It was better than I thought it would be. The BBC had a run of bad drama shows (Bonekickers and Spooks: Code Nine) and I thought Merlin would be lumped in with those. Tony Head is probably the best thing in it, the Merlin/Arthur dynamic got better as the episodes went on (cue endless slash fiction) and I did enjoy the mythos behind it.

However a lot of the early episodes felt very samey and there was there no real drama or tension to be had through out the show. The finale was very underwhelming and I was left with "is that it?" when it finished.

Simon | December 16, 10:49 CET

Have to agree with Simon.
The series was uneven, I wonder which other permutations they'll find to things from the Camelot legend and how to tweak them for the upcoming new series.

Numfar PTB | December 16, 11:01 CET

I quite enjoyed the series. It wasn't high art by any means, but the actors all had a very entertaining and very believable presence, and the stories (while complete butchering of the Arthur mythos) were fun to watch. I felt the finale would've been elevated from "good" to "bloody awesome" if the very last scene of the episode had continued on for another sixty seconds. I won't elaborate, so as not to spoil people.
Long story short: I enjoyed the first series and am glad there'll be more.

[ edited by White Knight on 2008-12-16 11:19 ]

White Knight | December 16, 11:18 CET

The kids love it :)

Kane | December 16, 12:35 CET

It's a mediocre series. I saw it all. Could be better if some of the things they indicate that can happen actually happened (ex: episode The Moment Of Truth). Sometimes in an episode it feels like nothing that happened in the episode before really happened.

I also saw it because Morgana is really hot.

Rikardo | December 16, 13:03 CET

I kind of like everybody in it, except ASH and Richard Wilson. They feel off to me. On the whole it turned out a lot more entertaining than the first few episodes suggested. I'll keep watching, anyway.

Caroline | December 16, 14:55 CET

I've enjoyed watching it but agree with most of the criticism. ASH isn't given enough to do IMO, occasionally he gets some good scenes (particularly in the last two episodes) - but then some episodes he's not there at all or he's just repeating what he said previously ('magic is evil blah blah respect me blah blah off with his head blah blah') - I think he's a pretty good character though as (IMO) although everyone else hates him most of the time it's hard to not agree with his point of view sometimes.

Arthur and Merlin are by far the best characters (and get to show the most as actors) in the series (and the HoYay has been noted). But the most tiresome thing is, as others have said, that nothing really changes. The biggest example of which being:

Merlin never being found out even after saving the day with magic every week.

There are hints of mysteries and storylines but the final episode (where I had expected it all to come out) revealled nothing and while it had some interesting moments was disappointing overall.

I'm glad it's coming back though.

Leaf | December 16, 15:58 CET

Well, I skimmed the episode recaps on Tony's site, and...repeato much?

I think I might enjoy this as "Not really a series about King Arthur & Merlin because they didn't know each other as boys, but a fun series about another group of people entirely who happen to have the same names as the characters we know from the legend." Kind of like the movie King Arthur.

But I haven't seen even one teaser for it on NBC, so I'm wondering if we're actually going to get it. Then again, I haven't seen any trailers for Dollhouse, either.

ShadowQuest | December 16, 16:44 CET