Merlin

I wanted to make Merlin my very first post because it was the show that inspired me to create this blog.

I first watched Merlin about 8 months ago by accident. I have always liked adventure and fantasy films/shows and thought I would give this British show a chance. I have never watched any British show, but given the different culture, I was afraid it would make no sense to me.

Boy, was I wrong. Merlin (or The Adventures of Merlin) is a fantastic show. It is set before the famous fable started, when Merlin was an apprentice and Arthur was still a prince. I note here that the fable I know, Arthur was never even a prince when he got Excalibur out of the stone, but this series plays with the elements and characters and create their own stories.

The cast is magnificently compose of great British names and (back then) new ones, which includes the 2 main actors Colin Morgan (Merlin) and Bradley James (Prince/King Arthur) both were still in drama school. But their chemistry flows very well. They are always on point, fast moves and reactions and super funny.

The whole show was made as if it was a Disney type of film, you know the ones that you rarely see any blood, or gross things. Even though a lot of fighting, killing, hanging, monsters and creatures, the audience wouldn’t go through any type of discomfort watching it whatsoever. It has a lot of implicit actions mixed with sound that would tell the story without actually having to show it. As an action show, you don’t get bored watching it.

Another particular of this show, which I loved, was that every single episode was a whole story. There was nothing hanging to be “resolved” in the following one. It is as if you are watching a brand new film in the new episode. As a series, there are a few exceptions especially from season 2 on where a story would be told in 2 episode installments, but that was it. All the others were a stand alone episode, just like a brand new film with the same characters. Just really like as if we are watching this people’s lives going through different phases, or in this case…different adventures.

In my humble opinion it is a GREAT show and I extremely recommend to watch it. It is 65 episode divided into 5 season. Have fun!