Merlin is Flawed, and I Love It

Apologies in advance for the impenetrable wall of text. I apparently had a lot to say. 

So I've had like three draft posts about the show Merlin, and and none of them have really been working out. It's not because I don't have anything to say - quite the opposite. The problem simply seemed to be that I couldn't pull anything together cohesively, and I think it was because all the draft posts turned a blind eye to something that's rather unavoidable in talking about this show.

And that fact is that it's not the greatest show ever made. It has a lot of flaws, a lot of plot holes the size of the moon. The CGI is laughable, the plots are rehashed over and over, the show has a reset button that they repeatedly push for the first few seasons. And a lot of the third options that characters don't take for plot reasons makes 'em come off as pretty incompetent sometimes.

And yet in spite of all this, I really really love this show.

And I think the thing is in past posts I had a habit of glossing over these fundamental flaws as if they either didn't exist or didn't matter, but that's just not... truthful. Because the flaws do exist, they do matter, and a show can exist with flaws and still be, like, enjoyable.

What's Merlin, you ask? Well, lemme tell ya.

So, Merlin is a retelling of the old Arthurian legends, but set more as an origin story - so before the characters became the people who the world knows them as. They've also taken a bit of artistic license with their adaptation, which I'm totally a hundred percent okay with. So, in this version, Arthur isn't king yet, but rather a spoiled, arrogant, and elitist prince. Merlin is younger than him, and is a commoner who happens to get the job of Arthur's manservant. Uther (Arthur's father) is the king currently ruling Camelot, and - here's the catch - he has banned use of magic and/or sorcery on pain of death.

Didn't see that coming, did you? Neither did I, but what a great and clever way to raise the stakes for our protagonist right off the bat, right?

Merlin and Arthur begin really strongly disliking each other, due to the fact that Merlin began by calling Arthur out, and Arthur began by beating Merlin up. So when Merlin is told that it is his destiny to protect Arthur, for he is the Once and Future King and together they shall unite the lands and restore magic, blah blah blah, Merlin doesn't reallllly believe it. But destiny said so, and due to his Chronic Hero Syndrome, he doesn't really have a choice in whether or not he saves Arthur from the various perils the writers think up for him or not.

That's it. That's the basis of the show.

And, the thing is... they're not bad ideas. I love the idea of Merlin being, like, persecuted for his magic and having to hide it, rather than revered as this all-powerful magician. Call me sadistic, the more emotional turmoil characters can go through, the more on board I am with it.

And the other clever thing they did with it is that they've set up the characters as far away from what we know them as possible, so that we can properly watch them become the people we have in our heads. For instance, Merlin, known for being an extremely old, wise mentor of Arthur's, is an extremely young, extremely idealistic (and, by extension, fairly naive) young warlock who can barely control his own powers at the beginning of the show. (He's also really an adorable human being.) In a similar vein, Arthur, who is known for his egalitarian stance represented by the Round Table, is in this adaptation, a spoiled elitist brat.

Because of the way they've set it up, they've given the characters room to grow, and that's what makes it such a good approach. Arthur isn't born the most noble, brave, [insert heroic adjective here], he has to develop that, with no small help from Merlin. Meanwhile, Merlin, ever the idealist, has to face all this hardship, all the stuff he saves Arthur from all the time, and as a result, by season 5, he's much more cynical and, shall we say, pragmatic, than he was at the start.

It's just a cool way to do it.

Now, that's not to say that the execution of this plan doesn't have a few flaws. For instance, Merlin's main storyline of whether/when he tells Arthur he's a sorcerer has been dragged out long past its due date - it only comes out at the very end of the series, which is about three seasons longer than it should really have taken. Not to mention that, at times, the abuse that Arthur inflicts on Merlin and is played for laughs is sometimes... not all that funny. I mean, you can only watch him hurl something at Merlin's head so many times before it starts to get kind of old. It's only fun if Merlin gets to reciprocate, which isn't always the case (given that it's, officially, a master/servant relationship), and that's what turns it from a playful friendly hassling to, like, bullying.

So, yeah, there are some flaws in how the relationship is written, which is a shame, because this relationship is the main driving force of the entire show. But the thing is... it still works.

The reason it works is because Arthur isn't a mean-spirited human, and even when he does bully Merlin like he does, that sort of comes across. He's not mean-spirited, he's honestly just oblivious. He's never hung out with anyone who isn't a knight, where they haven't straight up fought as part of their friendship, and he's never really hung out with someone who wasn't a nobleman. It's this awkward mixture of him trying to maintain a friendship while still trying to maintain class superiority over him. Merlin's his friend, but not his equal.

Does... does that make sense?

Actually, I think that gets addressed in a season 2 episode. Arthur says something (paraphrased but) along the lines of: "I know we can't be friends because you're my servant, but if I wasn't a prince... I think we'd get on."

But Arthur, as he grows as a character, begins consistently defying all these class restrictions - by the fourth season, most of the knights weren't noblemen beforehand, but rather, were extremely loyal and competent commoners who Arthur found to be worthy. By the fifth season he's married to Guinevere, who was a serving girl for the first four seasons. And it's pretty clear that, while he and Merlin do have a banter going, they consider each other friends - he especially starts to trust Merlin in the fifth season, I've noticed, and it's really making it wonderful to watch. But the reason it's awesome is because it took them time to get there, so for that reason, I think we can cut them some slack on how the Arthur/Merlin relationship was written. (This doesn't, however, excuse the fact that the growth of their relationship we experienced through season 1 gets reset at the beginning of season 2. As in, they appear to have regressed. Uncool.)

One of the other major flaws with this show is that they have a habit of assigning antagonists before the they've really done anything antagonistic. It works a little bit, at first, with young Mordred (who, if you've read the Arthurian legends, eventually kills Arthur in battle. Also, in some legends, he's Arthur's bastard son, but they seem to be steering away from that, which is probably for the best) near the beginning of the series. It works because it gives Merlin some emotional turmoil - how can destiny possibly be right about condemning a young boy who Merlin sees himself in? That was a decent storyline.

But they continue with this habit for a long time. When Morgause shows up, she seems like a perfectly reasonable person, for a sorceress, and a kick-ass fighter to boot. She's also the only one who told Arthur the truth about the circumstances of his birth (long story). I thought she was going to be important.

And she is, but her remarkable intelligence and fighting skills get drastically reduced. And the reason they do that is because they pit her against Merlin all the time, and Merlin can't be allowed to lose. The other thing is, while she is a villain.... you kind of see her point? I mean, she's trying to kill Uther, who hunted everyone in the magical community, brought about the near extinction of multiple species, and executed many an innocent bystander for "consorting with sorcerers". He's a paranoid lunatic with a lot of power, and... killing him seems kind of like an understandable course of action at this point.

And I realize that perhaps we're supposed to be looking at it from the perspective of "killing is never the answer, killing in itself is evil, don't become the monster," etcetera, which would be valid, if not for the fact that Merlin has a huge body count himself. I mean, people get angry at Merlin for poisoning Morgana that one time (which was a time where he was actually, legitimately left with no other choice, and the narrative makes it very very clear - it was a breaking point for Morgana and Merlin both), but as the actor points out in the DVD commentaries, "I kill loads of people! I kill at least one person per episode." And the reason the audience/writers lets him get away with that is because the people he kills are evillllll, but, like.... define evil? If Uther isn't evil, then who is?

(Not to say that Uther isn't, at times, a sympathetic character - Anthony Head plays the complexity of his extremism very well - only that, well, we're meant to believe that Morgause is evil for attempting to kill Uther by putting everyone around him to sleep in an extremely non-violent fashion, after episodes that have had Uther execute children for being druids or sorcerers. Like...?)

The point being, we're supposed to think Morgause (and then by extension Morgana) are evil because that's the role that they've been assigned in the story. The problem is it's really hard to buy that if you're someone who wouldn't shed any tears over Uther's death, since that's pretty much their main goal. And no one would shed tears over Uther's death (except maybe Arthur, but eh, he'll get over it).

In fact, the villains in general. Like I said, Morgause started off great. She was smart, resourceful, graceful and kick-ass. Then they started directly pitting her against Merlin, and she gradually degenerated until she became the equivalent of, like, a Batman villain, sitting in their lair and wringing their hands while they fail yet again to kill Batman when really they should've just shot the guy instead of tying him to a conveyor belt that moves ever-so-slowly into a chopping machine. (Is this the end of the dynamic duo??? Tune in next week! Same bat-time! Same bat-channel!)

And don't even get me started on Morgana. Her arc was great up until season three. Before that, they had her struggling with the fact that she had magic and had to hide it in the center of the lion's den, so to speak. They had her meeting Morgause, and struggling with the decision to finally overthrow the tyrant who raised her, but would kill her if he ever discovered her abilities. Then they had Merlin poison her, which was a nice catalyst - a nice confirmation for her of the fact that she can't trust anyone in her own home.

And then in season three she comes back. You'd expect them to play with her a little more, right? Play with the idea that she's trying to be the hero, but by more questionable means, and gradually becomes the villain without hardly realizing it. What an interesting conflict that would have been.

 Nope. She comes back and she's just straight-up Batman-villain evil. I'm talking, evil smirks literally every six seconds. It's cartoony. It's often enough that it makes you wonder how no one (besides Merlin) notices that the king's ward smiles to herself like a nutjob every time something bad happens to anyone.

And she doesn't talk about her reasons for becoming evil, and only vaguely and briefly what her ultimate goals are - and even those end up getting distracted. "Assassinate Uther to free the magic community" somehow gets turned into "kill Arthur for some reason" somehow gets turned into "kill Gwen... I don't know, she just sucks". (Oddly enough Merlin never gets a plot directly against him, at least, not until season five - odd because he was the one that poisoned Morgana to begin with). (Also, to be fair, killing Arthur is sorrrrrrrrt of logical, because he's next in line for the throne, but if he's gone then she is. So alright, I'm down with that. But Gwen. Like. Why are you killing Gwen. You know what would be a good way to stop Gwen from becoming queen? KILLING ARTHUR YOU KNUCKLEHEAD. Not to mention Morgana apparently does not know the difference between a queen regnant and a queen consort, but whatever).

There were a couple good villains, though. Agravaine, for instance, was watchable. He was working for Morgana, but he was infinitely more crafty and competent than her (understandable, given that by this point Morgana is steadily descending into madness driven by obsessive hatred) and, significantly, didn't smirk every five seconds. The thing about him though was that, while Morgana's plans were hazy but her motives were clear enough, Agravaine was exactly the opposite. His plans were executed well, but I'm kind of hard pressed to tell you why he was working against Camelot to begin with.

But you see, in spite of these various flaws, I still really enjoyed this show.

I enjoyed it because the thing about Merlin is that, while the over-arcing plots are generally pretty flawed (and only impact things on an erratic basis), the episodes themselves are usually really enjoyable. This is not a show where you should be looking at the big picture all the time, and I'm okay with that. There are so many shows these days that you can only enjoy by looking at the big picture, and that's just annoying, because it usually results in the plotlines per episode being disjointed and not really lining up thematically. One thing you have to give to Merlin - whether or not they do a good big picture, the plots per episode do line up well, and the scenes within those plots are usually extremely well done.

Seriously. While granted, a lot of the character development has been inconsistent (and off-screen to boot), the individual scenes are beautifully acted. (Except, as I've mentioned, Morgana's tendency for Vaudeville villainy, which is a bit jarring in comparison to the rest of the cast's more subtle acting, but hey, nobody's perfect). So many thinly written moments have been made quite profound because of smart acting choices made by very capable actors.

I have to give special mention to the dude who plays Merlin here, because while all of them are pretty great actors who bring a lot to the characters, Colin Morgan's Merlin is just... he stands out. I love that his Merlin actually cries instead of that stupid One Manly Tear trope. I love how incredibly expressive he can be in scenes when he doesn't even have lines. I love the subtle stuff he does in some of his line deliveries - slight voice crack here, a defensive whine there. It's really convincing acting. And on top of all that, he changes his accent for the show to boot (he has a really obscure Northern Irish accent. His Merlin is definitely not Irish). Not to mention that he has kind of this... magnetic, captivating quality, that's hard to define but easy to notice. He's the kind of actor where I could watch a video of him watching paint dry and I probably wouldn't change the channel.

And it has nothing to do with looks (though his cheekbones... damn, son). He just kind of has this quiet charisma thing going on. But, like I say, he's an amazing actor - it's pretty much what sold me on the show to begin with - and so that charisma is kind of just an extension of his talent as far as I'm concerned. I really admire him as an actor.

So the acting's really good, but also, the cinematography. Is really good. And of course, I've identified myself as one of those people who will continue watching something regardless of story if it happens to be shot particularly artfully, and Merlin definitely fits in that category. And there was probably good stuff happening from the beginning, but it becomes especially noticeable in the later seasons. Sometimes I just sit there with my jaw hanging because the shots are so pretty.

I love how the shape of the staircase forms this shot, and how it spirals down to Merlin. I love how small Merlin is. Beautiful.

I love this. I love that Excalibur is this huge thing that Arthur is, like, looking up to, and that they've represented it visually as well.

I'm not usually a fan of lens flare but I just think it works here. The sun, pulling Excalibur from the stone... it's all just so pretty. 

LOOK AT THAT SCENERY. LOOK AT THE LITTLE VILLAGE IN THE BACKGROUND. LOOK HOW FAR GWEN AND ELYAN ARE FROM EVERYTHING. LOOK HOW BIG THEIR FATHER'S GRAVESTONE PILE IS IN COMPARISON TO THEM. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS SHOT IS PERFECT.

I love this so much. The shadows from the barred windows, making it look like the prison that it effectively is. The mandrake roots hanging in the shot but not quite reaching Gwen. Amazing.

To be honest I'm just a sucker for this lighting. Damn. But I'm also appreciating the shape of the shot - the road they're walking actually looks treacherous, which is unusual to be seen in a silhouette shot, and it looks almost as if the camera is tilted a little. Also the whole silhouettes thing is just... my eyes like that.

I LOVE THIS SHOT SO MUCH. I LOVE HOW MERLIN IS LITERALLY SURROUNDED BY MAGIC. I LOVE THAT THEY'VE CAMOUFLAGED HIM INTO HIS SURROUNDINGS BECAUSE HE IS MAGIC, BUT HE'S ALSO SHARP AND CLEAR AND NOT FADING INTO THE BACKGROUND. (And you can't tell with this particular screencap, but they've set it up so that they have just enough space for you to follow exactly where his eyes are following, and it's a blue butterfly that flies up in the opposite direction. It's a beautiful shot). 

I noticed near the end of the series they were really experimenting with centering people in shots - you see it a whole lot with shots of Mordred, which I haven't included here - and that's unusual, because closeups generally are framed so that the person is either on the left or on the right, like the previous one. It's generally more appealing to the eye, which is why centering someone is such an interesting choice. I can only imagine that it's meant to convey that the character is in a position of unusual power (or to represent that we're viewing them from a separate character's P.O.V, but that doesn't apply in this case), but because people's eyes aren't drawn to the center, they'd have to work the shot so that the person in the center commands the frame. They seem to have done that here by the stark contrast between Merlin's cloudy grey background and himself - interestingly, Arthur almost manages to fade into the grey with his armour on, but he is visible enough to provide something to give Merlin pause. It's a cool framing, and an interesting one.

I love this shot so much. It's just beautiful. The green in with the grey and island and the lake and the man's profile and I just really love this shot a lot it's so pretty. 

I love how they've done this iconic image (because let me tell you it's an image that wasn't invented with wide screen in mind). The dark waters, the dark background, and the golden sword and the pale hand... the contrast just works perfectly. Even though there's a lot of space there, there's no doubt where you should be looking. It's awesome.

(I, uh... I took a film class one time. I don't suppose you can tell.)

There's more, of course - I was trying to find a shot from Season 2 where Merlin's shot from through a chain link, it's quite poignant - but these are just a few of the shots that stand out in my mind. Hopefully it gets the point across that this show's cinematography is really beautiful, and, especially when it's in the context of the show, can be kind of breathtaking.

There are also some interesting themes discussed on the show, of course. I've touched on the class distinctions thing, which is always present, and (at least after Season 1) the show makes a very big point of representing that aspect of things in multiple ways - and makes an even bigger point of it when the class distinctions are being defied. For instance, things are often shot with Arthur being literally higher than Merlin - he's standing and Merlin's sitting, for instance, or when Arthur's sitting, Merlin is always doing labour and chores and servant-like things for him. But after the Round Table was first introduced, at the very end of the show, Merlin and Arthur are both sitting, on the same level, and filmed from the same height, implying that, at least for this moment, they are equal.

And, of course, possibly the most importantly: it's genuinely entertaining. Leaving aside the unfunny Arthur's-a-bad-boss gag that they like, the show can actually be very funny. When the show gets dramatic, I feel it and care about it. The protagonists, even at their worst, are all interesting, if not downright lovable. And it can actually be surprisingly thoughtful with the plots it explores.

In conclusion: Is it the best show ever made? Of course not. Is it still pretty good? Yeah, it is, and I love it a lot. I concede its obvious problems, but the fact is, it has a lot of redeeming qualities too. It's one of those shows that turn out better than the version that was put on paper.

Here's the thing. The good things it offers? They don't erase the problems. But getting caught up in the problems kind of narrows the things you get to enjoy, doesn't it?

Long story short: I love BBC Merlin in spite of myself.