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Entry tags:	merlin

Merlin 1x01 - "The Dragon's Call"

Okay...remember how about a month ago, when I first gushed about this show, I specifically outlined in detail how much I love Arthurian myth and all adaptations thereof? I'm gonna take a second to reaffirm that. "Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley = favorite book, "The Once and Future King" by T.H White = another book I love, ditto with Nancy Springer's "I Am Morgan Le Fay"/"I am Mordred" novels and T.A Barron's "The Lost Years of Merlin" series, I love "The Sword in the Stone," "Excalibur," "King Arthur," the NBC "Merlin" miniseries, etc., etc., etc. My computer's name is Guineveira, after cleolinda's nickname for Keira Knightley's Guinevere in the m15m recap of "King Arthur." My love for this is so great that when I was house-shopping, I would've died if I hadn't gotten my current house.

My current house is on Guinevere street, just off of King's court, Galahad ave and Lancelot drive.

No. I am not making that up.

I told you that to explain to you how it is I can love this show so much when it resembles Arthurian myth largely by using the characters' names, and that's it.

This treatment of Arthur is an entirely new one. "Merlin"'s Arthur is a teenaged jerk jock who would be no more loveable than Dudley Dursley if it weren't for the fact that he is so incredibly pretty, it makes me want to cry. Or, putting it in terms that are more in line with its own mythos, Arthur and Merlin's roles have been altered to meet more of a "Sword in the Stone"/"Once and Future King"-type situation, with Arthur in Kay's role and Merlin in Arthur's. Far from being alienating, it's refreshing to see Arthur portrayed as something other than a saintly guy who gets a responsibility he never anticipated thrust on him. "Merlin"'s Arthur is rather an example of why Arthur is traditionally raised as a servant boy among land-rich-but-otherwise-underwhelming gentry. For Arthur to be the modest, tolerant, open-minded king we know him as, he has to suffer the life of a tormented peasant. This Arthur is not modest, tolerant or open-minded, and for me, it was wonderful to see Arthur set up to make a different transition. Arthur's journey won't be one of unprepared squire unexpectedly promoted to king. Arthur's journey is going to be the more personal one of changing from a total self-centered dick into a decent person.

Bradley James rocked the role, playing Arthur's jerkassness full tilt, but somehow leaving open this charming, vulnerable side that is, at this point, entirely subtextual. He has a sort of innocent face despite how cruel his general behavior is. In the moment when he looks at Merlin and says, "There's something about you, Merlin...I can't put my finger on it," there's this sense that Arthur might not be as awful as he seems. He's interested in the new boy who stands up to him. Arthur has a lot of room to grow and it's already obvious how Merlin is going to guide the way on that...which, while not necessarily the tale as we're used to seeing it, is still the baseline story we all know: "Wizard helps young man to become awesomest king ever."

Uther Pendragon's role is far more substantial than it is in most treatments I've personally read/watched. Uther doesn't appear as more than scattered references in "The Once and Future King" and isn't in "The Sword in the Stone" at all. He only gets about twenty minutes of screentime in "Excalibur." He doesn't appear in "King Arthur." The most substantive portrayal of Uther I've ever read was the very romanticized treatment of his relationship with Igraine and with Arthur's awkward lack of grief when he dies (because Arthur has not seen him since he was six years old) in "Mists of Avalon."

Here, Uther is the designated antagonist. He has lived through a very dark time when magic was fucking things up for people left and right, destroying the balance of his world, and he's outlawed magic all together to avoid having to deal with the mess that would be properly integrating it. In his very first scene, he's publically putting a man to death for using magic. It horrifies, but at the same time, Uther is not entirely a monster, either--something owed both to very subtle nuances in the writing and to Anthony Stewart Head's amazing acting. Two things that made me feel very much that Uther won't be an irredeemable sadist were that, first of all, in the aforementioned execution scene, Uther is confronted by the mother of the man he's just had beheaded. (Eve Myles played her, BTW, and I'll go over her performance in a minute.) When she rages at Uther for what he's done, you can see by Uther's expression that he is genuinely sorry for her. He doesn't seem to want to be this monster she's describing him as, and in his face, you can see him empathizing with the pain of losing someone you love. This happens again later in another scene between him and Myles (now in disguise and talking to him about Arthur's mother), and you do see that he feels grief for her, that he loved her and he's never replaced her, which has led to a lot of the screwed-up attitudes and dynamics in the royal family.

Speaking of screwed-up dynamics, another thing they've changed is the role of Morgan le Fay--here going by her less-commonly-used name, Morgana. Morgana is, for the very first time in any adaptation I've seen, not Arthur's sister, Uther Pendragon's stepdaughter. Here she is simply Uther's "ward" (my thoughts automatically shoot to both Dick Grayson of "Batman" and Johanna Barker of "Sweeney Todd"). Her background is not explored, which leaves open the possibility of the reveal later on that she is indeed Arthur's half-sister, but I doubt that's what's coming.

Morgana is shown here to be a sympathetic person who strongly disagrees with Uther's stance on magic, and it hurts her to see a man executed for using it. She also openly sympathizes with the man's grieving mother (despite the fact that the woman pledged revenge by killing Uther's son, so he can know her pain--Morgana's sympathy does not necessarily extend to the people she's presumably called "family" her entire life, which leaves open the--IMO, much more likely--possibility that someday she will be at odds with Uther and/or Arthur someday). Morgana also has a bit of a crush on Arthur--in the arrogant Cordelia Chase circa "BtVS" S1 sort of way, where she likes him but seems to feel at the same time he's beneath her. She wants Arthur's attention, but not in the "oooh, I wish he'd notice me!" way. In the "Well, of course he'll notice me; and if he doesn't, it's his loss" sort of way.

Morgana is rather the reverse of Arthur and Uther: on the surface, she is a much kinder person on the side of right, the opposite of her traditional portrayal, while subtextually, the potential for her to become the person we've known her to be in every other adaptation strongly exists and is subtly implied to be where the story will go. Katie McGrath, an actress I've never seen before, manages to convey both the overt "But this is wrong, Uther" and the extremely covert "And someday, I will make you pay for it" without ever making Morgana inaccessible. She's beautiful and charmingly arrogant, while at the same time the kind of woman you grin at and can't help liking.

Perhaps the oddest role change comes in the form of Guinevere (who says right away that she prefers to be called Guin). Guinevere is, again for the first time in any adaptation I've encountered, a servant girl rather than a princess. Guin is Morgana's maid and seems to also be her friend. (This relationship is sadly shown only very barely, tragically only hinted at rather than overtly played out--I hope that changes in future episodes.) Guin is still a sort of fringe element in the story, but set up for a larger role later. She's the only person Merlin's own age to befriend him, and unlike the subtlety and humor of Morgana's feelings for Arthur, Guin's instant and overwhelming crush on Merlin is right there from the very start. In their first scene together, she calls Merlin a hero for standing up to Arthur, and in later scenes, blunders around horribly while trying to admit to having feelings for Merlin without admitting to having feelings for Merlin. (For Merlin's part, he handles his lack of interest in her very, very tactfully, for which I applaud the writers. It's a nice change from the typical teen drama that Merlin neither openly rejects her nor is hurtfully oblivious to her feelings. Merlin knows, but he doesn't make a big deal out of it and mostly manages not to contribute to Guin's discomfort.)

Guinevere's traditional role in the story, like everyone else's, is subtextually there, though she is the only character to have it openly lampshaded, in a bit of dialogue that made me laugh out loud:

Merlin: ::stares as Morgana enters the room:: Wow.
Guinevere: Isn't she lovely? Just like a queen should be. Some people are born for it.
Merlin: ::catches her meaning, looks at her:: No, surely not.
Guinevere: Oh, yes, I hope so. ::makes a slight face:: Well. For her, anyway. Who'd want to marry Arthur?

Angel Coulby's performance as Guin is one I could take or leave. She's not, by any means, a bad actress--in fact, I think she's a good actress, but that the awkwardness and slightly out-of-place feeling that her character is built on comes through too clearly. The character feels awkward and out of place, and for me, anyway, so did the actress. But I look forward to watching Guin grow as a character and Coulby come more into her own.

And then there was Merlin.

Merlin as a character, as stated before, has largely been thrust into Arthur's traditional role: the hero who suffers and struggles to work towards the destiny we'll know him to have. I think this change is necessary, because normally, Merlin isn't the main character. The Arthurian myth isn't called the Arthurian myth for nothing. Normally, when Merlin is made the main character of the story (e.g, NBC's "Merlin," T.A Barron's "The Lost Years of Merlin"), the story they tell isn't the main one of Camelot and what Merlin found there, but the journey of how Merlin came to be there, then his take on those events. This is the first time I've seen Merlin grow up in the court he'll later influence, and with Arthur present, it would be easy to lose sight of the fact that this story is Merlin's. Merlin becomes the boy with the destiny, and it's sort of like a (MUCH, MUCH, MUCH) more lighthearted remake of "Buffy" that tells the story from Faith's perspective. Merlin gets the call to be a hero by being told that his destiny is to guide and protect Arthur on his way to becoming the Once and Future King. (My hand to God, the Great Dragon, who tells Merlin this, called Arthur that, that's not me being poetic.) Merlin does have a destiny, and this is that story, but his is the shadow-destiny of Arthur's. Their fates are entwined, whether they like it or not (Hint: they don't), and even when he's the hero of the tale, Merlin's future is still sort of the background to Arthur's. This, I think, allows for a really interesting look at the narrative--the sidekick's tale, if you will. Merlin is not destined to be a hero in his own right, but to play support. And that, my friends, is oddly compelling.

Colin Morgan's Merlin is boyish and charming, nervous about where his life's going to go now, but comparitively much more sure of himself than the other teenagers in Camelot. Morgan plays him, quite frankly, as totally adorkable, and I loved it. Also, he took his shirt off, and I have to admit, I squeed. It helps that, of all the actors, he seems to be having the most fun. In the scene where Merlin spends a day in the stocks (I may be wrong, but I think that's an anachronistic punishment--alas), being pelted with rotten vegetables, Morgan has to constantly duck his head not only to dodge cabbage and tomatoes, but also to hide the fact that he's laughing and grinning like a maniac. The film's been edited to try and hide this, but it's still impossible to miss, and it was incredibly endearing.

Morgan also makes it fantastically easy to 'ship Merlin with just about everybody. Merlin and Arthur have so much HoYay, it's almost impossible not to believe they'll be the main couple of the show. Guin's huge crush on Merlin is so cute that the part of me who never had a date in high school kind of wants to see them make it. And Merlin's real love interest--Morgana, who seems to utterly beguile the poor boy with her beauty--makes for an interesting match, and I really want to watch him trying to win her over.

Eve Myles' role as the episode's villain was believable, but Myles herself was tragically underused. She acquits herself admirably, never minding that some of the lines she says and things she does are totally ridiculous. She looks wonderful in her scattered scenes, and frankly, it was just really good for me, as a "Torchwood" fan, to see Gwen again. (Though the roles are not even remotely similar--this is another point in Myles' favor, that even though I'm used to her in a particular role, it doesn't really color my perception of this role. I often experience a lot of actor dissonance when I watch stuff with actors I like--a solid example was how it took me about three episodes of "Slings & Arrows" before I stopped tearing my hair and going "But Fraser wouldn't do that!" every time Paul Gross said or did anything. I also can't watch "Bones" without seeing Angel, "How I Met Your Mother" without seeing Willow, or pretty much anything SMG does, ever, without seeing Buffy. Myles is a familiar face here, but she's not Gwen.)

I'll admit, the plot of this episode was totally ridiculous, but the fun thing about it was that it didn't really bother me. I enjoyed the actors, the characters and adapting my knowledge and perception of the myth to a new setting. This is a show, I think, that I'll watch for the characters less than the plots. The storyline doesn't exist so much to tell us the story, as it does to show us the characters, and being the character-anaylizing freak that I am, that works perfectly for me.

My real major complaints were that Santiago Cabrera and Michelle Ryan weren't in this episode. ::sulk::

So yeah, it's something really different than what I'm used to. It's not a good adaptation of the Arthurian myth--it's an incredibly, INCREDIBLY bad adaptation of the Arthurian myth, really, in terms of "keeping to all of the details of the original legend"--but it was a fun time. And I do think the adaptation will get more accurate as time goes on. Just based on this episode and the characters, relationships and subtext introduced, I can pretty much map the exact trajectory of the show from here--Merlin and Arthur will grow closer as the show goes on, with Arthur becoming less of a jerkass. Guin will pine for Merlin and fall into Lancelot's arms while Merlin and Arthur bond. Morgana and Merlin will have a lot of subtext, and one day in a few seasons, she'll get Merlin to magic her into Arthur's bed, and he'll do it because he's sooooo in love with her. Then Arthur will marry Guin for some reason--prolly 'cause he's been crushing on her while ignoring Morgana's advances, because "we grew up together, she's practically my sister"--and the legend will assert itself properly.

But, until that (hypothetically) happens, I will enjoy this show for what it is.: a Twinkie. To quote cleolinda: "You go and get yourself a Twinkie when you have a very specific kind of craving. If you want gourmet pastry, or even a homemade cake, you know where to get that. If you're eating a Twinkie, you clearly know what you want and why you're eating it, and you know that it's not good to eat very many of them, but... you know... sometimes you just want one."

Overall rating: eight out of ten.