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Nov. 14th, 2010 12:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solitary_summerRe. Merlin — sorry, show, I think we're done. The good moments haven't made up for the increasingly bad rest for a while now.
I think it's increasingly unlikely that Uther is going to survive the season, though. I've noticed for a while now that he's sort of... dead man walking. Even Arthur is making plans for the time after his death now in very unambiguous terms, first when he tells Morgana that 'one day' he'd come back with Gwen and make her queen, and then when he promises Gwen, 'when I am king, things will be different.'
God knows, it's time for a change. Even Uther's tirades about the dangers of magic are getting tired after three seasons, and the previews for the next episode sound terribly been-there-done-that every time. And they really need to stop making Arthur look like an idiot, not suspecting anything, even though he earlier thought he recognised the sorcerer.
Arthur and Gwen. *sigh* Sometimes I think I should rewatch S2, because maybe I missed some essential relationship building while I was still busy prying off the slash googles and complaining about how Arthur treated Merlin? I loved Morgana's vision with Gwen as queen, and the theme of love, and what you're prepared to give up for it, vs. duty was theoretically interesting, but on the whole I didn't feel it was as epic an episode as it could have and should have been. I don't know if that makes me misogynist or racist or both, but I don't really feel the chemistry between Arthur and Gwen. (*) Like so much with this show, there are glimpses where I can see how it could work, and almost does work, but mostly it doesn't, not quite. And what really bothered me was Arthur's lack of initiative to save her. Granted, he was suitably depressed about her impending death, but that's the man who in ep. 4 defied his father to save Merlin. There are a lot of knights he is training with all the time, who fought with him during the siege in eps. 3.01 &02—surely some would at least feel enough loyalty to help their prince (and future king) to save her? Surely not everyone in Camelot is either completely terrified or a hundred percent loyal to Uther? Gaius managed to save Alice in the last episode.
I guess the ultimate dealbreaker for me is Morgana. I can't watch her do that to Gwen, I just can't. It almost physically painful. Does it count for nothing that they used to be friends? Not even enough for Morgana to at least have moral qualms about what she's doing? Is Morgana nothing but Morgause's puppet?
(*) OTOH, I don't feel any chemistry between Arthur and Merlin either any longer. Maybe the writing is just pretty terrible all-round?
I think it's increasingly unlikely that Uther is going to survive the season, though. I've noticed for a while now that he's sort of... dead man walking. Even Arthur is making plans for the time after his death now in very unambiguous terms, first when he tells Morgana that 'one day' he'd come back with Gwen and make her queen, and then when he promises Gwen, 'when I am king, things will be different.'
God knows, it's time for a change. Even Uther's tirades about the dangers of magic are getting tired after three seasons, and the previews for the next episode sound terribly been-there-done-that every time. And they really need to stop making Arthur look like an idiot, not suspecting anything, even though he earlier thought he recognised the sorcerer.
Arthur and Gwen. *sigh* Sometimes I think I should rewatch S2, because maybe I missed some essential relationship building while I was still busy prying off the slash googles and complaining about how Arthur treated Merlin? I loved Morgana's vision with Gwen as queen, and the theme of love, and what you're prepared to give up for it, vs. duty was theoretically interesting, but on the whole I didn't feel it was as epic an episode as it could have and should have been. I don't know if that makes me misogynist or racist or both, but I don't really feel the chemistry between Arthur and Gwen. (*) Like so much with this show, there are glimpses where I can see how it could work, and almost does work, but mostly it doesn't, not quite. And what really bothered me was Arthur's lack of initiative to save her. Granted, he was suitably depressed about her impending death, but that's the man who in ep. 4 defied his father to save Merlin. There are a lot of knights he is training with all the time, who fought with him during the siege in eps. 3.01 &02—surely some would at least feel enough loyalty to help their prince (and future king) to save her? Surely not everyone in Camelot is either completely terrified or a hundred percent loyal to Uther? Gaius managed to save Alice in the last episode.
I guess the ultimate dealbreaker for me is Morgana. I can't watch her do that to Gwen, I just can't. It almost physically painful. Does it count for nothing that they used to be friends? Not even enough for Morgana to at least have moral qualms about what she's doing? Is Morgana nothing but Morgause's puppet?
(*) OTOH, I don't feel any chemistry between Arthur and Merlin either any longer. Maybe the writing is just pretty terrible all-round?
