My secret guilty pleasure (Merlin (TV Series))

Member Name: darren55

Product:	Merlin (TV Series)
Date:	09/11/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The storeies, the girl playing Morganna

Disadvantages: Some of the magic can be a bit cringeworthy

Merlin is a BBC1 TV show airing in early evening on Saturdays, its currently in its second season and has taken over from the lamentable Robin Hood.

I've always been a huge mythology, fantasy fan and one of my (if not most) favourite novels is The Once and Future King by TS White, this novel is one of the best ever written and gives us many of the common aspects of Arthurian legend. This book along with Morte D'arthur writtne by Thomas Mallory in the 13th century gives us the core of the Arthurian legend, i.e. Arthur, Uther, Merlin, Guineviere, Launcelot, Excalibur, Camelot. sword in the stone. Just listing the items shows how rich the Arthurian legends are, there is plenty of scope for heroic knight, dragons, myths, swords, beautiful women, heroes, treachery, magic and legend.

Anyway onto the show, Merlin is clearly aimed at a younger audience its main character Merlin played by Colin Morgan is a magician living in Uther Pendragons camelot, Uther (Anthony Head) has banned magic and indeed doesn't believe magic exists, Merlin is the assistant to Gaius (played by Richard Wilson) whose the court physician. Merlin is also the squire for a young Arthur played by Bradey James.

The show is a mix of the simple and the complex, there is a depiction here on a rural idyll, a simplistic view of the medieval world in which society is clean, easy to live in and basically just. Camelot is cast as a nice place, plenty of food, plenty of opportunity but it has one problem Uther is running a totalitarian regime based on repression of any displays of magic. Uthers response to any challenge to his rule is through violence, he tends to lash out and act before he thinks.

Arthur is his son and shares many traits, he's headstrong, independent, arorgant and forceful but he has hidden abilities compared to his father, he's willing to listen to Merlin and takes on board that the world is more complex than perhaps his father wants to admit.

Merlin is his squire, they can't be described as friends more as colleagues at the moment, Merlin is a magic user and his powers are slowly increasing. Merlin is a young man and is being guided by Gaius who doesn't have any magical ability but has plenty of sound advice and a undeground dragon called The Great Dragon who is voiced by John Helm. The dragon is Merlin's guide in his burgeoning magical ability but has motives of his own, he's also chained and his full story is unknown at the moment.

There are of course women in the series, Guineviere (played by Angel Coulby), she's pretty and a friend of Merlins, her father is the black smith, her father has featured once or twice and indeed the Guineviere storyline is almost one of the common people in the castle compared to the deeds of the kings and princes. The other girl in the series is Moranna (played by Katie McGrath), Moranna is Uthers ward as the child of a now dead old friend. She has latent magical abilities and Katie McGrath is truly gorgeous.

The cast are now set, every episode there is an external magic user who disrupts the court at Camelot, Merlin will manage to rescue the situation without revealing to the larger population that he's a magic user. The show has one or two constants, one os the antogonism between Merlin in Arthur, Merlin considers Arthur a posh upper class buffoon and Arthur considers Merlin a upstart fool. The other is the friction between Merlin and Morganna, clearly at some point in the future morganna will reveal her powers and the two will collide. The other main storyline is the hatred of magic shown by Uther and the loathing of Guineviere for Arthur, clearly this will have to change.

The show after the pantomine that was Robin Hood has become a bit of a guilty pleasure for me on the early Saturday evening, after the football scores and before Strictly or X factor. The show has high production values but the magic can appear a bit dodgy to say the least, there is a hint of a sexual tension with a lot of the cast young and good looking but the time slot keeps this as only a suggestion rather than fully explore it.

The acting is very good, helped by the brilliance of Anthony Head and Richard Wilson the young actors portray there roles well. This is a decent attempt at a light version of the Arthurian world and the BBC should be applauded for it.

Summary: An enjoyable show perfect for Saturday night