Merlin 5.01 Arthur's Bane I
Oct. 7th, 2012 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakOverall verdict: not as strong a season opener as the one for the fourth and third season, miles better than the one for the second. However it's tricky to judge the first part of a two parter on its own, and I may revise my opinion.
My main problem is that the Arthur/Merlin relationship feels like same old, at infinitum, and this sits ill with the three years gap the show postulates. Now I'd be the first to complain if we'd have found Merlin as the court sorceror and all magical problems solved and all this had happened off screen. If it does happen, it definitely needs to happen on screen. But if you do jump three years ahead and there is actually visible development elsewhere (I'll get to that when I get to Gwen, whose scenes made me very happy indeed), then letting Merlin and Arthur go to the same old jokes and servant/master routine feels like lame and lazy audience pandering. Incidentally, I suspect the main reason why it's a three years jump instead of the one year jump the show did twice before is so Mordred can be an adult or at least of fighting age. (More about this in a moment.) Which I can see necessary, but again: then all the Merlin and Arthur scenes should be rewritten.
Other than that: Anything to do with Gwen was designed to make me squee, even fanfiction-writing me, because let's just say Gwen being the one to suggest they go through Queen Annis' realm comes in really handy for the story I still plan to write set shortly after the fourth season ends. Also, I'm very pleased by the show, not tell to demonstrate to the audience Queen Guinevere is indeed an active member of goverment and not there to look decorative: she makes the crucial suggestion at the council, nobody looks surprised at this and Arthur listens immediately, she is regent in Arthur's absence, she's as observant as ever and deduces who must be the traitor immediately, and acts accordingly (Uther, are you weeping in envy from the beyond?), and the question of whether or not she'll go through with her death sentence is a really interesting one, i.e. is specifically about Gwen as a queen, i.e. this is not something the show could have done with Gwen in previous seasons, the writers really are writing for her as Guinevere the queen instead of letting her go through previously tread ground. Especially since Sefa the handmaiden having become a spy for her father, and that father's connection to magic, has to carry very personal resonance for Gwen.
Sidenote: if the two parter ends with the magic reveal, in a similar coup as Uther's death last season came in ep 3 instead of of being part of a season finale, I will declare the lame routine scenes between Arthur and Merlin a cunning device to make us see why this really has to end. *looks sternly at writers* I'm not very hopeful, but I am the tiniest bit because did-we-learn-his-name-yet? the father, Morgana's latest ally, is the first magical antagonist other than Morgana herself since Uther's day, and it could lead up to something. It would also explain the point of letting Annis demand a display of Merlin playing the fool which otherwise would be a waste of Lindsay Duncan's availability. Mind you, I am delighted they did bring Annis back as an ally, because a) continuity yay!, and b) this works with my planned story.
Gwaine's Very Cold Adventure In The North: I haven't read "Gawain and the Green Knight" in ages, so I'm not sure whether the Roswell Alien looking creature was supposed to be one traditionally associated with Gwaine. (I mean, I appreciate the use of CGI in order to make a magical being look not like an actor in a rubber mask, but the design does look like the Roswell aliens!) Anyway, speaking of continuity, the "we really have to stop meeting like this, Lady Morgana!" to her as a reminder to her making him fight for her amusement in the s4 finale makes me think anyone writing Gwaine/Morgana hate sex is on to something.
Mordred: so far this young bloke doesn't have the presence of the kid which could to both creepiness and vulnerability, but we'll see. Also, if I have to make a guess: Mordred will help Arthur and Merlin escape, thus ensuring himself a place in Camelot (Mordred in most legends was one of the Knights of the Round Table), but I do hope we'll see something more complicated than just him as Agrivaine Revisited. Of course, as opposed to Agrivaine, Morgana actually cares about him (or used to), and he knows about Merlin's abilities (hm, that suddenly makes it actually likely the two parter might end in a magic reveal because even if Mordred keeps this secret from Arthur for Plot Spying Reasons Of Spying, there is no reason why he should keep it secret from Morgana), and if we're really lucky, the writers could make him have mixed feelings. (Mordreds who don't want to kill, kill, kill but actually struggle with their destiny role are my favourite variation.)
Cinematography: someone really liked Peter Jackson's version of LOTR and the Isengard scenes in particular, is all I'm saying. Hey, if you steal, steal from the best, I'm good with that.
My main problem is that the Arthur/Merlin relationship feels like same old, at infinitum, and this sits ill with the three years gap the show postulates. Now I'd be the first to complain if we'd have found Merlin as the court sorceror and all magical problems solved and all this had happened off screen. If it does happen, it definitely needs to happen on screen. But if you do jump three years ahead and there is actually visible development elsewhere (I'll get to that when I get to Gwen, whose scenes made me very happy indeed), then letting Merlin and Arthur go to the same old jokes and servant/master routine feels like lame and lazy audience pandering. Incidentally, I suspect the main reason why it's a three years jump instead of the one year jump the show did twice before is so Mordred can be an adult or at least of fighting age. (More about this in a moment.) Which I can see necessary, but again: then all the Merlin and Arthur scenes should be rewritten.
Other than that: Anything to do with Gwen was designed to make me squee, even fanfiction-writing me, because let's just say Gwen being the one to suggest they go through Queen Annis' realm comes in really handy for the story I still plan to write set shortly after the fourth season ends. Also, I'm very pleased by the show, not tell to demonstrate to the audience Queen Guinevere is indeed an active member of goverment and not there to look decorative: she makes the crucial suggestion at the council, nobody looks surprised at this and Arthur listens immediately, she is regent in Arthur's absence, she's as observant as ever and deduces who must be the traitor immediately, and acts accordingly (Uther, are you weeping in envy from the beyond?), and the question of whether or not she'll go through with her death sentence is a really interesting one, i.e. is specifically about Gwen as a queen, i.e. this is not something the show could have done with Gwen in previous seasons, the writers really are writing for her as Guinevere the queen instead of letting her go through previously tread ground. Especially since Sefa the handmaiden having become a spy for her father, and that father's connection to magic, has to carry very personal resonance for Gwen.
Sidenote: if the two parter ends with the magic reveal, in a similar coup as Uther's death last season came in ep 3 instead of of being part of a season finale, I will declare the lame routine scenes between Arthur and Merlin a cunning device to make us see why this really has to end. *looks sternly at writers* I'm not very hopeful, but I am the tiniest bit because did-we-learn-his-name-yet? the father, Morgana's latest ally, is the first magical antagonist other than Morgana herself since Uther's day, and it could lead up to something. It would also explain the point of letting Annis demand a display of Merlin playing the fool which otherwise would be a waste of Lindsay Duncan's availability. Mind you, I am delighted they did bring Annis back as an ally, because a) continuity yay!, and b) this works with my planned story.
Gwaine's Very Cold Adventure In The North: I haven't read "Gawain and the Green Knight" in ages, so I'm not sure whether the Roswell Alien looking creature was supposed to be one traditionally associated with Gwaine. (I mean, I appreciate the use of CGI in order to make a magical being look not like an actor in a rubber mask, but the design does look like the Roswell aliens!) Anyway, speaking of continuity, the "we really have to stop meeting like this, Lady Morgana!" to her as a reminder to her making him fight for her amusement in the s4 finale makes me think anyone writing Gwaine/Morgana hate sex is on to something.
Mordred: so far this young bloke doesn't have the presence of the kid which could to both creepiness and vulnerability, but we'll see. Also, if I have to make a guess: Mordred will help Arthur and Merlin escape, thus ensuring himself a place in Camelot (Mordred in most legends was one of the Knights of the Round Table), but I do hope we'll see something more complicated than just him as Agrivaine Revisited. Of course, as opposed to Agrivaine, Morgana actually cares about him (or used to), and he knows about Merlin's abilities (hm, that suddenly makes it actually likely the two parter might end in a magic reveal because even if Mordred keeps this secret from Arthur for Plot Spying Reasons Of Spying, there is no reason why he should keep it secret from Morgana), and if we're really lucky, the writers could make him have mixed feelings. (Mordreds who don't want to kill, kill, kill but actually struggle with their destiny role are my favourite variation.)
Cinematography: someone really liked Peter Jackson's version of LOTR and the Isengard scenes in particular, is all I'm saying. Hey, if you steal, steal from the best, I'm good with that.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-07 03:29 pm (UTC)Especially since it seems to be vital to Morgana's plans that Arthur's knights be deprived of their shirts. How fiendish.
Queen Guinevere is amazingly awesome. And on a completely shallow level, one thing I've missed since Morgana left Camelot is her pretty dresses. (Apparently when one becomes evil, it is necessary to dress in animal fur and too much eye shadow.) Now Gwen has an awesome royal wardrobe of her own!
no subject
Date: 2012-10-07 04:25 pm (UTC)Guinevere's royal wardrobe makes a gorgeous debut. I hope for many follow ups!
no subject
Date: 2012-10-08 11:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-08 12:17 pm (UTC)