The first series of Merlin ended on Saturday with a bang. Several bangs, actually. What started out as a weak and at times banal “retelling” of Arthur’s early days, which took the elements of legend and stirred them in a pot until only small pieces were still recognisable, and was populated with pantomime characters and dodgy villains, slowly found its feet. Towards the end both the stories and the people telling them became, through familiarity but also through some measure of development and growth, somehow more solid and real. And we finally got to see some proper magic.
Related: Merlin on TV Scoop
Our esteemed editor lost interest in Merlin some weeks back, he said. He also said that if he was a teenage boy he’d probably have loved it. See, that’s my problem. I’m still a teenage boy (in my head), so I stuck with it. Even so, I still probably wouldn’t say I *loved* it, but it’s been a welcome if unchallenging addition to the Saturday night schedules in our house and, although I won’t exactly miss it, I’d be happy to see it back for a second series (which seems quite likely).
Anyway in this series finale Arthur and his hunting party meet up with a strange looking beast with the body of a lion and the head of a serpent. Oh yes, and I should mention that it’s considerably bigger than either, standing as it does around twenty feet tall. Sir Bedevere meets a sticky end on that particular hunt. Not what he was expecting, I’m sure. So Arthur beats a hasty retreat to Camelot where Gaius discovers that this strange creature is the Questing Beast.
What Gaius is careful to keep from both Arthur and Uther is that the beast has been made by the magic of The Old Religion, which Uther has banned, and has come to kill a specific individual. Arthur. One bite will be fatal, and there’s no cure.
Well, come on. You know right away that there *will* be a cure. It’ll just involve a quest of some sort, and probably a sacrifice. At least, that’s what Merlin believes after Arthur has another go at killing the beast and gets bitten for his troubles. (Actually I didn’t see any biting going on. It looked as if he’d been clawed to me. Still, the effect was the same)
Merlin sets off for the Isle of the Blessed after he discusses the matter with the dragon and – for once – receives a clear and unequivocal answer. Since the Questing Beast is a creature of old magic, only old magic can cure it, and the only remaining practitioners are on the island.
The practitioner we’re talking about is our old friend Nimueh, who appears more than happy to take up Merlin’s offer of his life for Arthur’s, even though she tells Merlin it won’t be that simple. She calls up a bit of a downpour and gives Merlin a phial of water from the Cup of Life with which to cure Arthur’s fever. Lo, the fever is cured, but hours later Merlin’s mother staggers into Camelot with a rather nasty case of boils. It seems Nimueh has her own ideas of whose life will be forfeit for Arthur’s salvation, and Merlin isn’t on her list.
Merlin’s all set to go back to the Isle and force Nimueh to take him in place of his mother, but Gaius gets in first. He leaves Merlin a little note explaining how he’s old and much less important than Merlin and won’t be remembered for anything anyway, so he may as well fall on his sword. Well, Nimueh’s dagger. It’s all heart-rending stuff. Merlin’s gutted. Off he trots to Avalon again to try to stop Nimueh but he’s too late. This makes him a bit cross, so he starts firing magic bolts all over the shop – err, castle ruins – and eventually, his magic proves stronger than hers. He calls down a lightning bolt and showers himself and Gaius with little bits of Nimueh.
Well! No-one could sleep through that, so Gaius wakes up and all is well again. He might be old and decrepit, but he’ll be back for series two at least. And in other news, we finally had a bit of a spark between Arthur and Guinevere as she tenderly tended him through his fever. We’ve waited 13 weeks for a bit of character development and our patience has been rewarded. Whether Uther will develop a conscience will have to wait for series two and whether Nimueh has really blown up or just made an overly dramatic and temporary magical exit remains to be seen too. We’ll bring you news of series two developments as soon as we get it, but for now it’s farewell to the Came-lot for this year.
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First I MUST acknowledge John Beresford for his most thorough and ENTERTAINING reviews, THANK YOU!
He really covers it all from plots to subplots, character development and storyline PLUS he does it with a with a great sense of humor! ^__~
While I am NOT a teenage boy, I still enjoyed this series. I thought it was a bit slow, clunky and lacking a wee bit of definition at the beginning but YES everything seemed to come together in the end.
I will DEFINITELY watch the next season! Hopefully there will be more special effects and great mythical creatures!
Thanks so much Mary! Glad you enjoyed both the reviews and the series!
I don’t understand the negative reviews of Merlin – everyone I saw who watched it thought it was incredible, and was transfixed for the entire series. The cast’s chemistry is superb, and I think the BBC have found a superb and charismatic star in Bradley James – definitely the new Mr Darcy figure in my opinion (and let’s face it the Beeb’ve been looking for a similar heart-throb ever since Colin Firth)! Maybe that’s why I’ve never read a negative review from a woman…
Colin Morgan is very well cast too, but his character is more shy and less confident than Arthur, so I expect his screen impact to increase as the character develops confidence. Great acting tho. And Angel Coulby is adorable. I personally can’t wait for more chemistry between her and Arthur.
I really think though,as the whole thing is a myth anyway and so the BBC really has a right to do what it likes in the storyline, that they should skip Guinevere’s affair with Lancelot. It was added later to the legend by a Frenchman so I don’t feel is an essential part of the legend, plus it’s just not realistic that anyone would cheat on Arthur when he’s played by Bradley James!
So, at least female fans, I’m sure, can’t wait for the next series!
Zena,
Arthurian legends developed bit by bit. The roots were in the times nobody remembers anymore. They started probably as stories told by bards and poets to explain the history of their people; to keep the people’s spirit flaming in fighting back invaders; as part of their beliefs or faith. For Medieval writers, Arthurian legends were their way to teach morals and gallantry, and to hide Christianity symbols, meshing them up with pagan symbols that had already been there first in the legends.
You can’t just say that ‘the whole thing is only a myth’. Now, for people in the past, these legends were really important. So I’m wondering about the motives of 21st century producers who make stories that are completely different from the traditional legends (and not even trying to explain ‘historical Arthur’, like Clive Owen’s ‘King Arthur’), and seem not confident enough (“Will people watch this? Will it sell?”) so they use already famous names for their characters.
I’m sorry, Zena, but to me, when you say that Lancelot is not an essential part of the legend, then you’re missing a lot of the Arthurian legends. True, Lancelot was added later, so much later than many parts of the Arthurian legends but now he’s a very important part of them. We probably won’t have known Arthurian legends if those French writers didn’t revive the interest in Arthurian legends by writing poems about Lancelot.
Try to read the Vulgate Cycle, or Malory, to see how Lancelot is one of the main characters of the Arthurian legends.
And Merlin was added later to Arthurian legends, anyway! So he must be as unimportant as Lancelot?
To me, the series is quite interesting, and I can see how Colin and Bradley work on the chemistry very well, although I’m still trying to get past the first episodes that are a bit ‘seen there, read that’ for me. I’ll just watch the series pretending that the similar names are just coincidence. I would have respected the series more if they have used ‘original’ names.
Well Geoffrey of Monmouth’s is the first work we have of the Arthurian legends; it includes Merlin but not Lancelot. The events did not actually happen and every author that has written on the legends has their own take on them(Marion Zimmer Bradley in The Mists of Avalon, for example), and so the BBC has a right to play with the story structure in anyway it chooses. My idea of not having the affair with Lancelot is flippantly put, in response to anticipation of the glowing romance between Arthur and Gwen which we expect. With its family audience the series Merlin may downplay any sexual dynamics of an affair behind Arthur’s back, in favour of adventure; thus removing this blight in a tale of a nirvana of strong principles (Camelot) and heroes.