Almost Yuletide (still) and some thinky, not so happy thoughts on Merlin
First, I can't stop clicking on this. Second, I've finally watched the final three episodes of Merlin, and I'm still really, really unhappy with the characterization this season. syllic and I did a partial rewatch of the first season before this one premiered, and while we agreed that the writing was clunkier than we remembered (back in the haze of full on Colin Morgan lust), I think that the characterization of Arthur and Merlin held up. They broke that dynamic with the very first episode back, and not only made their friendship more of a master-servant relationship, but an abusive one at that! The finale may have gotten the boys a little bit back to where they were, but I don't want them to remain in a holding pattern, I want more trust, more bonding, and dammit, for Arthur to fucking find out about Merlin's magic already. I think it was stealingpennies who lamented all the emotional whumpage that Merlin has taken this year, and I agree with her. It truly borders on the pornographic, in that it's completely gratuitous and makes us the audience feel slightly uncomfortable and guilty after watching it. Oh look, Merlin's BFF/father figure/love interest has just hit/betrayed/died on him. Look at Colin Morgan shed a perfect tear! After half a dozen times of this a season, I tend to get a little bored, y'know?
And that's really the key word: boredom. Oh, there's rage and despair, too, over what the writers did with Arthur and Gwen and Lancelot; mostly, I was disappointed that they couldn't find another direction to go in other than love triangle. And repetitive headdesking over Morgana's storyline, if you could even call it that, considering that her job outside of special "Morgana episodes" was to stand there and gape at the monster/villain of the week while wearing a virginal white dress. But at the end of it all, I'm just *tired*. I remember how invested I used to be in this show, how I would defend its merits as a great fandom and as fun entertainment and even as a "quality" TV show in sparky77's LJ, but those days are long gone. I went from watching an ep a few hours after it first aired and devouring all the reaction posts and squee surrounding it to waiting days, even weeks, before catching up with an ep and barely participating in discussions now. Which makes me D-face like crazy because this show had such potential. And it was a fandom juggernaut, pulling lurkers like me and syllic and puckling out of the woodwork liked a pied piper (or some other more apt analogy).
So in the immortal words of one John Sheppard: Buck up, show! Get better writers, maybe a showrunner who knows what he or she is doing, bring back the Gwen/Morgana friendship, have someone other than Gaius know about Merlin's magic, and for fuck's sake, give Colin Morgan's tear ducts a rest next season.
Okay, back to paper-writing and Yuletide-anticipating.
And that's really the key word: boredom. Oh, there's rage and despair, too, over what the writers did with Arthur and Gwen and Lancelot; mostly, I was disappointed that they couldn't find another direction to go in other than love triangle. And repetitive headdesking over Morgana's storyline, if you could even call it that, considering that her job outside of special "Morgana episodes" was to stand there and gape at the monster/villain of the week while wearing a virginal white dress. But at the end of it all, I'm just *tired*. I remember how invested I used to be in this show, how I would defend its merits as a great fandom and as fun entertainment and even as a "quality" TV show in sparky77's LJ, but those days are long gone. I went from watching an ep a few hours after it first aired and devouring all the reaction posts and squee surrounding it to waiting days, even weeks, before catching up with an ep and barely participating in discussions now. Which makes me D-face like crazy because this show had such potential. And it was a fandom juggernaut, pulling lurkers like me and syllic and puckling out of the woodwork liked a pied piper (or some other more apt analogy).
So in the immortal words of one John Sheppard: Buck up, show! Get better writers, maybe a showrunner who knows what he or she is doing, bring back the Gwen/Morgana friendship, have someone other than Gaius know about Merlin's magic, and for fuck's sake, give Colin Morgan's tear ducts a rest next season.
Okay, back to paper-writing and Yuletide-anticipating.