"Merlin" is one of those shows in the vein of BBC's "Robin Hood", and the new "Dr. Who" - it's poorly-written with clichés utilized to the max whenever possible, the cast cannot act worth a damn (even the main lead, Colin Morgan - he has a maximum of two emotions, "Happy Merlin" and "Sad Merlin". Seriously, that's it), the plot and overarching mythology makes less sense as it goes on, the CGI and special effects look like they came straight out of the 90s, and any and all character development is quashed almost as soon as it appears - the worst offenders in this department would have to be Guinevere, who appears to have even less of a personality as of season 4 than she did when the show started, and Morgana who has been transformed from a whiny princess type to a whiny one-note villain type.
Yet, there is something alluring in the fact that it's so laughably bad, that you cannot help but keep watching, just to see if it can get any worse (it does). The main problem is that the show, much like "Robin Hood" did, tries to pay lip service to the source material, yet it's attempts to do so are clumsy, and are disregarded almost immediately afterward, with the writers freely butchering canon left and right. At this point, I honestly feel as though the creators should stop pretending to care about having an established mythology and take the show's plot in a completely new direction. It would do it a lot of good, and who knows - maybe, ten to fifteen years from now, someone might actually remember this as a good show in it's own right, instead of that one show that existed solely for people to lounge on the sofa with a can of soft drink in hand to admire eye-candy actors and actresses prance about the screen shirtless or with their breasts partially exposed, while sprouting off dialog that would make Michael Bay cringe.
Overall, it's not bad if you want to spend a Friday evening after work watching some mindless entertainment. Who knows, maybe one of the myriad of cheesy jokes might actually make you smile.
Yet, there is something alluring in the fact that it's so laughably bad, that you cannot help but keep watching, just to see if it can get any worse (it does). The main problem is that the show, much like "Robin Hood" did, tries to pay lip service to the source material, yet it's attempts to do so are clumsy, and are disregarded almost immediately afterward, with the writers freely butchering canon left and right. At this point, I honestly feel as though the creators should stop pretending to care about having an established mythology and take the show's plot in a completely new direction. It would do it a lot of good, and who knows - maybe, ten to fifteen years from now, someone might actually remember this as a good show in it's own right, instead of that one show that existed solely for people to lounge on the sofa with a can of soft drink in hand to admire eye-candy actors and actresses prance about the screen shirtless or with their breasts partially exposed, while sprouting off dialog that would make Michael Bay cringe.
Overall, it's not bad if you want to spend a Friday evening after work watching some mindless entertainment. Who knows, maybe one of the myriad of cheesy jokes might actually make you smile.