I’ve been watching “The Adventures of Merlin” on Netflix, and I’ve been enjoying it for the most part, but I’ve found a couple things kind of odd:
First, the complete and utter absence of any reference to Christianity. Every bit of King Arthur lore I’ve read has Camelot steeped in the Church. But in this show, set during Arthur’s youth while Uther is still King, there’s no evidence of it at all. Uther is utterly mad about his war against magic, which might make sense given the medieval church’s position of the practicing of sorcery. Instead, it’s simply presented as Uther’s rather unreasonable, unexplained prejudice against magic. And even in scenes where you’d expect to see the Christian religion, it’s inexplicably absent. There have been two or three wedding scenes so far in my viewing (I’m halfway through the third season), and the weddings appear to be officiated by the court librarian, rather than a priest, who performs some sort of “traditional hand-binding” ceremony that does not resemble any Christian wedding protocol I’ve ever heard of.
Second, and this is fairly minor, why does Angel Coulby, the actress who plays Guinevere, get second billing after Colin Morgan (Merlin), instead of the actor who plays Arthur (Bradley James)? Obviously, Morgan gets first billing, since he’s the title character. But you’d think Bradley James would be considered the second-most-important character, and thus get second billing. Is it just a matter of Angel Coulby being more “established” than Bradley James? Coulby has credits going back to 2001, while James’ first professional role seems to have come in 2008. Until I looked it up on imdb.com, I thought Angel Coulby was the name of the actor playing Arthur, partly because, during the opening credits, the name is superimposed over an image of a knight on a rearing horse.
I’m also curious about the decision to cast black actors in a “period” piece like this. I’m not aware of any historical evidence of sub-Saharan Africans living in England during the time of King Uther/King Arthur.
On another note, Kate McGrath (Morgana) is possibly the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.
This bothered me too at first, but then I thought to myself, “Hey, there’s fricking dragons in the show.” It’s not a historical drama. It’s set in a fictional fantasy world.
BTW, I wonder why they changed the name to The Adventures of Merlin in the US. It sounds really cheesy. (Ok, so the show is kind of cheesy too…)
The show really gets better in the middle seasons when the familiar lore dominates the storylines, then peters off a bit at the end. I very much enjoyed it, but it was frustratingly anachronistic.
Re: opening credits… I think they list Colin Morgan first, then the rest of the principal cast alphabetically. So that’s why Angel Coulby is listed before Bradley James.
It was just called Merlin when it was (briefly) on NBC.
I saw it a few times but mostly just found it annoying. Normally a cheesy live-action fantasy series, particularly one involving King Arthur, would be right up my alley but for some reason this one didn’t do it for me. I was also perhaps unreasonably annoyed that they made Merlin and Arthur the same age and that this version of Arthur grew up knowing he was a prince and rightful heir to the throne. The first time I saw the show I turned it on in the middle of an episode and briefly misunderstood it to be about young Merlin and his adventures with his frenemy Prince Uther, which IMHO would have been much better.
That makes some sense. I have a rough idea about how they decide the order in credits in Hollywood, but not so much about the BBC.
I’ve started into the 4th season, and it kind of feels like the show got a better budget than it had in previous seasons. I can’t really put my finger on it, but the writing seems a bit tighter and there seems to be an improvement in the lighting and camera work. I also noticed that the dragon’s opening “monologue” calls Merlin a “young man” instead of the “young boy” of the first three seasons.
My wife and I watch it on Netflix and just began season 3.
We like it and dislike it at the same time. We think we’d love to re-watch it with our kids when they are older. It is family safe.
We frequently call it “Merlin’s an idiot”, though. At least through most of season 2, he had not lost his naive nature that he really should have at this point. He hasn’t developed from the “boy” he was in the beginning, which is disappointing.