User blog comment:Darkzod/Series 4 lacked the consistency from the other series'/@comment-4135736-20120702151128

I agree with what has been said, Series 4 really wasn't that great, it clearly shows that the producers had run out of ideas since Series 3 finished, there really wasn't any need to make Merlin darker, Series 3 was pretty dark but, unlike Series 4, it still retained that magic and humour from Series 1 (Series 2 was even worse than Series 4 in my opinion because there were too many filler episodes which apparently took a lot of screen time away from main characters like Morgause, Mordred, Freya etc.), that was when the show was at its very best (aside from Morgana's character development).

I also think that making Arthur believe that magic is pure evil was another big mistake because this already happened back in Series 2 (in The Sin's of the Father, The Wicked Day was just a terrible, repeated version of this episode), same with showing the Arthur-Gwen-Lancelot love triangle again (with Gwen and Lancelot enchanted in that awful Lancelot du Lac episode) because it was already showed in Series 2 (Lancelot and Guinevere). I'm glad you included killing Lancelot off, that was one of the biggest mistakes in the show, especially because he was one of the most important characters in the Legend, and it wasted an interesting, complex character.

For Agravaine, I think his character was misused by the producers, Nathaniel Parker did a good job portraying him (except for the constant smirking which could have been scripted) but yeah he was just a repeated version of the Series 3 Morgana so that was again a waste of time. Morgana's character development wasn't the only flaw in Series 4 but it went downhill since Series 2, I hated that she became evil out of nowhere in the start of Series 3 (with no signs of her former self) when she was still good yet conflicted back in Series 2, at least Series 4 showed some signs of her confliction but it could have been done in Series 3.

What a shame, for an enjoyable show, Series 1 was a good start, then it went downhill in series 2, became good again in Series 3, then went downhill again in Series 4, I hope Series 5 is better.