Merlin 4x01 review
Oct. 2nd, 2011 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ishtar79I can't believe how much I've missed my silly show!
-I do find Morganna somewhat more bearable to watch now, when she's not trying to act sneaky-though unfortunately, the unintentional comedy of Smirkganna can never be unseen.
-Merlin changed his shirt! Not that I am crazy about the colour combination of the red neck scarf over the...I guess lavender shirt, but after three seasons of wearing that blue one, it had to have gotten pretty rank.
-Gwen (who was looking positively stunning in her new blue dress) looking after Uther was unexpected, yet oddly fitting for her character. And ASH was doing an excellent job of portraying an utterly broken man-I'm sure he'll eventually get better, if for no other reason that it's criminal to underuse such an amazing actor, but for now every single one of his scenes are effective.
-Mind you, I found it highly amusing that Gwen and Athur had their tender, intimate goodbye right in full view of Uther. No way that's going to come back and bite them on the ass.
-It was pretty obvious from the outset that Arthur's uncle was shady-the fact he was dressed and styled like Robin Hood's Nottingham didn't exactly speak to his trustworthiness.
-Well, Morgause surviving only to be offed in the premiere seemed a bit pointless. I know it was important from a Watsonian perspective, but I would have liked to see more of the actress.
-How much am I enjoying the fact there's someone in Camelot other than Gaius who knows Merlin's secret? Merlin and Lancelot's scenes were among my favourite bits (take note, showrunners: people sharing a secret can be just as interesting from a storytelling perspective than everybody existing in blissful ignorance).
-For me, the scene demonstrating the most what an awesome king Arthur has already become (in all but title) is the way he spoke to the woman whose village has attacked. The character generally felt a lot more grown-up through the whole episode-isn't the prerequisite “Arthur teases Merlin” scene wasn't as obnoxious as usual.
-KNIGHTS! <3333 I enjoyed all their scenes immensely, but if I had to pick, my favourite definitely involved Percival and Elyan saving those kids. I'd watch a whole spinoff of their wacky hijinks.
-I've given up trying to make sense of Morganna's characterisation, but I will say that the scene of her snarking at the misfortune of the people of Camelot was rather amusing. Possibly because the humour largely relied on the obvious fakeness of her exclamations of regret, and if Katie McGrath's acting has one strength, it is in delivering extremely unconvincing emotions.
-Morganna's prophetic dream of battlefield doom visually looked like the bastard child of Game of Thrones and that Lex raining blood/sunflowers scene from Smallville. Which is appropriate for this show in so many ways.
-I swear to God, my patience is wearing thin for Merlin giving morsels of truth to Arthur during tense moments (“I've saved your life so many times”) and Arthur being “LOL, Merlin, you idiot!”
-Frosted!Merlin would have decidedly lacked dramatic impact even if they hadn't shown him walking around in the preview for the next ep.
-I do find Morganna somewhat more bearable to watch now, when she's not trying to act sneaky-though unfortunately, the unintentional comedy of Smirkganna can never be unseen.
-Merlin changed his shirt! Not that I am crazy about the colour combination of the red neck scarf over the...I guess lavender shirt, but after three seasons of wearing that blue one, it had to have gotten pretty rank.
-Gwen (who was looking positively stunning in her new blue dress) looking after Uther was unexpected, yet oddly fitting for her character. And ASH was doing an excellent job of portraying an utterly broken man-I'm sure he'll eventually get better, if for no other reason that it's criminal to underuse such an amazing actor, but for now every single one of his scenes are effective.
-Mind you, I found it highly amusing that Gwen and Athur had their tender, intimate goodbye right in full view of Uther. No way that's going to come back and bite them on the ass.
-It was pretty obvious from the outset that Arthur's uncle was shady-the fact he was dressed and styled like Robin Hood's Nottingham didn't exactly speak to his trustworthiness.
-Well, Morgause surviving only to be offed in the premiere seemed a bit pointless. I know it was important from a Watsonian perspective, but I would have liked to see more of the actress.
-How much am I enjoying the fact there's someone in Camelot other than Gaius who knows Merlin's secret? Merlin and Lancelot's scenes were among my favourite bits (take note, showrunners: people sharing a secret can be just as interesting from a storytelling perspective than everybody existing in blissful ignorance).
-For me, the scene demonstrating the most what an awesome king Arthur has already become (in all but title) is the way he spoke to the woman whose village has attacked. The character generally felt a lot more grown-up through the whole episode-isn't the prerequisite “Arthur teases Merlin” scene wasn't as obnoxious as usual.
-KNIGHTS! <3333 I enjoyed all their scenes immensely, but if I had to pick, my favourite definitely involved Percival and Elyan saving those kids. I'd watch a whole spinoff of their wacky hijinks.
-I've given up trying to make sense of Morganna's characterisation, but I will say that the scene of her snarking at the misfortune of the people of Camelot was rather amusing. Possibly because the humour largely relied on the obvious fakeness of her exclamations of regret, and if Katie McGrath's acting has one strength, it is in delivering extremely unconvincing emotions.
-Morganna's prophetic dream of battlefield doom visually looked like the bastard child of Game of Thrones and that Lex raining blood/sunflowers scene from Smallville. Which is appropriate for this show in so many ways.
-I swear to God, my patience is wearing thin for Merlin giving morsels of truth to Arthur during tense moments (“I've saved your life so many times”) and Arthur being “LOL, Merlin, you idiot!”
-Frosted!Merlin would have decidedly lacked dramatic impact even if they hadn't shown him walking around in the preview for the next ep.
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-02 09:07 am (UTC)I don't know what the point of him throwing in with Morganna is. She's Uther's bastard daughter, and he's Igraine's brother so why would they be allies? Except Igraine had magic so he might too. Plus I suspect he'll be trying to get inside her gown at first chance. ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 07:21 pm (UTC)The uncle trying to get some Morganna action is as good an explanation as any for his motivation, especially since satisfactory motivations are not exactly a highlight of all things associated with Morganna's arc.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 07:26 pm (UTC)A black hat and a mustache to twirl so he could cackle evilly.
The whole Morgana makes me sad since it seems to come down to Daddy Issues more than anything. I can accept that she turned out of anger but she loved Gwen and Arthur as friends so her complete change-of-heart towards both of them still makes no sense to me. Anger at Uther? Sure. Anger at Gaius? I can buy that. But everyone else makes little sense. Even her anger with Merlin only works now because he's tried to foil her EVIL PLANS, but initially it was just as silly.
Despite that I do love Morgana/Morgause desperately. ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-02 10:55 am (UTC)being extremely sexyhunting witches in one of those dumb-ass plots they keep coming up with.I might start watching again for ASH though Smirkganna did drive me away in the first place.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 07:39 pm (UTC)The show is still very silly, but they have toned Smirkganna a LOT, if that helps.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-02 03:14 pm (UTC)Morganna's prophetic dream of battlefield doom visually looked like the bastard child of Game of Thrones and that Lex raining blood/sunflowers scene from Smallville. Which is appropriate for this show in so many ways.
It was so horrible I laughed out loud. I dunno, after Merlin's earlier wacky portrayal of his older self I can't take the character seriously at all.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 07:41 pm (UTC)If you mean Arthur's uncle, then yes.
And yeah, the whole scene was made of lulz. At least Merlin's earlier take on his old self was wacky on purpose.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 06:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 08:45 pm (UTC)I found the uncle hilarious. So evvvvvil. Yet surprising - he's Arthur's blood, not Morgana's, what was he doing on her side?
no subject
Date: 2011-10-08 08:00 am (UTC)Maybe they ran into each other while shopping at the Medieval Boutique For Evil and Sketchy Characters.