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Just watched the first two episodes of Merlin...Interesting show...Though, it was kind of weird getting used to the idea of Arthur and Merlin being roughly the same age...
Kings continues to be highly enjoyable. I have the latest Eli Stone and Kings episodes in my recorded and ready to watch.
Heads-up: It looks like Virtuality is airing this Friday (8-10pm) rather than the time listed at the beginning of the thread.
Merlin... wasn't what I expected it to be. It was Arthurian legend by way of Harry Potter and young teenish actors. Weird. Still, I'll keep watching... 'cuz it's British
Ditto. This is brilliant. I am definitely going to miss it when it's over.
Ian McShane has a presence like no other. He's fascinating to watch. I hope there's something else out there of quality for him to do.
Merlin? *shrug* Like Mr. Light said, I'll keep watching because it's British. Plus, I think Sid will eventually show up as a guest star, so I HAVE to watch.
Merlin? *shrug* Like Mr. Light said, I'll keep watching because it's British. Plus, I think Sid will eventually show up as a guest star, so I HAVE to watch.
I'm mostly watching because of Anthony Stewart Head ("Anthony Head" in the opening credits). It helps that I know there will be a second season. Though, I wonder if we'll be able to see the second season in the U.S...
Merlin was pretty awful. The nice part was the witch's song - that was well done. But the writing and acting is indifferent and setting Camelot during the late Middle Ages, judging from architecture and dress, is overdone and robs the milieu of what could be a sense of mystery. Why not have the setting be pre-Roman times for instance? Or the darkest part of the Middle Ages? That just shows zero imagination.
They really botched the casting of Merlin. The actor is boring and bland. A really strong, riveting actor in that role could have compensated for a lot of the shows' deficiencies.
And the fact that the character is a nerd shouldn't preclude the idea of an actor really dominating every scene and carrying the show. Both Zachary Quinto and Zachary Levi are examples of actors who do that with essentially nerdy characters.
The less said about the laughable dragon CGI, the better.
Though, I wonder if we'll be able to see the second season in the U.S...
Pretty bad, except when you consider it's summer, and that NBC is probably getting the show dirt cheap. And it's NBC, after all. They might add it to their fall lineup.
If the demos continue the downward trajectory - and this does seem like a show that would appeal more to the kiddies and grannies - then even low expectations may not save it.
Oh and I see Merlin beat the Impact miniseries, which no double was Emmy material.
Onward to Virtuality, which I expect to be a mess, but at least an interesting mess.
Merlin isn't set in the Middle Ages, it's set in an undefined super-anachronistic fantasy time. It gets better over time, and they build up the mythology more. But what's really interesting is the moral conflict, and by interesting I mean hilarious.
Uther, played by Anthony Head, is an amazing pseudo-antagonist, and Head does a great job at playing up his good and bad qualities. He's a guy who won't hesitate to rape puppies for the greater good, but is so morally myopic that he can't see that he's jumped far off the slippery slope of well intentioned extremism and landed smack dab in Hitler territory, having essential prosecuted a personal vendetta to the point of genocide (multiple genocides, in fact) in the name of protecting his people.
For most of the series, you'll be yelling at your TV for Merlin to screw destiny and just kill Uther, and Arthur, too, because they both deserve it and worse. Arthur softens first, due to his increasingly homoerotic friendship with Merlin and becomes half way sympathetic. Uther doesn't get any character episodes till near the end, but when he does Head plays it well, making him actually likable, to the point where you can almost overlook the fact that he doesn't feel the slightest bit bad about systematically murdering several races of people, children included, for their (benign and occasionally benevolant) religious beliefs.
The show doesn't present Uther as a hero, he is an antagonist to Merlin as much as an ally, and a number of plots involve getting around his draconian laws and rescuing people who he is planning to execute, but Gaius is always there to put his intentions in a good light, even if his acts are extreme. Gaius is a character who presents the world as being morally grey, believing that sometimes evil deeds must be done for the greater good, that morality must give way to necessity, though this rings hollow and is more a defense of his friend Uther, whom he still loves in spite of everything, than an actual glimpse of his own moral beliefs. He's one who is willing to sand by his friends even if they go completely insane and orchrastrate genocides, but needs to justify it to himself.
The vast majority of villains of the week are also sympathetic. Most of them share one goal, to kill Uther because he has commited genocide and continues to do so. This is a goal that anyone can sympathize with, and one that we begin to sympathize with more and more as time goes on, but they are the villains, so they must be stopped. There is also the issue of Camelot's political stability and the total lack of competent leaders who can take him place.
Merlin's actor gets better as the series goes on, as well, particularly near the end, when Merlin becomes substantially more badass. Though the character clings to his laughably childish morality for most of the season, he slowly begins to see things as far more grey than he realized, or just became so assured of his own righteousness that he's willing to go off the deep end, it's hard to be sure which. And it's well acted.
But up to that point, seeing him try to cling to his moral beliefs in an increasingly grey world is downright hillarious.
In one episode, some survivors of a magic using tribe that Uther had committed genocide against plot to kill the tyrant. Merlin learns of this and at first decides to allow it to happen, for the greater good, but decides that killing is wrong no matter what the reason, and thus goes to save Uther from the assassins. He does so by killing two of them while Uther kills the third. Yep, he murders two people and allows a third to be killed because killing is wrong. I think the irony flew over his head.
The fun thing is that there are no real bad guys in Merlin. There are only good guy with differing opinions.
Uther is, at his heart, a kind and compassionate man who only wants what is best for his people. He just happens to believe that genocide against magic users is a lamentable necessity to protect his people from predatory sorcerers (It isn't, it seriously isn't).
The antagonistic magic users are all good people who just want to protect themselves and their kin from Uther's campaign of genocide. At worst, they're just good people who happen to be angry about Uther's campaign of genocide.
Gaius is a good person who is trapped between loyalty to his friend and actually being sane.
Arthur is an asshole, but he doesn't know better because he's the pampered only prince, and is also a good person at heart.
The Dragon is a manipulative bastard, but he also thinks he's doing the right thing for his people and his faith.
And Merlin is caught in the middle, forced to choose who lives and who dies, while operating with a modern English moral structure for some unfathomable reason (because he's the protagonist, really), and being the only person in the entire country at the time who does (ecept maybe Gwen). This conflicts greatly with the brutal world he lives in, and while he usually tries to remain neutral and avoid killing, he can't help but pick a side and he can't avoid killing people.
Plus, I think Sid will eventually show up as a guest star, so I HAVE to watch.
They might add it to their fall lineup. 
