The Adventures of Merlin: Season 1

Brief: 

The adventures of Merlin is a BBC TV series starring Colin Morgan as the title character. Unlike the usual image of Merlin as much older than Arthur in this TV series they are both boys/young men. This series doesn't attempt to be epic and many liberties are taken with the portrayals of this legend and of society in medieval Britian in general. I mentioned in a previous post that I am getting tired of picking up what I assume to be original fantasy stories only to have thinly (or not at all) disguised versions of Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot show up. This series does the opposite, and maybe that's why I found myself enjoying it: it is supposed to be telling the story of Merlin and his interaction with Arthur and Guinevere and all the rest of them, and it does include all the well-known characters, but it doesn't follow the well-known storyline (at least not in season 1) and the characters aren't portrayed in the same way we are used to.

I said before the series doesn't try to be epic and I'll say it again. When I started watching the first episode I found it difficult to believe this was made in 2008 due to the quality of the special effects. And I will admit I got through the first episode mostly because of amusement. It was funny watching Merlin look out at an obviously fake/green screen Camelot and so on. I was also, as indicated, interested to see how they'd changed the well-known story-line, and there were quite a few changes. The other main thing that hooked me was the acting. As usual with BBC drama the acting was excellent.

Overall, the first season was great. If you're looking for an epic, realistic portrayal of the times you're not going to find it. You also need to suspend disbelief when it comes to some of the plot elements and events used. In fact, the plot does seem to get a little formulaic in the middle of the series, with a few episodes being very similar (just with a different bad-guy/problem) and very predictable. Hang on through these couple of episodes, because the last few episodes are great and they have a few interesting surprises.

Details: (BEWARE THE SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT)

As I said, the acting is excellent, Colin Morgan does an especially wonderful job. Mordred was great. I also really liked Morgana and somewhat liked Gwen, although they used her mostly for Comic relief, which got a little annoying after a while. I was surprised to see the hints of Gwen/Merlin, and actually quite happy - it would be, in my opinion, great if they ditch the whole tired Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot thing.

Also, commenting on the acting leads me to comment on their choice to include actors of many different racial backgrounds. Most notably, Gwen and her father are Black. Lancelot seemed to have a hint of Latino, though he didn't last for long enough for me to be sure. There are also various Knights who are black and one Knight who fights in the tournament that has a very middle-eastern outfit. I read some reviews where people either loved or hated this "color-blind" approach. The main argument against this is that it isn't accurate, but if you look at the series overall this is hardly the most striking example of inaccuracy. More striking is the lack of real barriers between servants and the nobility(mainly just the king and his family in this case) or the shiny cleanliness of Camelot, or the modern dialogue and figures of speech that are used left right and center. No, for me, the accuracy of the "color blind" casting isn't an issue, I'm more concerned with whether it really is so "color-blind".

In my opinion, although they have cast people from a variety of racial backgrounds there aren't really too many stereotypes being broken here. The Black Knights have a habit of dying or getting grievously injured on the show yet we never got to truly know any of them. There aren't any key characters other than Gwen who are Black and as I mentioned earlier she's mainly there for comic relief in this season. There was also one episode where Merlin's village (which actually lies in a neighboring Kingdom) is attacked by some thugs led by the actor who told Balian his "quality will be known" by his enemies before they meet him or something. And again, the actor was dressed up in the same get-up he wore when he was one of Saladin's men... and he was very one dimensionally evil. So yes, there are non-White characters, but so far none of them have been given three dimensional roles and they are over represented in the killed-off category. There's potential, but so far they haven't done anything too different from the usual.

The thing that irked me most was Merlin's obsession with his destiny and the way he just unquestioningly believed the Dragon even though he disliked Arthur. I'm also getting tired of Arthur's life being under threat and I really hope there's less of this in the second season. They made a good start with the initial fight/argument between Merlin and Arthur and they really should have kept that going for more episodes. I also didn't see much reason why Merlin should believe that Arthur would be a better King than Uther... and the dragon saying so doesn't count as a good reason. I grew more convinced as the season progressed, but Merlin just took it for granted from the start, which was, in my opinion, a mistake.

So yes, less about Merlin's destiny would be wonderful.


World-Building Rating: 

There were too many irritants, plot-wise, that had me coming back out this world with a jolt. A viewer shouldn't be questioning the choices of the people who made the thing, they should just be immersed in the world. Maybe that also says something about the kind of viewer I am. However, this prevents me from giving the show an awesome rating. I would have given it a decent rating, because the acting, not the world-building are what carry this story, but there are enough cool creatures and different uses of magic to push the rating a little higher than that. Overall, this show sits somewhere between Decent and Great in terms of the world-building.