Merlin is back for another season at last and so here is my review of the first episode. Be warned, there be massive spoilers below. Go watch it first!
This season starts off with yet another time-jump. Just like before, when they skipped out on showing us the details of Morgana's change towards evil, this time they've skipped all the hard work that Arthur, his knights, and Guinevere and Merlin have to do in order to build Camelot and make it the long-expected land of awesomeness. We didn't get to see it recover from the events it had gone through in the past few seasons, we didn't get to see Arthur establishing the idea of the round table or making fairer rules or anything of the sort. In fact, they didn't even do what they used to do and show us some happy peasants or the streets of Camelot.
No. It jumps right into action and shows us the new predicament. Gwaine and Percival (the tall knight) are captured by Morgana - who now has a castle or her own in a frozen wasteland called Ismere and is looking for some key to knowledge.
I don't mind the action. It's not bad. And at least Morgana's plotting something of her own away from Camelot instead of trying to kill someone every episode. I am, however, just a little disappointed that they skipped all the details and didn't show us the hard work that went into building Camelot (Merlin alluded to this hard work/building at one point). I almost feel as if Camelot is a character that they didn't bother to characterize properly so it remains 2D.
Moving on. Gwaine and Percival are turned into slaves in a Goblin-like mining expedition and Gwen's servant hears Arthur's plan to go rescue them from an unexpected direction through the lands of Queen Annis. Unfortunately, I knew right from the start that the servant girl would end up being a spy because one of the people in the room said that it would go well, unless word got to Morgana of this plan then they cut straight to her carrying fruits outside the door. Too obvious.
So, they go try to rescue Gwaine - who is busy discovering this weird alien creature in the mines - and Morgana finds out and attacks them and Merlin saves Arthur and runs off alone with him so they can have time to trade insults.
One last thing I want to talk about is Gwen. Some reviews and comments have made it out as if she's taken on the role of a strong Queen and so forth. Personally, I didn't see this. All I see is that her dress is even more low cut than before and that she's channeling Uther in a weird hypocritical way that is very unlike her character. Yes, I'm glad she discovered the spy and didn't shrink from bringing her to justice, but I would have liked to have been able to remind her of all the times that her life was made miserable because of Uther's harsh and quick judgments. I mean, she confronted the girl and by the end of five minutes had sentenced her to death.
I'm holding out judgement on Mordred. I was very disappointed when I heard that Asa Butterfield wouldn't be continuing to portray the character (another negative result of the time-jumps!) so I'm a little biased against the new turn they've taken, but it may turn out to be good!
Overall, it wasn't a bad episode, it just didn't have anything special that made it stand out or make me pay extra attention. The alien dude was funny and I liked the druid guy helping Morgana and the fact that they've widened the scope of the world so it doesn't just take place in Camelot and the woods around it anymore.
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