Some thoughts about the Merlin S3 premier...

[lady_moriel]

...because I already wrote them up at ridiculous length on Tumblr and, you know, might as well re-post for discussion (if...anyone is still reading this and wants to discuss?).

Comments

[louli_rabbit]

I concur on all your points about Merlin.

I some how still enjoy the show for now but seriously, everything you said....exactly my issues with the show.

*crosses fingers about season 3*

[wanderlight]

Instead of making my own post on Merlin S3, I may just link to this one, because, yeah. You've said everything that's going through my head.

If Morgause & Co. continue to be evil for the sake of the plot, we get some ACTUAL GOOD REASONS why they’re evil. No, I don’t mean “Well, Uther screwed them over and now they want revenge”. That’s a motivation for their actions. That doesn’t automatically make them evil. I remain unconvinced that Uther’s the best monarch anyway, considering the massive amounts of stupid he gets away with.

This is one of the show's biggest problems right now, I think. The writers are at least trying to show the motivations of both sides, but for whatever reason, they blunt all of this subtlety by stamping everyone as either GOOD or EVIL on the forehead. And then stuff like Uther being humanised by crying and Morgana being vilified with random evil smiles in corridors happens, which, ugh. Maybe because it's a kids' show? I want the writers to eventually go into territory where they lead viewers to the realisation

[lady_moriel]

Exactly. I don't even know. I don't think we can really blame it being a kids' show for this stuff, because I can't think of any others off the top of my head that are so frustratingly black-and-white in such bizarre, inconsistent, one-dimensional ways. Uther is bad! But we should save him! But he's good because he loves Arthur and Morgana! But he's bad because he treats them like crap! But he's a good king, somehow! But he's bad because he KILLED CHILDREN, WTF. But he's good, see, he's crying now Morgana's back! Come on, show, if you're going to be that weird about Uther, letting him do all this crap and still branding him Team Good for some reason, at least try to humanize your other characters, okay?

I want the writers to eventually go into territory where they lead viewers to the realisation that what both Side Uther and Side Morgana are doing is fucked up, and provide a third option, through Merlin, to move the conflict outside of hatred and revenge.

That would be awesome. And yeah, I have little hope for that either. My

[lady_moriel]

Well--it used to be better, is the thing. At first it was just kind of this cute, if somewhat ridiculous, little show that did funny things with Arthurian legends and also had a very attractive British cast (exhibit A: my icon). And then it just...started doing some really stupid things. Well, actually, it's been doing some stupid stuff all along, it's just that it was more okay before, and now that we've supposedly had some character development and stuff, maybe these things...shouldn't be happening anymore? But they do. It's still a very pretty show with some funny bits and some exciting bits and I do love most of the characters, to one degree or another...I just want to punch most of the writers in the head.

[lady_moriel]

Season 1 is still worth watching, I'd say; it's not perfect, but at that point it's still the fun, adorable, somewhat dorky little show I fell in love with. And unlike season 2, I don't think S1 ends on a cliffhanger, so if you only watch S1, you won't feel too frustrated.

[brooklynknight]

I think i would make sense this season if he revealed his magic to Arthur.

BBC Shows don't last this many seasons so, the 4th should be the last. This whole season should build Arthur's suspicions.