User blog comment:Ozymandias v/A Slow Journey to Obsession: My Experience Watching Merlin/@comment-5102537-20140429103758/@comment-24629321-20140530021045

Fimber, thanks for sharing your detailed thoughts! I agree that it was nice to have a lighthearted take on what is generally such a dark legend and a dark time period. It's a nice introduction to the Arthurian legend. I can also see why Uther is one of your favorites. Out of all the characters, I always thought he was the most developed. There was so much potential with Morgana too—it's such a shame that they had her do an abrupt about-face into a smirking villain. It would also have been interesting to see more of Gaius' past explored: more about why he chose to stay in Camelot during the Purge and the inner conflict that caused for him. We do see some of this but like you said, it's like we're reading a story, but we're only getting the Cliffs Notes version. I'm used to seeing American network TV with 22-24 episodes per season, and I've often wondered if Merlin would have benefited from having twice as many episodes to explore other characters, especially the knights and their backstories and their quests. Then again, the writing in seasons 4 & 5 did tend to drag and I'm not sure I would've wanted to sit through 24 episodes of that quality!