User blog:Alethia II/Why I have not particularly enjoyed what I have seen so far in series 5

Although this might sound as biased rant, I will write this anyway. Merlin Series 5 reached its half season but to be honest, what I have seen so far did not impress me. I find it dull and repetitive with occasional bursts of something new. The only new thing I find interesting is re-introduction of sparsely seen Mordred. There has been no change on Merlin-Arthur friendship wavelength since series 3. True, Arthur finally heeded his friend’s words in last week’s ‘Dark Tower’. But that can hardly be called some improvement because Arthur still views Merlin as happy-go-lucky manservant that has occasional outbursts of wisdom but blabs rubbish 90% of the time. We were told we would see some development in their friendship but what we have been served so far was not what I expected. This does not mean I do not appreciate strong performances in some episodes by Colin and Bradley; they were brilliant and I appreciated those small moments.

The real reason why I do not generally like Series 5 is the fact it is repetitive and boring. In the very core, despite how the episodes were filmed, storylines are repetitive as far as Morgana’s Coyote plans to kill Arthur and taking Camelot is concerned. Arthur’s Bane was ‘meh’ moment for me (I honestly believe the whole story arc of ‘Arthur’s Bane’ was rushed), with Morgana’s sudden interest in finding Arthur’s Bane rather than searching for Emrys (which is something I find really weird, seeing as she spent series 4 frantically searching for Emrys) and re-introduction of Mordred, character that is seriously underused. Not to mention that it struck me as odd that Arthur still viewed all magic users as evil and dismissed Merlin’s remark about the druid seer, telling Merlin that he should not believe the word of a sorcerer. Whatever happened to his promise from the ‘Herald of the New Age’? “From this day forth, I promise Druids will be treated with the respect they deserve. I give you my word.” Talking about writers jumping in their mouths and contradicting what they wrote before.

Episode 3 was by declared by part of the Merlin fandom as the worst episode yet and many were outraged by change in Uther’s character. I did not care much about that but the fact that once again Merlin’s secret was revealed to someone who was gone from the entire Merlin story in matter of minutes, with Arthur conveniently knocked out not even a feet away from the Camelot’s resident warlock. One thing that did strike me as curious was the fact that Uther knew about Arthur and Gwen’s marriage, something that happened after his death but did not know about Merlin’s magic and was rather shocked at sudden reveal. Why? Do ghosts in the spirit world have selective view of what they see?

Major thing that irked me in ‘Another’s Sorrow’ was failure on everyone’s part to recognise Morgana. Her aging spell did not do much of a job to hide her true identity and yet somehow, everyone except Merlin and Mithian, saw her as some harmless old lady. Come on! How can you not recognise someone you spent half of your life with? Merlin was suspicious of her right away but Arthur and Gwen acted as if they had blindfolds on their eyes. Gwen, who spent years in Morgana’s service, should have been the first to notice the similarity.

‘The Disir’ was not really epic for me. I will concede and say that the campfire scene with Merlin and Arthur was well played by Colin and Bradley but that was the only thing I liked about the episode. Although the Court of Disir was literally trying to blackmail Arthur into letting Old Religion come back to Camelot, the moment Merlin said that there can be no place for magic in Camelot, I wanted to smack the man with a shovel. I know it was a decision made with good intention and in a limited time frame but come on! If Merlin is so hell bent on getting rid of Mordred whom he is chasing around with a proverbial knife ever since he appeared in the first episode, I am pretty sure there are ways to do so; despite letting Disir doing his dirty work being the most convenient option. And this whole thing about taking Kilgharrah’s advices as if they are the holy word is overdone and plain stupid. Has Merlin learnt nothing when it comes to Kilgharrah plainly on the spot demanding Merlin to kill someone? I think Morgana, despite the fact she chose the way she is now, is the best proof that listening to a dragon that has been imprisoned for twenty years is not the smartest thing to do.

So, with all this in mind, what I find most disappointing is the fact we are not seeing any progress on the points of Arthur and Merlin truly fulfilling their destinies. We are not seeing this prophesised unification of Albion nor are we seeing return of the magic. In fact, if the series 5 are anything to go by with the ‘Gwen being Morgana’s puppet’ storyline still in developing, I would say the writers are just serving Arthur one more reason to hate magic even more than he is hating it now. And if truce signing between Arthur and Odin is considered by writers a serving of Albion’s unification then I am sorely disappointed. And where the hell is the Round Table?

Arthur being repeatedly attacked by evil sorcerers (without so much as a blip from the good sorcerers seeing as Merlin’s actions sill remain unseen and unrecognised by Arthur and others) which always results in him being against magic even more; and running around Camelot’s territory (which to me it seems is getting bigger with each series through unknown means to me at least) with Merlin and the knights is seriously chewed over theme and it makes the currently three episode arc most interesting as of yet but it also leaves me expecting very little because somehow I feel that by the time it finishes, they will all (Arthur, Gwen and the knights) have even more negative opinions about magic. Gwen most certainly won’t have a kind opinion of magic, seeing it cost her lives of two of her family members (I know Tom was not killed by magic but he was killed because he was falsely accused of conspiring with a magic user).

There. I am done with my biased rant. What are your opinions on series 5 so far? And please do not start a war over different opinions. I do not like those.