Merlin Premiering in the US this Sunday! Plus Season 1 Finale Review at last...
So "Merlin" is finally beginning it's run in the US this Sunday, June 21 at 8/7 central on NBC! :D 18 hours from now to be exact....:p
Even though I've seen it all already, and even have it all (and thus could watch it any time I want), I'm still ridiculously excited about it airing here, and plan to watch espisodes 1 and 2 tomorrow night as they air. (The HBP sneak peak that will supposededly be playing during a commercial break is an added bonus!). Even more, I'm excited about my US friends finally getting the chance to see it, since I've been wanting more people I know to discuss Merlin with for ages! I can't wait to see what they all think, and if they will love it too. So yeah, those of you on my flist who haven't seen "Merlin" yet, watch it Sunday night! ;) It's awesome....
Also I figured that this would be a good time to also post my long-delayed review of the seasonn 1 finale, 1x13, which I didn't post earlier for a number of factors from traveling immediately after it aired, to losing the piece of paper I wrote it on until I found it recently, etc. So yeah, here it is, spoilers for epsiode 1x13 obviously (so this one not for people who haven't seen the show yet of course! :p).
I had mixed feelings about this episode. Overall I thought that it was pretty awesome-full of excitement, tension, emotion, and more Mists of Avalon-esque mythology (every time they mentioned “the Old Religion” for instance I couldn’t help but thing of MoA, and the “Isle of the Blessed” accessible by mystical boat over a misty lake was so much like Avalon (the usual one, not the weird underwater one seen inn 1x07) it was funny). I also loved the battle scene/turn of events that saved Gauis believably at the end (I was accidentally spoiled that Gauis would die, but I knew he’d be in the cast for next season, so I was wondering how that would transpire). I loved that Nimueh suddenly became 250% more badass and awesome in this episode (and to think that she was such a lameass villain initially!), she was by far the best part, so that I was actually sad to see her go-though I was still glad if it meant that Gauis was saved instead, since I adore him (he’s my 2nd or 3rd favorite character after Morgana), and it wouldn’t be Merlin without him. I love his father/son relationship with Merlin which was especially highlighted in this episode as well.
I guess killing off the season 1 “Big Bad” so to speak is fitting for a season finale, though perhaps like the Master on Buffy she’ll almost come back (which I wish would happen!)….in any case, Michelle Ryan knocked the ball out of the park in this episode. Anthony Stewart Head was also top-notch, in doing more of those “awww” worthy moments regarding his son that I love so much; the scene when he carries his son in the courtyard is absolutely heartbreaking! And there were some particularly humorous Arthur/Merlin interactions as usual.
However I could not fully enjoy this episode because of certain things that pissed me off SO much-namely the absurd treatment of Morgana in it! While I love Morganavision as much as the next Morgana fan, and while it’s interesting to me that her visions seem to be worsening, I hated that that was ALL that she had do in the epp! And I hated that EVERYONE, from Joe Schmo Citizen of Camelot #120 and other common people to Gwen and even Nimueh was allowed to show a reaction to Arthur’s near!death EXCEPT for Morgana-you know, the closest person to him besides Merlin and his father, someone that he’s be living with for about 10 years whom he clearly has some feelings for! *rolleyes* It’s utterly ridiculous-not to mention completely ILLOGICAL-the way everyone else got to show their reaction and not HER! And the thing is, they had the perfect opportunity to do a quick, 2 second reaction shot when she looks out the window-it would have been the natural thing to do in fact, it looks visually wrong to see her opening the window to look outside and then not cut back! (As they ALWAYS have done when we have seen her looking out the window every other time!). And really, I would have been still annoyed at a lack of interaction with Arthur, but much more satisfied nonetheless if they had given us that much, TWO effing seconds more (which they should have been able to fit in for god’s sake!), showing her looking sad and horrified when she sees her dream having come true, come on! I saw someone say that “Gwen is the only person who has faith that Arthur will get better,” and wanted to say, “Well that’s not fair, since we have no idea what Morgana was thinking and if she thought he’d heal or not!” For all we know, Morgana was dancing a jig at Arthur’s death, since we don’t see a freaking reaction! >:(
Also it’s completely OOC of her to not have been waiting vigil at Arthur’s side at some point, given all that we have seen before, and given how much she loves him. There has not been nearly as much evidence of Gwen loving him as much yet, and yet she gets that whole cringeworthy scene with him? Ugh…..which brings me to another part I disliked about the episode-the Arthur/Gwen scenes. I saw someone say they think that whole speech would have sounded better inn Merlin’s mouth and I agree, in the least slashiest way possible. It’s like the scene in 1x10 when she gives that Morganaclone!speech in front of everyone around the fire-it feels like a different character speaking, words they stuffed into Gwen’s mouth in order to give her and Arthur more screen time once they realized they hadn’t established enough of a base between them yet. I hope that they have done this enough, and can get back to the regularly scheduled Arthur/Morgana development that was happening during the first half of the season, since I don’t think A/G should be happening for a loooong time-and if A/Mo doesn’t get at least a little time first I will be completely disappointed in this show!
Plus I think it would have been a lot more interesting to show Morgana and Arthur after he wakes up, rather than A/G, given Morgana’s freaked out warning in the beginning of the episode (which was quite visually beautiful, though I was a little irritated by Arthur kind of pushing her off) that then became all too true. I mean, did NO ONE remember her hysterical outburst that he was going to die after he almost did, and wonder just how she had known? I wish the episode had addressed this as well-hopefully it’ll get a nod at least next season perhaps, though I don’t have much hope of it.
So in conclusion, there was stuff I loved and stuff I hated about this episode, but since Morgana is my favorite character her ridiculous treatment in this finale makes me feel a little more negative than positive about it overall. I’m still completely excited about next season though, the “Merlin….Will Return!” thing at the end had me shouting “F*ck Yeah!”, lol, and I can’t wait to see where Morgana’s character will go next-I think that at the end it was the dragon she was hearing for the first time and waking up to, rather than yet another vision (poor girl, having to sit up and down so much! Her abs must be in great shape! :p)….much as I hate to be seeing more of the annoying slash!dragon, I do think it’d be logical and interesting for her to be the dragon’s next protegee in aiding Arthur and the return of magic to the realm-she is a magical creature of the old religion as well….
I also cannot WAIT for season 2! "Merlin" is definitely the returning show that I am most anxious to see (is it September yet?), and the season 2 set photos that I've just seen make me all the more eager to find out what's going to happen! Though I have my worries about it as well, especially on the shipping front....
Even though I've seen it all already, and even have it all (and thus could watch it any time I want), I'm still ridiculously excited about it airing here, and plan to watch espisodes 1 and 2 tomorrow night as they air. (The HBP sneak peak that will supposededly be playing during a commercial break is an added bonus!). Even more, I'm excited about my US friends finally getting the chance to see it, since I've been wanting more people I know to discuss Merlin with for ages! I can't wait to see what they all think, and if they will love it too. So yeah, those of you on my flist who haven't seen "Merlin" yet, watch it Sunday night! ;) It's awesome....
Also I figured that this would be a good time to also post my long-delayed review of the seasonn 1 finale, 1x13, which I didn't post earlier for a number of factors from traveling immediately after it aired, to losing the piece of paper I wrote it on until I found it recently, etc. So yeah, here it is, spoilers for epsiode 1x13 obviously (so this one not for people who haven't seen the show yet of course! :p).
I had mixed feelings about this episode. Overall I thought that it was pretty awesome-full of excitement, tension, emotion, and more Mists of Avalon-esque mythology (every time they mentioned “the Old Religion” for instance I couldn’t help but thing of MoA, and the “Isle of the Blessed” accessible by mystical boat over a misty lake was so much like Avalon (the usual one, not the weird underwater one seen inn 1x07) it was funny). I also loved the battle scene/turn of events that saved Gauis believably at the end (I was accidentally spoiled that Gauis would die, but I knew he’d be in the cast for next season, so I was wondering how that would transpire). I loved that Nimueh suddenly became 250% more badass and awesome in this episode (and to think that she was such a lameass villain initially!), she was by far the best part, so that I was actually sad to see her go-though I was still glad if it meant that Gauis was saved instead, since I adore him (he’s my 2nd or 3rd favorite character after Morgana), and it wouldn’t be Merlin without him. I love his father/son relationship with Merlin which was especially highlighted in this episode as well.
I guess killing off the season 1 “Big Bad” so to speak is fitting for a season finale, though perhaps like the Master on Buffy she’ll almost come back (which I wish would happen!)….in any case, Michelle Ryan knocked the ball out of the park in this episode. Anthony Stewart Head was also top-notch, in doing more of those “awww” worthy moments regarding his son that I love so much; the scene when he carries his son in the courtyard is absolutely heartbreaking! And there were some particularly humorous Arthur/Merlin interactions as usual.
However I could not fully enjoy this episode because of certain things that pissed me off SO much-namely the absurd treatment of Morgana in it! While I love Morganavision as much as the next Morgana fan, and while it’s interesting to me that her visions seem to be worsening, I hated that that was ALL that she had do in the epp! And I hated that EVERYONE, from Joe Schmo Citizen of Camelot #120 and other common people to Gwen and even Nimueh was allowed to show a reaction to Arthur’s near!death EXCEPT for Morgana-you know, the closest person to him besides Merlin and his father, someone that he’s be living with for about 10 years whom he clearly has some feelings for! *rolleyes* It’s utterly ridiculous-not to mention completely ILLOGICAL-the way everyone else got to show their reaction and not HER! And the thing is, they had the perfect opportunity to do a quick, 2 second reaction shot when she looks out the window-it would have been the natural thing to do in fact, it looks visually wrong to see her opening the window to look outside and then not cut back! (As they ALWAYS have done when we have seen her looking out the window every other time!). And really, I would have been still annoyed at a lack of interaction with Arthur, but much more satisfied nonetheless if they had given us that much, TWO effing seconds more (which they should have been able to fit in for god’s sake!), showing her looking sad and horrified when she sees her dream having come true, come on! I saw someone say that “Gwen is the only person who has faith that Arthur will get better,” and wanted to say, “Well that’s not fair, since we have no idea what Morgana was thinking and if she thought he’d heal or not!” For all we know, Morgana was dancing a jig at Arthur’s death, since we don’t see a freaking reaction! >:(
Also it’s completely OOC of her to not have been waiting vigil at Arthur’s side at some point, given all that we have seen before, and given how much she loves him. There has not been nearly as much evidence of Gwen loving him as much yet, and yet she gets that whole cringeworthy scene with him? Ugh…..which brings me to another part I disliked about the episode-the Arthur/Gwen scenes. I saw someone say they think that whole speech would have sounded better inn Merlin’s mouth and I agree, in the least slashiest way possible. It’s like the scene in 1x10 when she gives that Morganaclone!speech in front of everyone around the fire-it feels like a different character speaking, words they stuffed into Gwen’s mouth in order to give her and Arthur more screen time once they realized they hadn’t established enough of a base between them yet. I hope that they have done this enough, and can get back to the regularly scheduled Arthur/Morgana development that was happening during the first half of the season, since I don’t think A/G should be happening for a loooong time-and if A/Mo doesn’t get at least a little time first I will be completely disappointed in this show!
Plus I think it would have been a lot more interesting to show Morgana and Arthur after he wakes up, rather than A/G, given Morgana’s freaked out warning in the beginning of the episode (which was quite visually beautiful, though I was a little irritated by Arthur kind of pushing her off) that then became all too true. I mean, did NO ONE remember her hysterical outburst that he was going to die after he almost did, and wonder just how she had known? I wish the episode had addressed this as well-hopefully it’ll get a nod at least next season perhaps, though I don’t have much hope of it.
So in conclusion, there was stuff I loved and stuff I hated about this episode, but since Morgana is my favorite character her ridiculous treatment in this finale makes me feel a little more negative than positive about it overall. I’m still completely excited about next season though, the “Merlin….Will Return!” thing at the end had me shouting “F*ck Yeah!”, lol, and I can’t wait to see where Morgana’s character will go next-I think that at the end it was the dragon she was hearing for the first time and waking up to, rather than yet another vision (poor girl, having to sit up and down so much! Her abs must be in great shape! :p)….much as I hate to be seeing more of the annoying slash!dragon, I do think it’d be logical and interesting for her to be the dragon’s next protegee in aiding Arthur and the return of magic to the realm-she is a magical creature of the old religion as well….
I also cannot WAIT for season 2! "Merlin" is definitely the returning show that I am most anxious to see (is it September yet?), and the season 2 set photos that I've just seen make me all the more eager to find out what's going to happen! Though I have my worries about it as well, especially on the shipping front....