'Merlin' Review (May 3, 2011)

Merlin Review (first posted on my 'practice' blog May 3, 2011)

I just finished watching the third, and to date most recent, season of Merlin by the BBC. Initially I was put off by the changes that were made to the original Arthurian Legends, but after watching the show in its entirety I was pleasantly surprised. Being a television series it has more time to flesh out the minor characters and because it is done by the BBC it has access to all the costumes in the BBC vault. At the same time though, because it is a periodical television series it has episode and plot constraints that sometimes don't help it all that much.

I'll be honest, the season that I enjoyed the most, in every respect, was the third season. The first season had some serious growing pains, though the main actors were enjoyable, the second season was trying too hard to be funny and dramatic, but the third season brought it all together. Initially I was annoyed with how all the main characters were different from the original story, but then after watching the show I realized that this was a modern re-imagining of the classic story. The thing is with a classic story is that the same story has been retold a million times. What Merlin did was make changes that worked and made sense to the current generation. All the constraints made on the characters, from Merlin to Uther and everyone in between, gave good dramatic tension. Merlin having to hide his magic from everyone did cause a lot of interesting developments, but ever since the first episodes of the first season I wanted him to be revealed. That and Uther to die, but then I warmed up to his character and was pleased by Anthony Head's acting abilities by the end of the third season. But what made Merlin a joy to watch was all the minor characters, most particularly those who would become the Knights of the Round Table. Lancelot with his honor, Gwaine with his impetuosity, Leon with his loyalty, and I was even pleasantly surprised to see Percival introduced near the end, he being the knight that embodied innocence, at least from what I understand. Other tellings of the Arthurian Legends don't follow the knights nearly as much and I was pleasantly surprised to see Merlin do so. And before I forget I like that this version doesn't go into the Christian aspect of the Arthurians Legends, so much so that they change the Holy Grail into the Cup of Life in the third season.

Being English in both history, context, and even where it is produced, I found Merlin to be a fresh, but at the same time old, look at fantasy. On one side of the titular character's life you have the court intrigue of a medieval realm, and on the other the fantasy and magic of English folklore. The most interesting and fun to watch moments were those that included fairies or other magical creatures, my favorite example being from The Changeling in season three, where a princess is possessed by a fairy and proceeds to be utterly awkward. The dragon is also an interesting character, even though he is mostly used as a deus ex machina plot device. The Arthurian Legends are embedded in English cultural identity and this more modern version of them have made them interesting again.

What can I say, the costumes in Merlin are spectacular. My favorite historical period is the Medieval Period, and I am also trained as a costumer, so seeing such a high level of quality in the costumes makes me ecstatic. The most obvious costuming element present in Merlin is the armor and chain-mail. But the thing that makes it amazing is that all of the warriors are wearing REAL metal armor and chain-mail. I have utmost respect for Anthony Head and any other actor for having to wear the chain-mail and armor because it is terribly heavy, but most especially Bradley James because he wears the chain-mail and armor in every episode he appears in, which because he's Arthur is every episode of the television series. But not only was the armor perfect, but all the rest of the costumes were as well, even though they also had growing pains in the first season. I'll use Merlin, the titular character, as my example. Merlin, because he is a servant, wears simple clothing. But even though it is simple, his costume is still full of texture, probably wool, and color, which was common in the Medieval period. I particularly love Merlin's scarf.

It should be mentioned that I also found the sets and props pretty cool, but I won't review them because I didn't take a critical look at them when I was watching the show. They made a great setting for this medieval fantasy. Also, Excalibur (even though it hasn't been stated as such) was a particularly beautiful sword.

Even though I do enjoy the characters, costumes, and all of the other design concepts, I'm a little on the fence with the writing for the particular episodes. Well, my only issue is that a lot of the episodes have resolutions that pretty much have the same consequence as the end of most of the other episodes. Pretty much this is how an episode goes: the villain of the episode is defeated, Uther is still alive, Merlin's powers are still a secret, Arthur is prince and Morgana (at least in Season 3) is pissed off her plan didn't work. This doesn't denote bad writing and is common in most television series, but I grew tired of guessing how the episode was going to end. This style of episode writing does have a plus side in that it allows Merlin to find out more about magic and the minor characters and this information becomes important in the season finales, especially that of season three. Actually season three brings characters back from previous seasons so that was very interesting to those of us who watched the entire show.

Merlin, created by Julian Jones, Julian Murphy, Johnny Capps, and Jake Mitchie, produced by the BBC, is a series worth watching. The design is beautiful, the characters realistic and interesting, and the production value keeps getting better. Sometimes the writing is predictable, but the big plot twists are worth waiting for. Plus the comedy is decent and the character drama, most particularly in the finales, is quite compelling. Initially any fan, including myself, will be put off by the changes to the ages old Arthurian Legends, but this show will win them over. It certainly did so for me.