The Adventures of Merlin: Season 4 Review

The fourth Season of the Adventures of Merlin is now over and it was a very interesting one. I watched the first three seasons very quickly (and by quickly I mean in the space of mere days), but with this new season I was forced to wait for an entire week until the next episode. These long waits had the effect of lessening the suspense/interest levels a tiny bit, especially when the episodes were not connected.

It was, overall, an excellent season, but I feel that it got off to a better start and then kind of languished at the end. I went looking for the writers of each episode and noticed that, once again, the amazing episodes were mostly written by Julian Jones and that, for whatever reason, his name stops appearing as the writer in the second half of the season - and it suffers as a consequence! I think one day I might sit down and watch only the episodes written by Julian Jones and see how that works...

The one outstanding difference between this season and the others is that I don't recall being introduced to a one-episode character that I actually cared for, whereas in previous seasons there were many quite amazing one-episode characters like Gilli, the dark sorcerer (Mackenzie Crook), Mordred, and many, many others. This season the character development was scarce for both guest characters and the main characters.

With a couple of great exceptions we also don't see the same unique uses of magic that we used to see in previous seasons... it seems to be veering towards a more formulaic eyes-change-color then opponent-falls-back type of scenario. There are more fight scenes and it's getting darker overall, but Merlin and his magic aren't developing as well.

There were some long-awaited moments of awesomeness for me in this season. Things that should have happened long ago and have been put off for far too long by the writers.

As usual, I don't think I can say more without spoilers, so go watch season three and come back to read my detailed thoughts on this season.

World-Building: Great
Characterization: Ok, but stagnated too much in the middle of the season
Plot: Started off excellent, but then started becoming repetitive/unoriginal

THERE BE SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

As I mentioned above, Season four got off to a great start. There was some pretty dark stuff and some impressive magic being used. We finally got to see Uther die and the plotlines were unique and they seemed to carry over from episode to episode. By this, I mean that there seemed to be progress in the overall plotline of the season. Arthur was getting used to his new role as King, Agravaine appeared as a double-agent creating a compelling and ongoing conflict, and we got to see a baby dragon hatch.

In short, totally awesome.

And then Merlin finds out that Agravaine is a traitor working with Morgana and DOES NOTHING! He doesn't tell Arthur because "he wouldn't believe it" or some such nonsense. He doesn't attempt to prove it or get Agravaine caught somehow. He just does nothing even though he knows that Agravaine is determined to cause trouble in Camelot. This not only did not make any sense, it also added another annoying thing to the list of "important things Arthur doesn't know, but really should find out already" - the top one being that Merlin can do magic. It was very aggravating. (no pun intended, though I'm sure the writers did intend it when they came up with his name).

Moving on. After a few excellent episodes we suddenly start seeing repetitive nonsense and one-off episodes that can have no possible bearing on anything that comes after them. Instead of continuing the trend of good characterization (which is what made the other seasons so awesome) the writers allowed the characters, like the plot, to stagnate. Not only does Merlin do nothing about Agravaine's betrayal, he also does nothing about convincing Arthur that some magic users are good. He does nothing to help Arthur overcome his faults and become the great king he was "destined" to be.

They've been feeding us this destiny nonsense since day one, but now that Arthur is actually King we don't see it happening. There are exceptions, of course, like episode 5 when he averts disaster by showing Queen Annis that he's not as bad as his father, and the chilling episode 10 when Arthur finally confesses to having committed a big mistake in the slaughter of a Druid tribe and promises to give the Druids the respect they deserve.

But really, too little time is spent seeing what Arthur is really like as a King, from day to day, and too much time is spent on Agravaine and Morgana's increasingly pathetic plans against him. What's worse, very late in the season we get Episode 11: The Hunter's Heart which is basically a bunch of self-induced angst amidst the same princess storyline we've seen at least three times before on this show.

This is not to say I didn't enjoy the season. Aithusa was just amazing. Merlin's dragonlord speak makes me grin every time and the final showdown between Merlin and Agravaine in the last episode was amazing. Colin Morgan did an amazing job taking Merlin from the stagnant character the writers reduced him to all season and turning him, within the space of one episode, into the powerful wizard we've all been waiting to see. His role in Arthur's confrontation with Morgana was also very well done.

Elyan is starting to grow on me, even though they keep using him when they need a knight to do something stupid or unwise. His acting in episode 10 was great as was the acting of the creepy little child-spirit that haunted him.

A new character that I enjoyed was Helios. He made an impressive bad guy: strong, intelligent, and not simply a tool in Morgana's hands. He seemed like more of an equal than anything. He was, of course, criminally underused, and I saw his death coming from the moment he stepped on screen, but his presence really did add to the series.

Some small regrets I have are: 
- Gaius is still alive, even though he's becoming completely pointless as a character and was on his deathbed a couple of times
- Gwen, even when she's the main character in an episode's plotline, continues to do nothing useful
- The Knights were underused and the round table idea was never again mentioned
- Tristan and Isolde, while somewhat cool, made no difference to the storyline and should not have been there
- The magical creatures/magical characters were silly: the Lamia too fake-looking and that creepy old woman with the spider-wed eyelids just too....creepy
- Lancelot's character was revived only to be completely destroyed in one fell swoop. Really, I would have preferred it if he had stayed dead. What they did to him, and the way they handled the triangle thing, was neither believable nor cool.
- Where is Mordred? Seriously.

Minor Cool things: 
- Morgana forcing Gwaine to fight for his (and Elyan and Gaius's) supper.
- Percival actually has a hint (though very vague) of a personality
- The way that the sword in the stone was incorporated.