Four more to go...
Dec. 2nd, 2012 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astri13Just a few quick bits on the latest Merlin
That wasn`t as atrocious as last week - but then, surpassing that would have been a tall order. Still, it was pretty pointless. This enchanted Gwen plotline did absolutely nothing but tread water storyline wise, do nothing with Mordred (except a bit here but it was also water-treading in essence), still had Gwen as some utterly perfect blameless Mary Sue, humiliated Arthur`s character in ways that makes even watching Saw less of torture porn AND seemed to take a rather mean-spirited glee in trying to destroy the central relationship of the show: Arthur and Merlin.
Guess it`s to desensitize viewers to the shitty ultimate ending where Arthur dies and Merlin walks away? I mean, this ain`t a spoiler but my speculation we`re all expecting that, right? Yeah, that might work with your adult viewers, you wankers, but you have a big kid audience as far as I know (and the consistent slapstick comedy and simplistic storytelling tells me you want it that way) and I guarantee they will be horrified by the ending I foresee you doing. From what I hear it`s gonna air on Christmas no less. Wow, this is just wow.
Now this episode also made something crystal clear again in starting with Arthur in the know and being a co-conspiritor with Merlin and Gaius, just like the Elyan ep last year - namely that this show could have been SOOOOOOOOO infinitely much better had a reveal taken place in say, early Season 2. I`m willing to let Season 1 stand as it is because it works pretty well without one.
If Arthur knows, there is no reason to make him look stupid and easily fooled or mean-spiritied or anything. Because the second he doesn`t know again, like the ending with Dolma, they play that crap that Merlin is simply "forgotten" and underappreciated and yada yada. Though, I will say this: the actors, especially Bradley, all played the last scene as if they knew exactly Merlin had taken up crossdressing as a cougar. The notion that Arthur, Gwen and Mordred simply walk off and forgot Merlin ike Kevin in Home Alone looked ridiculous even in the context of it being their usual slapstick/comedy bit at the end.
Imagine this show if Arthur had been in on it for years now, first helping to protect Merlin from Uther and then, after becoming King, them being together as prophecized as Warrior and Sorcerer, uniting Albion together. I could STILL have fallen in the end but that would have been so much more profound and tragic. And the journey would have been so much more entertaining.
Alas, was not to be.
So the episode as was, okay. Mordred - still nice and loyal. Check. Gwen - perfect and blameless again and apparently with either no recollection or no care what she did while puppeetered. Check. The epic love of Arthur and Gwen that few but the writers believe in. Check. Merlin being bitter. Check. Arthur being just kinda there these days. Check. Some magic shenanigans. Check.
The best bit was undoubtedly the drag act and Arthur and Mordred`s reaction shots to it.
That wasn`t as atrocious as last week - but then, surpassing that would have been a tall order. Still, it was pretty pointless. This enchanted Gwen plotline did absolutely nothing but tread water storyline wise, do nothing with Mordred (except a bit here but it was also water-treading in essence), still had Gwen as some utterly perfect blameless Mary Sue, humiliated Arthur`s character in ways that makes even watching Saw less of torture porn AND seemed to take a rather mean-spirited glee in trying to destroy the central relationship of the show: Arthur and Merlin.
Guess it`s to desensitize viewers to the shitty ultimate ending where Arthur dies and Merlin walks away? I mean, this ain`t a spoiler but my speculation we`re all expecting that, right? Yeah, that might work with your adult viewers, you wankers, but you have a big kid audience as far as I know (and the consistent slapstick comedy and simplistic storytelling tells me you want it that way) and I guarantee they will be horrified by the ending I foresee you doing. From what I hear it`s gonna air on Christmas no less. Wow, this is just wow.
Now this episode also made something crystal clear again in starting with Arthur in the know and being a co-conspiritor with Merlin and Gaius, just like the Elyan ep last year - namely that this show could have been SOOOOOOOOO infinitely much better had a reveal taken place in say, early Season 2. I`m willing to let Season 1 stand as it is because it works pretty well without one.
If Arthur knows, there is no reason to make him look stupid and easily fooled or mean-spiritied or anything. Because the second he doesn`t know again, like the ending with Dolma, they play that crap that Merlin is simply "forgotten" and underappreciated and yada yada. Though, I will say this: the actors, especially Bradley, all played the last scene as if they knew exactly Merlin had taken up crossdressing as a cougar. The notion that Arthur, Gwen and Mordred simply walk off and forgot Merlin ike Kevin in Home Alone looked ridiculous even in the context of it being their usual slapstick/comedy bit at the end.
Imagine this show if Arthur had been in on it for years now, first helping to protect Merlin from Uther and then, after becoming King, them being together as prophecized as Warrior and Sorcerer, uniting Albion together. I could STILL have fallen in the end but that would have been so much more profound and tragic. And the journey would have been so much more entertaining.
Alas, was not to be.
So the episode as was, okay. Mordred - still nice and loyal. Check. Gwen - perfect and blameless again and apparently with either no recollection or no care what she did while puppeetered. Check. The epic love of Arthur and Gwen that few but the writers believe in. Check. Merlin being bitter. Check. Arthur being just kinda there these days. Check. Some magic shenanigans. Check.
The best bit was undoubtedly the drag act and Arthur and Mordred`s reaction shots to it.
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Date: 2012-12-02 03:54 pm (UTC)But with it ending now? Well, I will keep on hoping until I see it but I LIVE IN FEA!