a fan, her literate mother and clueless brother
A spoiler-ful entry. ^^
Have you read Three Kids, Two Grown-ups and a Man? If you haven't, I suggest that you do. :) It's an essay by sophielou21 about the reactions and thoughts of Merlin viewers that are not in the fandom.
A fan, her literate Mother and clueless Brother.
It was a dark and stormy night...
Last night the evening was looking dull enough (no Lie to me, no White Collar, no must-see films, no previous engagements and heavy raining outside) that I came out with the much awaited "Why don't we try out the series I told you about?". My sister knew what I was talking about and she didn't want to watch it, but I had left my mother and my brother in complete darkness as to the name of the tv show and its contents; for all they knew, I could have wanted to show them Seventh Heaven.
My brother caught a glimpse of Colin and Bradley on the DVD and said, "Is this thing about King Arthur?" ... How did blond hair, a sword and focused expressions say King Arthur to him? Apparently, BBC knew what they were doing when they cooked up the cover art.
The Pilot began and the booming voice of Silver from Disney's Treasure Planet filled the room. We've seen that film one too many times not to think that this voice meant trouble, which is why it gripped my family's attention right away. Good job, dubbing. My brother yelled at the mention of the name Merlino; "I knew it, I knew it!"
They were eerily quiet throughout the first sequence, with the beheading and the witch's speech. I was beginning to worry that they might not like the show after all and to be honest, it was quite daring to start off with a murder and a long kingly speech. But, Colin's cute walk up to Gaius's place revived my hopes. Gasps at Gaius semi-fall, and Merlin's rescue. My mother started and yelped, "No!" when the railing broke. :D
The next big moment was with Uther and Morgana.
MUM: "What did he call her?"
ME: (trying to sound nonchalant) "Morgana."
MUM: "Ah, thought so. The name says it all."*
BRO: (confused) "Why? Who's Morgana?"
*She actually said, "Un nome che è tutto un programma", but that's the best translation I could come up with.
By then, I was grinning like an idiot. I hadn't expected my mum to know anything about the legends, but she surprised me once more. I love you, Mum! And she got really engaged in the story because when the boy is getting thrown daggers at she chuckled and exclaimed, "Wart! That's Wart!" That bit is, of course, completely off, but I had to chuckle too because I had not noticed how similar the scenes look, even if this time around Arthur is the despot.
Now, after complimenting the Italian people behind the dubbing, I have to chide them on a crucial point. When Gwen introduces herself at the stocks, she mumbles that her name's Guinevere but everyone calls her Gwen. Seriously, nobody is going to get the joke if you don't say Ginevra! My mum and my brother didn't, I had to pause the episode: "They said Gwen, but her full name's Ginevra." At that point, speculation and laughter and 'Oooh's and 'Aaah's ensued. Disappointing.
Moving on, they really liked the fighting scene between Arthur and Merlin, though I think that the high point of it all was around the second or third time the voice kept calling Merlin's name; my mother conspiratorially turned towards me and said, "I bet that's the dragon." :D And finally, she was all squeeing and reaching for my hand to squeeze when Gaius produced the magic book: "A codex! They put a codex in the show!"
And then the Pilot ended. And it was almost half past ten, on a school night. I was ready to call it a night and assault them with more today, but they both asked me if we had the whole season and couldn't we watch the second episode now?
Much, much love to this family.
I actually relaxed for the second viewing because there was more laughter coming from the other side of the sofa. The comments I can recall are about the period they set the legend in (Mum asked if the castle is the reason the pushed the date further, as in not exactly medieval/earlier) and Morgana ("But isn't the dark-haired girl supposed to be a witch?"). Where does all this interest in Morgana come from? General cooing at Merlin and at the end my brother remarked that, "That's not how I remember the story," to which my mum and I replied that it's more of a pre-story. Today, eating lunch, Mum asked my sister why she didn't join us because "The show is actually quite nice."
So this is it. I'll post more when we watch more. ^^
Have you read Three Kids, Two Grown-ups and a Man? If you haven't, I suggest that you do. :) It's an essay by sophielou21 about the reactions and thoughts of Merlin viewers that are not in the fandom.
A fan, her literate Mother and clueless Brother.
It was a dark and stormy night...
Last night the evening was looking dull enough (no Lie to me, no White Collar, no must-see films, no previous engagements and heavy raining outside) that I came out with the much awaited "Why don't we try out the series I told you about?". My sister knew what I was talking about and she didn't want to watch it, but I had left my mother and my brother in complete darkness as to the name of the tv show and its contents; for all they knew, I could have wanted to show them Seventh Heaven.
My brother caught a glimpse of Colin and Bradley on the DVD and said, "Is this thing about King Arthur?" ... How did blond hair, a sword and focused expressions say King Arthur to him? Apparently, BBC knew what they were doing when they cooked up the cover art.
The Pilot began and the booming voice of Silver from Disney's Treasure Planet filled the room. We've seen that film one too many times not to think that this voice meant trouble, which is why it gripped my family's attention right away. Good job, dubbing. My brother yelled at the mention of the name Merlino; "I knew it, I knew it!"
They were eerily quiet throughout the first sequence, with the beheading and the witch's speech. I was beginning to worry that they might not like the show after all and to be honest, it was quite daring to start off with a murder and a long kingly speech. But, Colin's cute walk up to Gaius's place revived my hopes. Gasps at Gaius semi-fall, and Merlin's rescue. My mother started and yelped, "No!" when the railing broke. :D
The next big moment was with Uther and Morgana.
MUM: "What did he call her?"
ME: (trying to sound nonchalant) "Morgana."
MUM: "Ah, thought so. The name says it all."*
BRO: (confused) "Why? Who's Morgana?"
*She actually said, "Un nome che è tutto un programma", but that's the best translation I could come up with.
By then, I was grinning like an idiot. I hadn't expected my mum to know anything about the legends, but she surprised me once more. I love you, Mum! And she got really engaged in the story because when the boy is getting thrown daggers at she chuckled and exclaimed, "Wart! That's Wart!" That bit is, of course, completely off, but I had to chuckle too because I had not noticed how similar the scenes look, even if this time around Arthur is the despot.
Now, after complimenting the Italian people behind the dubbing, I have to chide them on a crucial point. When Gwen introduces herself at the stocks, she mumbles that her name's Guinevere but everyone calls her Gwen. Seriously, nobody is going to get the joke if you don't say Ginevra! My mum and my brother didn't, I had to pause the episode: "They said Gwen, but her full name's Ginevra." At that point, speculation and laughter and 'Oooh's and 'Aaah's ensued. Disappointing.
Moving on, they really liked the fighting scene between Arthur and Merlin, though I think that the high point of it all was around the second or third time the voice kept calling Merlin's name; my mother conspiratorially turned towards me and said, "I bet that's the dragon." :D And finally, she was all squeeing and reaching for my hand to squeeze when Gaius produced the magic book: "A codex! They put a codex in the show!"
And then the Pilot ended. And it was almost half past ten, on a school night. I was ready to call it a night and assault them with more today, but they both asked me if we had the whole season and couldn't we watch the second episode now?
Much, much love to this family.
I actually relaxed for the second viewing because there was more laughter coming from the other side of the sofa. The comments I can recall are about the period they set the legend in (Mum asked if the castle is the reason the pushed the date further, as in not exactly medieval/earlier) and Morgana ("But isn't the dark-haired girl supposed to be a witch?"). Where does all this interest in Morgana come from? General cooing at Merlin and at the end my brother remarked that, "That's not how I remember the story," to which my mum and I replied that it's more of a pre-story. Today, eating lunch, Mum asked my sister why she didn't join us because "The show is actually quite nice."
So this is it. I'll post more when we watch more. ^^