Friday, June 26, 2009

Merlin: Not So Enchanting

I'll say right off the bat that this is by no means any kind of review, as I only watched about 10 minutes of Sunday night's two hour premiere. I'm not going to pretend that I know anything about this show or have any position to say whether it is worthwhile or not.

That said, here's what I got out of 10 minutes: a really old-fashioned, straightforward fantasy show with really low production values that would have fit right in on syndication in the '90s. Now, I was obsessed with King Arthur as a child, so I had to give this one a look, but it's not even about the Camelot age. And seeing Giles on TV again as Luther Pendragon is fun, but even he seems like he's hardly trying.

So for me, 10 minutes was enough to know there's a reason why NBC burned this one off in the summer, and I have enough else loaded up on my DVR that I didn't feel a need to see more. So I'm outsourcing this one to you guys - did anyone else watch it? Worth another look? And by the way, my question last weekend was not rhetorical; I'm still waiting for suggestions.

1 comment:

leonore said...

I watched about half of the episodes while I was in England. It's not great, but I was of the "I'm in England! I should watch this" mindset.

What I don't get is why NBC seems to be advertising it as "new." I'm pretty sure it first came out on BBC over a year ago and might've even made it around to BBC America.

It seemed to me like it wished it were BBC's verion of Robin Hood (which I LOVE). Sure, they both take lots of liberties with classic British mythology, but Robin Hood is hands down the better show. It is funnier, has more likeable characters, is acted better, and lacks the horrid special effects. Or I like it more because Merlin is an awkward little dude, and Robin Hood is charismatic and attractive ; ) I will say one bad thing about Robin Hood though: the arrow-shooting sound effects are OVER THE TOP.

Since we watch almost all of the same shows otherwise, for my recommendation, I'd say pick up some dvds of Robin Hood and see what you think. Hopefully, you'll like it better than the slightly dreadful Merlin.