Merlin premiere: jizzed in my pants
OMFG MERLIN SCREENING.
Naturally, spoilers abound, so let's just cut the whole thing, yeah? Warning: longpost is LONG.
OK, so I got to Brighton station WAY too early, caught the train, successfully navigated my way across to Embankment (running into one of my brother's friends on the way - he was starting at my chest, then as soon as I waved at him and he realised who I was he claimed he was trying to read my t-shirt - a likely story), and met the Underlord. We wandered about a bit before locating o_deanna and her lovely boy. We sat together at a table outside a wine bar, which was a genuinely terrifying place - like a sort of grotto, all dampness and arched ceilings underground, and the tables were barrels, but over in one corner there was a sort of serve-yourself carvery (i.e. crap roast dinner bar) and a massive selection of cheese. It was sort of hilariously weird.
Anyway, skip ahead, we wandered over to the BFI, picked up our tickets and went pretty much straight in. I've since discovered that they were handing out loads of freebies in the foyer - we managed to grab some posters and postcards but I wish I'd known about it earlier because apparently lots of people got activity books and things. Also, there was a competition to draw a Merlin storyboard, and there were only three entrants who all won a prize, so I really wish I'd entered that! I would have had epic LOLz writing "By Martha, aged 27" on it as well. XD
OK, so we sat around waiting for a while, and the atmosphere was absolutely electric - I would estimate the crowd was about 60-70% oestrogen brigade fangirls (and their guests), and the rest, small children with parents and occasional people who were probably BFI members that come to everything or something. So we sat and giggled and got excited and so on and then suddenly, the cast filed out of the door in front of us and made their way up the steps to sit at the back! They came THIS CLOSE to where we were sitting. Like a dick I grabbed my camera, pointed it, and pushed the shutter, without stopping to check it was on a useful setting, so I have one incredibly dark photograph which technically shows Anthony Head, and another very very blurry shot of what looks like a couple of ghosts, or possibly a school art project, but is in fact Bradley James and Colin Morgan. FUCK MY LIFE. XD
Later, during the Q+A, I did manage to get one useable shot before they told us we weren't allowed to take photos, so here it is:
So anyway, then the episode began! The plot was pretty awesome, and I shall attempt to summarise it. Mackenzie Crook plays Cedric, who is a sort of conman at the start. The episode begins with some miners finding a sealed-up tomb full of treasure under Camelot; Cedric somehow finds out about it and wants to get his hands on it, but Arthur has the only key, so he has to get close to Arthur. (I may be misremembering this, incidentally; as I'll come to, the episode was slashy as fuck so the plot was really not at the forefront of my mind. Oh, come on, guys, no-one reads Playboy for the articles.)
Uh, anyway, so Cedric blags himself a servant's job, starts being a way better servant than Merlin, and gets Merlin into trouble and stuff. Merlin is massively jealous and there is a punch-up in Arthur's chambers which is one of the gayest things I have ever seen on a family show. XD Seriously, Merlin and Cedric roll around on the floor while Arthur rolls his eyes, caught in the middle like Archie trying to decide between Betty and Veronica.
Anyway Cedric gets the keys to this tomb and nicks the massivest jewel in the place, which turns out to be a dead sorcerer's soul encased in a gemstone or something. Look, let's be honest, it's a fucking horcrux. Srsly, Gaius even says something about how the evil sorcerer in question has "conquered mortality" or something. OK, so then the soul comes out and possesses Cedric, and he becomes actually genuinely evil, and you can tell he is evil because he wears... a feather boa? (And looks fierce in it.)
Anyway, he makes all these giant black leathery bird things attack the castle (this bit totally made me want to replay Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but I can't be arsed with all that goat-herding stuff at the beginning). Loads of people are injured. Gwen and Morgana help out with the bandaging and so on and there's an attempt at some Arthur/Gwen UST which fell a bit flat IMO - although Gwen is awesome in that bit (Arthur is all like, "Hmm, Guinevere, you're all intriguing, come back here so I can say thank you in a vaguely sexy voice" and she's all like, "... Is that all, or can I get my fucking work done?"). At some point in this Uther and Arthur have a row - Uther doesn't want Arthur to fight the Shadow Beasts, Arthur says something like "IT IS MY DUTY TO CAMELOT AND TO MYSELF!" and all the fangirls in the auditorium feel their knickers catch on fire.
Oh, and I should have mentioned, Merlin's in the dungeon at this point but he blasts his way out like a badass (this part got a huge cheer). He goes to see the dragon; they bitchfight for a while and then the dragon breathes some spell into Merlin. He confronts possessed!Cedric, and they have this whole standoff that totally made me think of Return of the Jedi (Cedric says something like "Join me, and we can rule -" and my brain went "the galaxy as father and son!"). Naturally, Merlin wins and Cedric collapses. The soul horcrux thing goes up Merlin's nose (LOL really) and then he emerges from the mist (apparently there's mist) looking like a badass, but then he smiles and give Gaius a hug and it's all good. Exactly how he threw off the possession thing is glossed over, but I'm sure it was awesome. XD
There were a bunch of really slashy moments, each of which raised a huge squee from the fangirls in the audience. (God knows what all the parents of six-year-old children must have been thinking.) For example, the episode begins with Arthur shirtless in bed, yelling for Merlin who comes running from the next room within moments. That got a huge cheer and round of applause. There was also a fantastic bit where Arthur is about to get on his horse and Merlin gets down on all fours so that Arthur can stand on him. That got another fangirl scream. It was awesome. Oh, and towards the end, when Cedric is giving Merlin the Return of the Jedi treatment, he says something like "You can have Arthur on his knees before you" or something. OMG, I LOL'd. Oh, and also, there were at least three or four shots of Arthur's naked torso; in some you couldn't even see his face. Score one for the female gaze. XD
Also, and I have to make a point of mentioning this: Mackenzie Crook was brilliant. I was all ready to be all like "LOL Gareth Keenan" (or possibly "LOL Ragetti") but he really is a great actor, and he fitted seamlessly into the show.
Right after the episode, there was a preview of the second season as a whole, which looks to be dramatic as hell. Lancelot and Mordred both come back (WHICH IS FUCKING KICKASS Y/Y). There was a shot of Arthur kissing Gwen, which is... meh, I'm not going to wank over this because we all knew this was coming right from the start, but I'm not going to pretend I was pleased. There was also - if I'm remembering this right - a shot of Gwen kissing Lancelot, which pleases me muchly! I know it's legend and everything, but I wish they'd just cut out the middleman and have Gwen get with Lancelot right away. As much as anything, IMO they have much better onscreen chemistry - and I think Gwen deserves someone nicer than Arthur, anyway! He's kind of a dick (and he really was a cock in this episode). Obviously part of this is me shipping Arthur with Merlin, but I promise this isn't just about getting Gwen out of the way or anything, I really do want her to just hook up with Lancelot right away and save everyone including me a lot of heartache. ♥
(They really are starting to crank up the A/G stuff, though - in the episode there was a bit where Arthur fell on the floor and Gwen fell on top of him. Huh. And come on, that's kind of a cliche, isn't it? If there isn't a pterodactyl involved, I'm not sure it's justified.)
However, speaking of M/A there was a hilarious bit in the trailer, right after the A/G kiss, with Arthur yelling something like "Nothing can happen between us!" at Merlin. And Merlin says, "You can change that when you're king!" -> EPIC LOLZ.
Other things from the trailer: Arthur and Uther fighting with swords (awesome), Merlin kissing some girl (meh), a witchfinder in a silly hat.
After the episode came the Q+A part, and I have to start by saying that Bradley James is a fucking funny guy and as such I love him and want his babies. XD He's got a very dry and sarcastic way of putting things, which is right up my street, of course. At one point he was talking about how he and Colin were filming a scene where they had to run around in a field, pretending to be on horses, while a crew member hit them with sticks, and he said something like - paraphrasing here - "If I'd stopped and taken a step back and looked at my life I'd have felt I'd taken a wrong turn at some point". XD XD XD He also took the piss out of Colin being veggie, talking about how if there's food in a scene they both have to eat, it can't be tasty chunks of beef, it has to be vegetarian, and he looked really pissed off and said "Yay" in this incredibly deadpan tone. The humour, incidentally, is not coming across in this post AT ALL. It doesn't translate well, OK?
Oh, and I forgot to mention this earlier, but during the episode, there were quite a few bits where Merlin was a total woobie, and got pwnt by Cedric or whatever, and each time, there was a giant "Aawwwww!" from the crowd. And maybe the third time this happened, Bradley (who was sitting behind us, about six or seven rows back from us maybe) yelled "He deserved it!" and got a huge laugh. It was awesome and wonderful.
Anyway, yes, the Q+A. So Anthony Head is also a fucking funny guy. Someone asked him a question at one point and addressed him as "Giles", which was just wondrous. XD They asked him what the differences were between "Merlin" and "Buffy", and he started off by saying "Well, one's a girl..." and got a roar of laughter. Then he talked about how the catering on Merlin is crap compared to Buffy. XD
Another person who is fucking funny is Katie McGrath. I'm annoyed, because my brain is fizzling and I can't remember anything she said, I just remember LOLing at it! D: Boo. Meanwhile, Angel Coulby is rather quiet - she seemed kind of shy - although she did make a couple of funny remarks (apparently someone bowed to her in a kebab shop!). Colin Morgan was very quiet and mumbly too - I got the impression he wasn't enjoying the attention too much, as he also seemed a bit uncomfortable - maybe because of all the squeeing during the slashy bits, I don't know! Sorry, Colin, you can't escape us.
I need to fangirl Bradley James more, because I just remembered another thing that happened - the guy hosting the whole thing said something about how Merlin and Arthur are going to "grow old together" (which of course set us all off again, and he started kind of backpedalling) and Bradley said, incredibly deadpan, "Merlin and Arthur, or Colin and Bradley?"
Every pair of knickers in the room instantly (re)ignited. It was epic. XD
Anyway, so after it finished we hung around to nick some posters, then we fucked off to a pub. (I have since discovered that Katie McGrath and Anthony Head were signing autographs afterwards which makes me go D: D: D: but never mind.) In the pub, we decided to (by which I mean I forced us to) attempt to reenact this vaguely iconic shot from episode 11. Here is our attempt:
I like the beer glasses, and how they are already empty. (Also, fuck, my arms are fat! D:)
Anyway, that was our day. It was an awesome day. \o/
Naturally, spoilers abound, so let's just cut the whole thing, yeah? Warning: longpost is LONG.
OK, so I got to Brighton station WAY too early, caught the train, successfully navigated my way across to Embankment (running into one of my brother's friends on the way - he was starting at my chest, then as soon as I waved at him and he realised who I was he claimed he was trying to read my t-shirt - a likely story), and met the Underlord. We wandered about a bit before locating o_deanna and her lovely boy. We sat together at a table outside a wine bar, which was a genuinely terrifying place - like a sort of grotto, all dampness and arched ceilings underground, and the tables were barrels, but over in one corner there was a sort of serve-yourself carvery (i.e. crap roast dinner bar) and a massive selection of cheese. It was sort of hilariously weird.
Anyway, skip ahead, we wandered over to the BFI, picked up our tickets and went pretty much straight in. I've since discovered that they were handing out loads of freebies in the foyer - we managed to grab some posters and postcards but I wish I'd known about it earlier because apparently lots of people got activity books and things. Also, there was a competition to draw a Merlin storyboard, and there were only three entrants who all won a prize, so I really wish I'd entered that! I would have had epic LOLz writing "By Martha, aged 27" on it as well. XD
OK, so we sat around waiting for a while, and the atmosphere was absolutely electric - I would estimate the crowd was about 60-70% oestrogen brigade fangirls (and their guests), and the rest, small children with parents and occasional people who were probably BFI members that come to everything or something. So we sat and giggled and got excited and so on and then suddenly, the cast filed out of the door in front of us and made their way up the steps to sit at the back! They came THIS CLOSE to where we were sitting. Like a dick I grabbed my camera, pointed it, and pushed the shutter, without stopping to check it was on a useful setting, so I have one incredibly dark photograph which technically shows Anthony Head, and another very very blurry shot of what looks like a couple of ghosts, or possibly a school art project, but is in fact Bradley James and Colin Morgan. FUCK MY LIFE. XD
Later, during the Q+A, I did manage to get one useable shot before they told us we weren't allowed to take photos, so here it is:
So anyway, then the episode began! The plot was pretty awesome, and I shall attempt to summarise it. Mackenzie Crook plays Cedric, who is a sort of conman at the start. The episode begins with some miners finding a sealed-up tomb full of treasure under Camelot; Cedric somehow finds out about it and wants to get his hands on it, but Arthur has the only key, so he has to get close to Arthur. (I may be misremembering this, incidentally; as I'll come to, the episode was slashy as fuck so the plot was really not at the forefront of my mind. Oh, come on, guys, no-one reads Playboy for the articles.)
Uh, anyway, so Cedric blags himself a servant's job, starts being a way better servant than Merlin, and gets Merlin into trouble and stuff. Merlin is massively jealous and there is a punch-up in Arthur's chambers which is one of the gayest things I have ever seen on a family show. XD Seriously, Merlin and Cedric roll around on the floor while Arthur rolls his eyes, caught in the middle like Archie trying to decide between Betty and Veronica.
Anyway Cedric gets the keys to this tomb and nicks the massivest jewel in the place, which turns out to be a dead sorcerer's soul encased in a gemstone or something. Look, let's be honest, it's a fucking horcrux. Srsly, Gaius even says something about how the evil sorcerer in question has "conquered mortality" or something. OK, so then the soul comes out and possesses Cedric, and he becomes actually genuinely evil, and you can tell he is evil because he wears... a feather boa? (And looks fierce in it.)
Anyway, he makes all these giant black leathery bird things attack the castle (this bit totally made me want to replay Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but I can't be arsed with all that goat-herding stuff at the beginning). Loads of people are injured. Gwen and Morgana help out with the bandaging and so on and there's an attempt at some Arthur/Gwen UST which fell a bit flat IMO - although Gwen is awesome in that bit (Arthur is all like, "Hmm, Guinevere, you're all intriguing, come back here so I can say thank you in a vaguely sexy voice" and she's all like, "... Is that all, or can I get my fucking work done?"). At some point in this Uther and Arthur have a row - Uther doesn't want Arthur to fight the Shadow Beasts, Arthur says something like "IT IS MY DUTY TO CAMELOT AND TO MYSELF!" and all the fangirls in the auditorium feel their knickers catch on fire.
Oh, and I should have mentioned, Merlin's in the dungeon at this point but he blasts his way out like a badass (this part got a huge cheer). He goes to see the dragon; they bitchfight for a while and then the dragon breathes some spell into Merlin. He confronts possessed!Cedric, and they have this whole standoff that totally made me think of Return of the Jedi (Cedric says something like "Join me, and we can rule -" and my brain went "the galaxy as father and son!"). Naturally, Merlin wins and Cedric collapses. The soul horcrux thing goes up Merlin's nose (LOL really) and then he emerges from the mist (apparently there's mist) looking like a badass, but then he smiles and give Gaius a hug and it's all good. Exactly how he threw off the possession thing is glossed over, but I'm sure it was awesome. XD
There were a bunch of really slashy moments, each of which raised a huge squee from the fangirls in the audience. (God knows what all the parents of six-year-old children must have been thinking.) For example, the episode begins with Arthur shirtless in bed, yelling for Merlin who comes running from the next room within moments. That got a huge cheer and round of applause. There was also a fantastic bit where Arthur is about to get on his horse and Merlin gets down on all fours so that Arthur can stand on him. That got another fangirl scream. It was awesome. Oh, and towards the end, when Cedric is giving Merlin the Return of the Jedi treatment, he says something like "You can have Arthur on his knees before you" or something. OMG, I LOL'd. Oh, and also, there were at least three or four shots of Arthur's naked torso; in some you couldn't even see his face. Score one for the female gaze. XD
Also, and I have to make a point of mentioning this: Mackenzie Crook was brilliant. I was all ready to be all like "LOL Gareth Keenan" (or possibly "LOL Ragetti") but he really is a great actor, and he fitted seamlessly into the show.
Right after the episode, there was a preview of the second season as a whole, which looks to be dramatic as hell. Lancelot and Mordred both come back (WHICH IS FUCKING KICKASS Y/Y). There was a shot of Arthur kissing Gwen, which is... meh, I'm not going to wank over this because we all knew this was coming right from the start, but I'm not going to pretend I was pleased. There was also - if I'm remembering this right - a shot of Gwen kissing Lancelot, which pleases me muchly! I know it's legend and everything, but I wish they'd just cut out the middleman and have Gwen get with Lancelot right away. As much as anything, IMO they have much better onscreen chemistry - and I think Gwen deserves someone nicer than Arthur, anyway! He's kind of a dick (and he really was a cock in this episode). Obviously part of this is me shipping Arthur with Merlin, but I promise this isn't just about getting Gwen out of the way or anything, I really do want her to just hook up with Lancelot right away and save everyone including me a lot of heartache. ♥
(They really are starting to crank up the A/G stuff, though - in the episode there was a bit where Arthur fell on the floor and Gwen fell on top of him. Huh. And come on, that's kind of a cliche, isn't it? If there isn't a pterodactyl involved, I'm not sure it's justified.)
However, speaking of M/A there was a hilarious bit in the trailer, right after the A/G kiss, with Arthur yelling something like "Nothing can happen between us!" at Merlin. And Merlin says, "You can change that when you're king!" -> EPIC LOLZ.
Other things from the trailer: Arthur and Uther fighting with swords (awesome), Merlin kissing some girl (meh), a witchfinder in a silly hat.
After the episode came the Q+A part, and I have to start by saying that Bradley James is a fucking funny guy and as such I love him and want his babies. XD He's got a very dry and sarcastic way of putting things, which is right up my street, of course. At one point he was talking about how he and Colin were filming a scene where they had to run around in a field, pretending to be on horses, while a crew member hit them with sticks, and he said something like - paraphrasing here - "If I'd stopped and taken a step back and looked at my life I'd have felt I'd taken a wrong turn at some point". XD XD XD He also took the piss out of Colin being veggie, talking about how if there's food in a scene they both have to eat, it can't be tasty chunks of beef, it has to be vegetarian, and he looked really pissed off and said "Yay" in this incredibly deadpan tone. The humour, incidentally, is not coming across in this post AT ALL. It doesn't translate well, OK?
Oh, and I forgot to mention this earlier, but during the episode, there were quite a few bits where Merlin was a total woobie, and got pwnt by Cedric or whatever, and each time, there was a giant "Aawwwww!" from the crowd. And maybe the third time this happened, Bradley (who was sitting behind us, about six or seven rows back from us maybe) yelled "He deserved it!" and got a huge laugh. It was awesome and wonderful.
Anyway, yes, the Q+A. So Anthony Head is also a fucking funny guy. Someone asked him a question at one point and addressed him as "Giles", which was just wondrous. XD They asked him what the differences were between "Merlin" and "Buffy", and he started off by saying "Well, one's a girl..." and got a roar of laughter. Then he talked about how the catering on Merlin is crap compared to Buffy. XD
Another person who is fucking funny is Katie McGrath. I'm annoyed, because my brain is fizzling and I can't remember anything she said, I just remember LOLing at it! D: Boo. Meanwhile, Angel Coulby is rather quiet - she seemed kind of shy - although she did make a couple of funny remarks (apparently someone bowed to her in a kebab shop!). Colin Morgan was very quiet and mumbly too - I got the impression he wasn't enjoying the attention too much, as he also seemed a bit uncomfortable - maybe because of all the squeeing during the slashy bits, I don't know! Sorry, Colin, you can't escape us.
I need to fangirl Bradley James more, because I just remembered another thing that happened - the guy hosting the whole thing said something about how Merlin and Arthur are going to "grow old together" (which of course set us all off again, and he started kind of backpedalling) and Bradley said, incredibly deadpan, "Merlin and Arthur, or Colin and Bradley?"
Every pair of knickers in the room instantly (re)ignited. It was epic. XD
Anyway, so after it finished we hung around to nick some posters, then we fucked off to a pub. (I have since discovered that Katie McGrath and Anthony Head were signing autographs afterwards which makes me go D: D: D: but never mind.) In the pub, we decided to (by which I mean I forced us to) attempt to reenact this vaguely iconic shot from episode 11. Here is our attempt:
I like the beer glasses, and how they are already empty. (Also, fuck, my arms are fat! D:)
Anyway, that was our day. It was an awesome day. \o/