My point wasn't that TW has great writing, because it doesn't. Characters are consistent, though, and have story arcs that evolve - for example, when Stiles' crush on Lydia no longer served a purpose, it was ditched. I never have the urge to track down and murder the writers like every episode of Merlin S5 gave me.
With Merlin, we had abysmal writing made captivating by incredible acting (and a supernaturally attractive lead). Beyond Colin & Bradley, you had Tony Head and Richard Wilson. TW's writing is 'meh', but now imagine it with actors of the Merlin casts' talent.
Essentially I'm saying "couldn't you have at least managed average-quality writing?" Instead we had Merlin not telling Arthur about the magic for no possible reason and no character progression other than S1, after which everything was reset. Well, maybe the first half of S4.
S5 just threw out the old Merlin & Gwen and replaced them with totally different ones (No complaints about Colin's new body, though). And made Morgana so ridiculously 2-D it's hard not to take it as naked misogyny.
I agree with you about the writing, but not about Morgana indicating any particular misogyny when looked at in context. The male villains on Merlin were routinely creepy/crazy guys who lacked three dimesionality in the writing, that wasn't a thing reserved for female villains at all (in fact some female villains like Morgause were at least somewhat sympathetic at times). Uther very rarely showed short flashes of something a bit more, but just when the writers wanted to put Arthur in a touching father/son moment and Uther was otherwise so awful and guilty of so many atrocities it didn't add up to anything significant.
The writers made a mistake making Morgana so likeable and even saintly at the start, her turn to the dark side so sympathetic and her cause so just. They never scripted layered villains really anyway, but making Morgana go so diabolically bad and nuts was a way to actually establish her as a villain like legend would have it when the set up was too botched for people to think of her as a villain and bad alternative to Arthur without a great deal of persuasion. And even still they added in some (silly and poorly thought out) elements like the confinement in the well out of love for Aithusa to keep her from looking all bad. I think also with Morgana there was an additional problem that Katie as a brand new, untrained actor was fine portraying a character (good Morgana) very near to herself but struggled when it came to stepping out of that to become an engaging, convincing baddie like for instance Charles Dance, Sarah Parish, Nathaniel Parker and Miriam Margolyes (who all had 2-D villain roles on the face of it but brought so much skill and panache that they breathed a lot of life into the parts and never came off as boring or clumsily cartoonish even when farting or when coughing frogs). Katie clearly wasn't being forced by the directors to just fall back on smirking all the time because she's a villain since other villains gave good, interesting performances in the same shows. I like Katie a lot, but a complete lack of training and experience is just going to disadvantage an actor at times.
I totally agree that the show runners should have revealed the magic much earlier, though. That would have created tons of fresh story possibilities and continued a real dramatic arc. Cramming it all into the end was a big waste of opportunity, and it meant skipping a lot of stuff that should have happened (e.g. Arthur was just somehow supposed to be aware of everything Merlin had done for him and the kingdom even though he was never actually told any of it). Cheating viewers out seeing any Arthur led golden age like legend and the show itself kept telling us would happen was also a mistake.
And why was Merlin such a happy optimistic guy during the years life was terrible and threats were everywhere but then three years of peace and stability happens under Arthur who isn't actively pursuing magical genocide like his father did and Merlin is transformed into a grim brooding fellow? The writers were really lucky to have an actor as talented as Colin to make that work to the degree that it did.
Funny, I just wrote something identical to your last paragraph to someone else - I couldn't agree more.
I don't think the 2-D cartoonishness of Morgana is necessarily misogynist in itself, but when you combine it with having her breasts hang out even when OUTDOORS IN A WINTER WASTELAND along with vengeful woman stereotypes and the lack of even one single female character. Gwen ended up being a stepford wife, utterly perfect in every way, with a husband that treats her more like a sister or mother than a wife. S5E4 was fantastic for having Arthur in a translucent tunic open to his navel when he's with Merlin, then changes into armor for the scene with Gwen in her nightdress. It's hard to believe that was written accidentally. Or Servant of Two Masters - "You're not Merlin. I only parade around naked in front of Merlin."
I know they exploited Bradley James shamefully, but at least he was changing clothes or bathing, in private with his boyfriend, not flaunting himself in public.
Madonna/whore. Pisses me off. Add to that Mithian, who went from a cool princess to mewling idiot between S4 and S5. The only decent female character was Annis, mainly because she was played by one of the greatest actresses alive.
Comparing Morgana to Uther, yes, I'm sure his character would have been more 2D without an amazing actor, but he was still a good king and loving father warped by grief. Morgana was just a bitch. What exactly was her motivation? Uther did things she disagreed with? So why hate Arthur?
I agree about Katie. It might not have been so bad if she weren't surrounded by supremely talented actors.
With Merlin, we had abysmal writing made captivating by incredible acting (and a supernaturally attractive lead). Beyond Colin & Bradley, you had Tony Head and Richard Wilson. TW's writing is 'meh', but now imagine it with actors of the Merlin casts' talent.
Essentially I'm saying "couldn't you have at least managed average-quality writing?" Instead we had Merlin not telling Arthur about the magic for no possible reason and no character progression other than S1, after which everything was reset. Well, maybe the first half of S4.
S5 just threw out the old Merlin & Gwen and replaced them with totally different ones (No complaints about Colin's new body, though). And made Morgana so ridiculously 2-D it's hard not to take it as naked misogyny.
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The writers made a mistake making Morgana so likeable and even saintly at the start, her turn to the dark side so sympathetic and her cause so just. They never scripted layered villains really anyway, but making Morgana go so diabolically bad and nuts was a way to actually establish her as a villain like legend would have it when the set up was too botched for people to think of her as a villain and bad alternative to Arthur without a great deal of persuasion. And even still they added in some (silly and poorly thought out) elements like the confinement in the well out of love for Aithusa to keep her from looking all bad. I think also with Morgana there was an additional problem that Katie as a brand new, untrained actor was fine portraying a character (good Morgana) very near to herself but struggled when it came to stepping out of that to become an engaging, convincing baddie like for instance Charles Dance, Sarah Parish, Nathaniel Parker and Miriam Margolyes (who all had 2-D villain roles on the face of it but brought so much skill and panache that they breathed a lot of life into the parts and never came off as boring or clumsily cartoonish even when farting or when coughing frogs). Katie clearly wasn't being forced by the directors to just fall back on smirking all the time because she's a villain since other villains gave good, interesting performances in the same shows. I like Katie a lot, but a complete lack of training and experience is just going to disadvantage an actor at times.
I totally agree that the show runners should have revealed the magic much earlier, though. That would have created tons of fresh story possibilities and continued a real dramatic arc. Cramming it all into the end was a big waste of opportunity, and it meant skipping a lot of stuff that should have happened (e.g. Arthur was just somehow supposed to be aware of everything Merlin had done for him and the kingdom even though he was never actually told any of it). Cheating viewers out seeing any Arthur led golden age like legend and the show itself kept telling us would happen was also a mistake.
And why was Merlin such a happy optimistic guy during the years life was terrible and threats were everywhere but then three years of peace and stability happens under Arthur who isn't actively pursuing magical genocide like his father did and Merlin is transformed into a grim brooding fellow? The writers were really lucky to have an actor as talented as Colin to make that work to the degree that it did.
OK, no more ranting. :)
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I don't think the 2-D cartoonishness of Morgana is necessarily misogynist in itself, but when you combine it with having her breasts hang out even when OUTDOORS IN A WINTER WASTELAND along with vengeful woman stereotypes and the lack of even one single female character. Gwen ended up being a stepford wife, utterly perfect in every way, with a husband that treats her more like a sister or mother than a wife. S5E4 was fantastic for having Arthur in a translucent tunic open to his navel when he's with Merlin, then changes into armor for the scene with Gwen in her nightdress. It's hard to believe that was written accidentally. Or Servant of Two Masters - "You're not Merlin. I only parade around naked in front of Merlin."
I know they exploited Bradley James shamefully, but at least he was changing clothes or bathing, in private with his boyfriend, not flaunting himself in public.
Madonna/whore. Pisses me off. Add to that Mithian, who went from a cool princess to mewling idiot between S4 and S5. The only decent female character was Annis, mainly because she was played by one of the greatest actresses alive.
Comparing Morgana to Uther, yes, I'm sure his character would have been more 2D without an amazing actor, but he was still a good king and loving father warped by grief. Morgana was just a bitch. What exactly was her motivation? Uther did things she disagreed with? So why hate Arthur?
I agree about Katie. It might not have been so bad if she weren't surrounded by supremely talented actors.
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