User blog comment:Ḡwẵine Ḹٍٍkƨ Ĺiĸe Ͼềлȑềd/Producers Try Too Hard/@comment-4135736-20120501164030

I agree with everything you have said about Series 4, it lacked the magic of the other seasons (though Series 2 was the worst season), and the epicness from Series 3 reduced. What I really hated about The Darkest Hour (it was enjoyable to watch though) was that, the Dorocha and Cailleach had nothing to do with the Legend, they made Merlin too vulnerable (completely powerless and defensless against the Dorocha, that ruins what he is destined to be) when that wasn't really needed and realy Lancelot was killed off as soon as he became a Knight of Camelot when he could have stayed on until Lancelot du Lac.

I agree about Lamia and Lancelot du Lac, both those episodes were crap, just because the producers say the episodes they make are the best, doesn't really mean they are good, why make Gwen and Lancelot fall in love through an enchantment and why waste the Knights screen time and bring a stupid creature to make them angry and bully Merlin. If I were the producers I would have made an episode called The Holy Grail instead of that rubbish called Lamia because the Knights are famous for that in the Legend. Lancelot du Lac would have been better if Lancelot was not killed off in The Darkest Hour, if he was in his right mind (not as a shade) and same with Gwen, I also hated that Merlin was oblivious to Gwen's enchantment, ruins his clever nature.

The Wicked Day is another example of a crap episode because Arthur becoming King was just too dark and boring due to the fact that he became like Uther in the process, mentioning King Odin was just pointless when they could have either brought him in or just made the Gleeman an assassin hired by Morgana and Agravaine, the friend quote from Arthur ("You're a loyal friend Merlin") was dumb because it happened at a dark time, when Merlin felt distant from Arthur, and instead of making just another plot to make Arthur become like Uther just to keep the magic secret thing going, there could have been a mention of Morgana from Uther and Arthur could have learn't the truth of his birth.

I enjoyed The Sword in the Stone even though I expected a confrontation between Arthur and Agravaine as well as a cliffhanger with Mordred instead of Aithusa while I partly agree about The Hunter's Heart, the Agravaine killing Eoghan was a bit irrelivant but it wasn't too bad. The other episodes were brilliant though (The Secret Sharer being my favourite) but I admit that I wanted A Servant of Two Masters to be a bit darker (not by removing all the humour) because I wanted Merlin to be a bit more violent (such as by attacking Gaius) just to show that he really is evil because he seemed a bit too calm when he was enchanted, it was good though.