BBC's new Merlin series...

I liked the first one but they seem to be getting worse. Every episode seems to follow the pattern of:

1) Someone gets in trouble (usual Arthur)
2) Merlin knows he can solve the problem using magic but doctor bloke tells him not to
3) Merlin vists dragon and gets told some stuff which makes no sense what so ever until step 5
4) Climatic sequence when person in step 1 gets close to death
5) Merlin uses magic anyway and saves the day
6) None of the 100's of people around him notice the glowy eyes, the fact that he is sculking strangely around corners or the fact that Merlin has just uttered magic words.
7) Happy ending and everyone learns some sort of lesson.

I'll carrying on watching because I'm hoping that these first few episodes will be used to set the scene and will then get better later on.
 
For me it's much the same as Robin Hood. When I saw the first episode, I realised very quickly that it was aimed squarely at short attention span kids, then there was a sequence where Robin went to see a cloth merchant or something and his daughter was there. She was busty, wearing a low cut dress had perfect hair and perfect make up, then it hit me, it was basically Hollyoaks in the Forest, a bunch of pretty people all looking perfect and a vague storyline tacked on as an after thought.

So far Merlin for me has been much the same only this time it's Hollyoaks in a Castle. It's another piece of Folk lore which has great potential for a well acted, well scripted quite dark piece of drama but instead it's dumbed down and aimed at kids and as has been said, basically the same story each week.

I hope it gets better but I'm not holding my breath!

Valve
 
valve90210 said:
For me it's much the same as Robin Hood. When I saw the first episode, I realised very quickly that it was aimed squarely at short attention span kids, then there was a sequence where Robin went to see a cloth merchant or something and his daughter was there. She was busty, wearing a low cut dress had perfect hair and perfect make up, then it hit me, it was basically Hollyoaks in the Forest, a bunch of pretty people all looking perfect and a vague storyline tacked on as an after thought.

So far Merlin for me has been much the same only this time it's Hollyoaks in a Castle. It's another piece of Folk lore which has great potential for a well acted, well scripted quite dark piece of drama but instead it's dumbed down and aimed at kids and as has been said, basically the same story each week.

I hope it gets better but I'm not holding my breath!

Valve
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I would say the characters & plots in Robin Hood were better than Merlin...
 
Pretty dire, the sets look bad as well as costums script, if thats the final product id have hated to have read the screenplays.

Plus, the lead fello looks like a penis........im just saying.
 
merlin has drifted away from being 1000s of years ago because everyones so modern in it and it just doesnt seem old fassioned but as somthing to watch its only good thing on telly right now, and in general i love old fassioned stuff with swords and that, but compaired to movies like troy, kingdom of heaven etc merlin just doesnt quite cut it lol
 
yermum said:
when I realised that all the 'chain mail' was knitted. I'm not joking - look closely and you can see that it's just shiny wool.
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They did the exact same thing for Monty Python & The Holy Grail.

I sat down and watched the start of the last two episodes (one this evening), then got up five minutes into them and cleaned out the dogs run instead. Saturday TV has been **** poor for so long. We got rid of the Sky (all we pay for is Setanta) and you want something entertaining on a saturday evening. And nothing.

Everything seems to be aimed at the reality TV generation. It's all mindless, poorly scripted tosh. What happened to the creators of Morse, or A Touch Of Frost?
 
the bbc don't know how to make good fantasy/scifi even if lucasarts gave em a crash course on making scifi for dummies. this series is like buying a beefburger without any meat or cheese or even onions. just stale, stale bread that was frozen only seconds beforehand.
 
Someone offered someone a sandwich last week and as the sandwich wasn't named that till comparatively recently I thought 'This is rubbish then' and turned over.
 
I don't believe it! [/Meldrew]

It's OK if you accept it as Saturday teatime entertainment. Period drama it most certainly isn't, but then I don't think it was meant to take itself seriously.
 
Atrox Moris said:
Everything seems to be aimed at the reality TV generation. It's all mindless, poorly scripted tosh. What happened to the creators of Morse, or A Touch Of Frost?
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Agreed, there is the odd good(ish) thing out there tho, Dr. Who and Spooks isn't too bad. :)

Another series of Skins is also being shot at the moment, which is aimed more the reality TV generation yet is actually scripted... I've only ever seen one episode of skins tho, I found it pretty cringeworthy!
 
Anyone wish they would just something like remake "Tripods" or the like word for word but with better special effects?
Or day of the triffids, or that one about Rabies/the plague, street hawk, Blakes 7 or even..........manamal, anything is better than the **** they turn out now.
 
atpbx said:
Anyone wish they would just something like remake "Tripods" or the like word for word but with better special effects?
Or day of the triffids, or that one about Rabies/the plague, street hawk, Blakes 7 or even..........manamal, anything is better than the **** they turn out now.
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Yep.

They should remake Day of the Triffids and have a crack at The Kraken Wakes.
 
Evangelion said:
Yep.

They should remake Day of the Triffids and have a crack at The Kraken Wakes.
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Don't see how they could improve on the 1980s version... Which managed to capture the coldwar-end-of-the-world-any-minute-feeling of the 80s! We wouldn't be able to make it bleak/dark enough now!

Let's see how they've managed to redo 'Survivors' this later this month first of all... Please PLEASE don't ruin it going all PC and nicey nicey! :rolleyes:
 
What a load of drivel this Merlin thing on TV is!

I started to watch one episode and gave up after a few mins. I have caught a few minutes here and there while channel hopping during adverts in slightly less awful viewing.

This is typical late afternoon viewing for 7 year olds - right up there with Raven.

Notable highlights:

Victor Meldew in a frock.

Jousting without horses.

Main characters all virtually children.

Weak special effects and not many of them.

Politically correct token non-whites.

Castle architecture about 1000 years wrong for the period.

Everyone too clean, shaven, groomed, no dark age poo or mess anywhere.

It is possible to have "timeless" dialogue. Speech and expressions too modern.

Oh .. I could go on but the series isn't worth any more of my time.

Edit: Except to mention the puerile plots :)
 
Watching this last night it occured to me that Merlin and the rest of the peasents are so rude that they all would have been hung or at least beaten by now for even talking to the royalty.

I hope they are going to stop putting in those CGI monster fights as they are so badly done. I'm sure the fights in Jason and the Argonauts looked more real and better acted out.
 
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