort of that sat there on the screen.

I shall give episode 2 a chance, however, as my Saturday evening co-pilot (he who is Nick) seemed tremendously excited at the prospect of a British Fight Scene in the 'next episode' bit and insists it be watched. Hmmm.

-Ralph

[legios]

I'll be honest, this didn't really do anything for me. Not because it was in any way bad - the production values were pretty good, and the cast seemed to be making a decent fist of things (Anthony Head even made some of his first scene, the shows first "As you know Bob" dialogue, sound like the sort of thing that his character might just plausibly say). The location work was quite good, as was some of the set design. It just felt a bit dull. It had something of the same effect on me as Eve Myles' singing did on Uther's court.

I did find the music a bit obtrusive and unsubtle. But I'm not sure how much of that is because I have just spent several days where the only television I have seen is "The Wire", which doesn't use music in the same way that most television shows do. It may be that I just need to get my brain reset to the prevailing paradigm.

I see what they mean about drawing a lot of inspiration from "Smallville" though. They do seem to have pretty much all of the vital pieces for the "High School metaphor" approach to things - a lead character who is a bit of an outsider but has superpowers that he has to conceal, the arrogant star of the sports team, the would-be prom queen/"Popular Girl", and the "girl next door type" who is a little bit less shallow. The setup is pretty much the same as that used by "Smallville", and back to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for that matter.

Not sure I am particularly fussed about the paradigm that they have chosen for Merlin's magic thus far - it seems to be leaning in the "fixed power" format of "Charmed". But perhaps they will expand that out over the course of the season.

I didn't mind the dragon too much. In terms of television animation on a British budget I figure that is about what the show was going to be able to achieve. After all, time is one of the deciding factors with CG animation and time is money. What I thought let it down was the light-sourcing (but very few folk ever quite get the lighting of these things right) and the fact that it didn't really have much in the way of body language. That latter is an important part of "selling" a non-human character, and I don't think they've quite got that right.

It's not too bad. The cast and crew are clearly putting in a good shift and the writing is a notch above the last time the BBC put an adventure series in history ("Robin Hood"). But something about the final production feels lacking to me. Not sure that I'll bother with further episodes.

Karl

[Bogatan]

Well its better than Robin Hood in every department. Thats a relief. As long as its more Smallville than Charmed I'll stick with it.

The formula seems very much like The OC or Gossip Girl, but so far without the sense of fun. Merlins constant "I'm not so ordinary" comments were the only thing that really grated. Oh and Gwens mixed race heritage feels very out of place. I'm sure there were mixed race/ non white people in Britain at that time. I know trade across Europe, Asia and Africa and I dont think it would bother me except it feels like it was done only out of some sense of political correctness.

I'll keep watching for now.

Andy

[Hero]

I'll have to catch up with this series on iPlayer.

I take it, this is on instead of Robin Hood which is probably cancelled after the sad 2nd season ending.

===HERO

[The Doctor]

No, Robin Hood is still in production and a third season is forthcoming. It's a successful show. Merlin is an attempt to add to the roster of 13-part family shows for Saturday nights in addition to Doctor Who and Robin Hood. Ideally, they want to have the slot filled year-long with such shows.

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

Well sometimes some shows have a dodgy first episode but improve with the second episode. Thus, Merlin was given a second try. Um, yes, oh dear. That was even more woeful than episode 1. Apparently the secret of messing with time has been discovered, because that episode clearly lasted for three hours despite being advertised as 45 minutes in length.

The problems appear to lie in scripting and editing. The actors are doing his best. I reckon the young chap playing Merlin has promise if he were given any dialogue that had the slightest bit of wit or fun to it. Bloke playing Valiant was trying his best. Anthony Head did some fine gurning. But the show just dies amongst deadly dull storytelling. For a show involving magic, there's nothing in the slightest bit magical about it. Every single beat of the story could be seen coming a mile off.

And it's edited by a gimp. The tournament scenes were dreadful, consisting almost entirely of reaction shots from the crowd interspersed with very very quick flashes of knights fighting rather than the other way about. Er, why? James Hawes is a decent director usually. Hmmm.

It's also woefully tame. Yes, I appreciate the time slot and it's aimed at kiddies but come on. The final 'fight' between Arthur and Valiant involved Arthur apparently hugging Valiant to death. I think he was supposed to have run Valiant through with his sword but it was edited in such a way that no shots of the sword were used so it was utterly nonsensical! We don't need lots of blood and gore, but kids can handle such scenes if shot well! Don't dumb it down, FFS!

The music continued to be OTT and sucking life out of every scene, but at least was a bit lower in the mix this time.

Some mild amusement was derived from interpreting every scene with Arthur and Merlin as them clearly having the hots for each other. Which didn't take much re-interpretation in all honesty!

Nope, the show just doesn't work for me.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I agree with most of what Ralph says, though I still find myself looking at it in a glass-is-half-full sense, i.e. the scripts so far have been poor, but the cast is decent, so while it lacks suspense or laughs I somehow still find it watchable - more so than 'Robin Hood', 'Lost' or 'Primeval', all of which I had dropped by this point.

Provided I time it to coincide with my evening meal, it's a reasonable unwind at the end of a day, so I'll keep watching and let those of you who drop it know if the plot suddenly gets good.

Martin

PS Note to producers: knights in tournaments should start off jousting on horseback. Please fix for next time.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I'm trying very hard to dislike this series, but having great difficulty. Three weeks in a row I've gone in with low expectations based on poor reviews/previews, and ended up enjoying most of it despite myself. I think it's just that despite lacking witty repartee I find all the characters too darned likeable. While they argue and have different priorities and prejudices, they aren't sarcastic or cynical, and all mean well from different points of view. I find myself having exactly the opposite response to this cast than the negative one I have to, say, the cast of Beast Wars / Beast Machines.

The first half hour of episode 3 was far superior to the previous two episodes in terms of story. It went downhill in the last 15 minutes when the writers suddenly realised they had to resolve all the interesting dilemmas they'd set up, and squeeze in an obligatory scene with the dragon being 'cryptic'. But I thought the parts with Merlin making things worse by his use of magic, the first glimpses of Arthur's nobler side in arguing with his father, and quite a subtle moment where I'm certain Arthur realises Merlin is a wizard (contrasting with two obvious red-herring scenes in which Guinevere and Morgana blatantly don't), suggested hidden depths to what is at first glance a pretty shallow series.

I'm also pleased to see the semi-introduction of a long-term foe from the traditional stories if Merlin, in the form of Nimueh, and hints of a longer term story arc.

Sticking with it.

Martin

[Bogatan]

I agree, I keep expecting Robin Hood and getting, well I'm not sure what yet, but it's definitely not Robin Hood. I think there's a danger of it getting repetitive though which was the killer blow for Robin Hood. But the cast is good and it seems to have a bigger budget for the sets or is making better use of it.

Andy

[Grand Moff Muffin]

A good episode, particularly the scenes with Anthony Head, whose character is wonderfully unpredictable. And the plot thickens re: Nimueh.

Next week... enter Lancelot.

Martin

[Hero]

I caught todays episode of this. I really will have to catch up with this show at a later date after this season has had its run. There's too much stuff to keep up with right now.

Does Merlin always play the fallguy for Arthur?

"Food supply"

===KEN

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Just caught last week's episode 'The Beginning of the End' on BBC iPlayer, and it's by far the strongest to date.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ffv90

Tomorrow, the characters from Arthurian legend start coming in thick and fast.

Martin

[Nigel]

Ooh look, it's Alexander Siddig. I don't think I've seen him in anything since Deep Space Nine finished.

Was anybody else waiting for Robert Vaughan to turn up?

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Nov 24, 2008 17:47:48 GMT Nigel said:

Ooh look, it's Alexander Siddig. I don't think I've seen him in anything since Deep Space Nine finished.

He rocked in Kingdom of Heaven.

Martin

[legios]

Nov 24, 2008 17:47:48 GMT Nigel said:

Was anybody else waiting for Robert Vaughan to turn up?

No, but only because I was expecting Toshiro Mifune at any moment....

Karl
(I did actually turn to my mother at one point in the episode and declare "that's three.")

[kayevcee]

Three what?

I haven't been watching Merlin at all. Might be good to catch an episode later in the series to see how it's improved.

-Nick

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I think "That's three" is a quote from The Magnificent Seven, of which last week's poorer-than-average episode (in my opinion) was a rip-off.

(And yes, Karl, we all know The Magnificent Seven was also a rip-off... )

Martin

[legios]

Nov 24, 2008 20:59:45 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

I think "That's three" is a quote from The Magnificent Seven, of which last week's poorer-than-average episode (in my opinion) was a rip-off.

(And yes, Karl, we all know The Magnificent Seven was also a rip-off... )

Martin

Heh. Wasn't planning on saying anything anyways pardner. I'm jess passing through and don't want no trouble. I'll jess mosey on up to this here bar and sit a spell.....

Didn't think the episode was terrible - a bit dull perhaps, and letting its sources show a bit but I have seen far worse passed off as Saturday evening TV over the years. Not my thing, but it seems to be a bit of a hit with my mother. (So it has to be doing something right - as the medieval period, and Arthurian myth in general isn't really her thing). Do still think Anthony Head makes a great king - even if it is not quite the Uther Pendragon I would immediately think of.

Karl

[Hero]

I'm catching up with this show now and up to episode 6. This thread alone really sold the series to me. I also enjoyed this weekends installment too with the dead unicorn curse.

I had no idea rat tasted all 'stringy'. Tea made with Bathwater... EWWW!!!!

===KEN

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Series finale was OK - it defied my assumptions about who would live and who die.

Blown to bits by a lightning bolt is a good way to go.

But I am annoyed at the way the series gives red-shirt knights who die ten seconds after first appearing on screen legendary names like 'Pellinore' and 'Bedivere'. Names with such history behind them at least warrant a lead role in an episode before bumping them off.

Martin

[Hero]

Season 2 starts September 19th

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Still enjoying this. Nice to have an ongoing series (now in its third year) with a gradually unfolding story arc to it. When it began I thought they'd rush the introduction of the various elements of Arthurian legend, but they're doing it at a pace that allows the characters to breathe and evolve, while at the same time clearly moving step by step to its eventual transformation - when Arthur becomes king and establishes the Round Table with Excalibur in hand. It's nice not to know exactly when that will happen - this year, next year, the one after? But happen it will.

In previous seasons we have had brief appearances by Lancelot. Today Gerwain, another of the great knights of legend (though not a knight yet) makes his memorable first appearance. He rides off at the end as-yet un-knighted (he can't be until Uther is dead and Arthur initiates his new order), but I can see the series gradually lining up these occasional characters, all ready to return from the wings en masse and take their rightful places when the new order eventually comes.

And meanwhile, we have seen Morgana le Fey gradually descend from the side of good to the side of evil over the course of two-and-a-bit years, so that she now plots the death of Uther and fall of Camelot. At the same time, Arthur and Merlin have really grown on me as likeable characters, quite refreshingly different from the usual fare in the age category. The way Merlin has gradually influenced Arthur to become more noble and mature from the shallow bully he appeared at the start is wonderfully subtle. There are real hints of greatness now coming that don't feel at all forced.

If anyone's dropped this and wants to see how it's getting on, this week's episode has a classic feel of Arthurian tradition about it, with much swordplay, sorcery, tavern brawls and a melee tournament of knights to boot. Plus likeable characters, and portents for things to come.

Martin

[Hero]

I've been following Merlin too. It is my Sunday lunchtime incentive from Sky+ing it the day before. Parent show Smallville is my Saturday programme.

I hope the series will bring together the Round Table knights (those who have appeared anyway) for a later episode or maybe season finale. I think the makers have watched Smallville's handling of the Justice League and will probably go down a simular narrative route.

I am wondering which series regular will be bumped off first.

Hardly any of 'evil' Morgana in the recent episode, but it looks like next weeks offering is more centered around her.

===KEN

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Oct 3, 2010 14:13:07 GMT Hero said:

I hope the series will bring together the Round Table knights (those who have appeared anyway) for a later episode or maybe season finale. I think the makers have watched Smallville's handling of the Justice League and will probably go down a simular narrative route.

I've never watched a full episode of Smallville, I guess because I have no interest in Superman (whereas I am very interested in Arthurian legends). And I think it's been going for too many years now for me to attempt to get into it. But I'm sure you're right that Merlin is largely inspired by Smallville's success.

Mind you, the concept of the Justice League itself is probably part inspired by the Knights of the Round Table.

Martin