"I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello..."
So, this week it’s been announced that season five of Merlin will be the last. Frankly, everyone knew that. There had been rumours that it would be all summer and autumn, and although its best to take everything unconfirmed with a pinch of salt, these all seemed too accurate not to be true. It was pretty much confirmed. Also, we’ve all been hearing about the different new projects that various cast members are undertaking. Either this was the last season or next year Arthur would have had a bloody empty round table. So baring in mind that I already thought it was the last season, was I still upset at the official confirmation? Absolutely I was. This is for a few reasons, some positive and some negative. I always like to get the bad over with first, so lets talk about why this last season will leave a bad taste in my mouth. Firstly, I don’t understand why they’ve waited until now to announce it? Why skulk away in the last few weeks, rather than announcing it would be the final season before it started? I could be very, very, very wrong, but it doesn’t feel to me like it was cancelled as a show, so I am basing all my viewpoints and opinions on this assumption. I think it was too successful for it to be cancelled, not just world wide, but domestically too. I don’t think you could find a show with more consistent ratings. For the past few years it’s been hurled up against the most talked about and publicised show in Britain; The X Factor. It’s not only held it’s own, it’s put up a damn good fight and made an impact. So assuming the BBC didn’t just cancel it, why wait till now to announce it? Why not let everyone give it a proper send off?
Secondly, I have to complain about the content and pacing this season. It doesn’t seem like it’s giving us a last hurrah. I’ve been thinking about other last seasons of shows to compare it. It feels like you are watching the last season of a show which was cancelled. Narratives move slowly, the lack of character development, the lack of conclusions are all understandable in shows which think they’re going to have one, two or even five more seasons, but get taken off air. This season of Merlin has given some good individual episodes, but if you look at the season as a whole, nothing has progressed since the start. I could forgive the two parter, as the start of seasons on most shows are a bit 'style over substance'. I could actually even forgive episode three, because at least that made an attempt to move Arthur on as a character, out from under his father’s shadow. However, since then it’s just been filler. Sometimes very good and entertaining filler, but filler none the less. We know nothing new at this point, than we did at the beginning of the season. Apart from the ‘Gwen’ storyline. Which is all fine and swell, I don’t have a huge problem with it. Except for the fact it came out of nowhere, has been given it’s own four episode arc (which nothing has before!) and I still don’t know if she’s bloody enchanted or not!
So it does feel like a show that doesn’t know it’s getting the axe. I’ve been thinking about shows that know they were ending well in advance and thinking about how they compare. My favourite ever show is Life On Mars. This one may be difficult to compare, because it only lasted 16 perfect episode, but it knew it was concluding and managed to round everything up and do a brilliant conclusion. It was a different style of show, but what it did have in common with Merlin was a reveal/secret. We didn’t find out until the last episode whether Sam was dead, mad, in a coma or travelled back in time. Once you found this out though, the show was over. This is not the case for Merlin. The magic reveal in Merlin, should not be an ending. The whole beauty of Sam’s reveal in LOM was the build up, clues and investigation. The whole point of Merlin’s reveal will be the aftermath, the reaction and fallout. That’s because we, the audience, are in the know about Merlin’s secret, we weren’t about Sam’s. There is a article written on Digitalspy, which I felt accurately discussed the delay of the reveal. It said;
"There's certainly a strong argument to be made if you're of the position that the axe has fallen prematurely on Merlin - the show may have been on our screens for four years and five series, but its relatively fixed format has meant that certain story developments that fans have been yearning for still haven't come to pass, with just a few episodes left to air...
Sure, Arthur (Bradley James) will probably finally learn the truth about Merlin and his magic in the two-part series finale, but it might've been interesting to examine the long-term consequences of this revelation.
The impact that this twist will have on Arthur and Merlin's relationship surely deserves more than 42 minutes worth of exploration? Imagine an entire 13-part run that delved into the aftermath. Could the King ever trust his manservant again? Would he willingly conceal his secret? And how would it affect his feelings about magic in a broader sense?"
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s53/merlin/tubetalk/a440913/merlin-is-it-the-right-time-for-the-bbc-fantasy-drama-to-end.html#ixzz2DLphcXRJ
The weird thing is, I know myself and digitalspy weren’t the only ones to share these views. I think it’s a pretty universal opinion that the reveal needed a great aftermath. We need to see how it pulls Merlin and Arthur apart and how they join back together again. I just don’t understand why they wasted a whole season, when they could have been doing this? This is what we have been waiting five years for. I’m not saying I don’t find Merlin entertaining anyway, I do, but why fill the last season with episodes that don’t have a strong connecting narrative, when you could be creating an astounding one?
Another show I adored, that knew it was going to end ,was The West Wing. Yes, it had 9 more episodes in it’s final season than Merlin has, but it also had three times the cast, so I’d say it was even. I love The West Wing, and like Merlin it had a few spotty times within the seasons. However, the last season was a phenomenon in my eyes. It is basically a master class on how to end a show. Baring in mind it was only announced it was going to be the last season half way through the year, they still managed to create new stories and characters and conclude them and tied all existing storylines up. Every episode felt like it was moving on, like we were finding conclusions for every character. They had an epic main storyline and the season flowed wonderfully. Like with Life on Mars, I felt sad when The West Wing ended, but also happy that it had fulfilled it’s potential and gone out with a bang.
I don’t feel this sort of content with the ending of Merlin though. Yes, I know there are still five more episodes to go, but do we really think that they are able to round up this Gwen story, do the reveal, have an epic aftermath, rebuild and develop Merlin and Arthur’s new relationship, unite Albion, fight against Morgana, develop Mordred’s motives and do Camlaan all in five episodes, 9-13? Based on the fact that all that’s happened in the previous five episodes, 4-8, is that Gwen got locked in a tower and is now on Morgana’s side and Elyan died, I’m thinking it’s not very likely they can achieve even 10% of that list. It just feels a waste of a final season. I won’t harp too much on about it now, I’ve still got five more reviews to bitch about it in, but it just feels like it’s going too soon. It’s always felt like the reveal should be the mid point of the show and it should lead on to Arthur and Merlin building the land together against Morgana etc. It just feels not quite right.
On to the positive. I will miss the show. Even during the bad times, I’ve always enjoyed it. Always. It’s something that everyone in my family loves and we range over 60 years. I have to give the show a huge credit for doing that, no matter what anyone says, that’s not easy, to unite such a wide audience. It’s a show that’s always brought a little bit of sunshine to the most horrific and heartbreaking of days, and for that I will always be grateful and always love it. It made me smile when I didn’t think I was able to anymore.
I love the people in this fandom; how creative they are, how passionate they are and how they are always kind and witty in equal measures. I’m glad I was a part of it, no matter how little. I have huge respect and thanks for the cast and crew, especially the two boys, who seemed to almost by accident, create one of the best double acts and pairings on tv in recent years. You can’t write or create chemistry like that. It’s either there or it isn’t, and when it’s there, a show needs to wrap it up in cotton wool and thank their lucky stars. It is a rare thing, but they had it. I think sometimes the show underappreciated Merlin and Arthur’s relationship and connection and the brilliant chemistry that Bradley and Colin had, but I’m grateful we had it at all.