| medialifemagazine.com TV Reviews
In the series, which premieres with two episodes on NBC at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Merlin is a young teenager with innate magic powers who comes to Camelot during the reign of King Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon (Anthony Head of “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer”). Unfortunately, Merlin has come to town just as Uther is executing a young man he believes to be the last sorcerer in his realm. It seems that Uther consolidated his rule by ridding the kingdom of magic and dragons. As Head speechifies about this achievement, there’s a probably inadvertent echo of little Lord Farquaad’s campaign against fairy-tale creatures in “Shrek” (or, to cite another John Lithgow role, the Reverend’s campaign against dancing in “Footloose”). As one can surmise by now, this treatment of the legends is a far cry from Malory, Tennyson, Lerner and Loewe and even the 1998 miniseries “Merlin,” which featured Sam Neill and an all-star cast. Merlin, who’s played by the newcomer Colin Morgan in a haircut that makes him resemble an adolescent Mr. Spock, meets cute with Prince Arthur (Bradley James), a callow, spoiled jock, when Merlin stands up to Arthur and his noble friends as they’re tormenting an underling. After Arthur informs Merlin who he’s dealing with, Merlin replies, “I’ve told you you’re an ass. I just didn’t realize you were a royal one.” (The screenwriters are unafraid of anachronisms.) Eventually, Merlin is assigned to be Arthur’s manservant, a position he resents until he sneaks below the castle and has a chat with the kingdom’s one remaining dragon, which Uther imprisoned in a cave. (You never know when you’re going to need a dragon.) In both of the first two episodes, the dragon, voiced by John Hurt, serves as Merlin’s Yoda. The computer-animated creature tells Merlin that he is fated to help Arthur unify the country. “None of us can choose our destiny, Merlin,” the dragon declares, “and none of us can escape it.” (The screenwriters are also unafraid of banality.) In a further twist on the original tales of the Round Table, the character of Morgan le Fay has been transformed into a ward of Uther’s named Morgana, played by a Keira Knightley type named Katie McGrath. Guinevere is presumably going to turn out to be Gwen (Angel Coulby), who in the first two episodes is Morgana’s maid. (The casting of some of the secondary characters is race-blind, which is commendable.) The plots are generally the right size for a 10-year-old to chew over. The premiere sets up Merlin in Camelot; the second episode involves a wicked knight named Valiant (wonder how the folks behind the “Prince Valiant” comic strip will like that one), who enters a tournament wielding a magic shield emblazoned with poisonous snakes. The action is also suitable for kids. The violence is generally bloodless, and even the deaths caused by sorcery are depicted without the kind of gross-outs that often prove irresistible to filmmakers working with computer animation. This sort of programming is rare on the networks these days, so it’s difficult to predict whether families will tune in. At least the dragon seems confident. As he tells Merlin in the second episode, “This is not the end. It is the beginning.” © 2012 Media Life |
