"There must be another Arthur, because this one's an idiot."
Just seen the first episode of BBC 1's Merlin, clearly written with the same care and attention to historic detail as Robin Hood...
Actually, it wasn't bad (but then, I liked Robin Hood). I already knew that Arthur and Merlin were going to be about the same age, but I was a bit thrown by Arthur's first appearance. Obviously, he's the kid (still unaware of his true destiny) being forced to carry a shield about, who Merlin leaps to the defence of, and the swaggering bully throwing knives at it must be Kay. Nope, Prince Arthur's the knife-thrower, the medieval equivilent of a Jerk Jock.
Uther Pendragon is still alive (no kingless decades, but then, no missing heir either), has banned magic on pain of death, and is clearly hoping to match Arthur up with his ward, Morgan. Morgan's maidservent Guenevere, on the other hand, seems to be getting set up for a "will-they won't-they" with Merlin. Morgan isn't interested in Arthur, and so far hasn't met Merlin at all.
And Merlin is getting advice from both the castle herbalist, Gaius (possibly based on Blaise), and a dragon Uther has imprisoned beneath Camelot (almost certainly a twist on the dragons of Dinas Emrys).
I enjoyed it. I've read enough Arthurian literature to know that just about everything is fluid (and if I hadn't, I'm sure![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scarfman would remind me). The storytelling seems fairly solid, the acting's pretty good (Tony Head's Uther and Richard Wilson's Gaius are a delight, obviously, but the younger main cast isn't bad either) and the difference between the setup here and the standard version mean that I have absolutely no idea where it's going next.
Actually, it wasn't bad (but then, I liked Robin Hood). I already knew that Arthur and Merlin were going to be about the same age, but I was a bit thrown by Arthur's first appearance. Obviously, he's the kid (still unaware of his true destiny) being forced to carry a shield about, who Merlin leaps to the defence of, and the swaggering bully throwing knives at it must be Kay. Nope, Prince Arthur's the knife-thrower, the medieval equivilent of a Jerk Jock.
Uther Pendragon is still alive (no kingless decades, but then, no missing heir either), has banned magic on pain of death, and is clearly hoping to match Arthur up with his ward, Morgan. Morgan's maidservent Guenevere, on the other hand, seems to be getting set up for a "will-they won't-they" with Merlin. Morgan isn't interested in Arthur, and so far hasn't met Merlin at all.
And Merlin is getting advice from both the castle herbalist, Gaius (possibly based on Blaise), and a dragon Uther has imprisoned beneath Camelot (almost certainly a twist on the dragons of Dinas Emrys).
I enjoyed it. I've read enough Arthurian literature to know that just about everything is fluid (and if I hadn't, I'm sure
scarfman would remind me). The storytelling seems fairly solid, the acting's pretty good (Tony Head's Uther and Richard Wilson's Gaius are a delight, obviously, but the younger main cast isn't bad either) and the difference between the setup here and the standard version mean that I have absolutely no idea where it's going next.
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Ok, that's probably partly because he's Cute, but it's by no means an easy thing to do.
I wonder how much fighting Head and Wilson did over which got the With and which the And? You can imagine the scene, can't you: "ok, we've got 4 beautiful people. Now we need two Famous Actors"
I think it's very much in keeping with the spirit of the mythology - by which I mean abounding in anachronism ;-)
And so very very clean.