Three Seasons, Three Shows: Or, Why Merlin BBC Makes Me Sad
It’s called Merlin.
That’s where the show started, and what gave it its early power. Each of the major players had a completely new character that was primarily reflected in their orbit around the reimagined Merlin. Arthur’s fierce loyalty and brash impulsivity lead him to do things like expressly defy his father repeatedly to get Merlin out of trouble; Gwen’s kindness and shyness and mothering tendencies made her furiously crush on the mischievous Merlin; Morgana’s fierceness, strength, and sense of justice lead her to team with Merlin in protecting the Druid boy (by subterfuge) and his village (by the sword.) Uther and Nimueh did an emotionally complex dance regarding Uther’s hatred of magic, which has an obvious connection to magic. And virtually all of the plotlines revolve around Merlin saving the day at the last minute, Arthur’s love for Merlin saving the day at the last minute (see: Labyrinth of Gefred), or both (see: that one episode with Bayard and the poisoned goblet.)
The last few episodes of the season started to get confused as to their Merlin-related focus: the episode where Morgana plotted Uther’s death and then changed her mind at the last minute was truly dreadful, and I think it’s partly so because of its lack of connection to any of the main themes or characterizations. But on the whole, I loved the ridiculous characters I'd gotten to know and was really looking forward to the second season.
Then came season 2, which was such a trainwreck that I very nearly stopped watching.
Season 2 appeared to be the writers having two ideas simultaneously:
1. Oh shit, this is totally different from the mythology. We’d better fix it!
2. This is a kids’ show. Quick, fart jokes!
So virtually everyone’s characterization is lost. Gwen, who had started to develop a really interesting character in Moment of Truth (her dressing Arthur down for turning up his nose at the gruel Hunith fed him is the only meaningful interaction the two characters have in Season 1, and in my opinion the only meaningful interaction they’ve had in the entire show), becomes a one-note kind-and-sweet-and-gentle character again: her character has the least of a turnabout. We don’t see Morgana’s madness slowly pulling her away from her sense of justice, or her sense of justice taking a truly horrifying turn: she simply ceases to have a moral center, which is a horrible injustice to her character and also makes me deeply uneasy because of all of the characters, she was the one most reflective of feminist ideals, which makes me wonder about the priorities of the people in charge of the show.
And Gwen falls in love with Arthur instead of continuing to have feelings for Merlin, for no apparent reason, and Arthur ceases to really care about Merlin and instead becomes equally inexplicably enamored of Gwen. All that’s left of the original relationship between the two is banter: no one’s saving anyone out of deep feeling.
And in the meanwhile, half of the episodes revolve around really stupid villains and fart jokes. Seriously.
Season 3 , I feel, was the one where they fired the second set of writers and the new writers looked at the second season of the show and said “…shit. That sucked. How do we salvage this?”
So they started writing a new show, based on the events of the second season but gamely trying to reference the personalities of the first season. It’s a pretty good show. It’s a lot darker than season 1, and it has its moments of emotional wrenching and its moments of (see: old Merlin in the last episode. I literally had to stop the episode because I was shrieking with too much laughter.) But the characterization remains one note (I am particularly sad about Suddenly Inexplicably and Irredeemably Evil Morgana With No Moments Of Conscience, it’s so incredibly out of character and it was never explained properly), and the beautifully complex relationships between all of the characters are lost, and I find myself mourning the first show every time I watch it. I don’t believe Arthur and Gwen.
What I loved about the show is how much everyone loved everyone else and yet completely managed to foul things up all the time, but their love usually pulled them through it all. And now I feel like no one loves anyone at all. Not really.