User blog comment:Ozymandias v/A Slow Journey to Obsession: My Experience Watching Merlin/@comment-24691863-20140502111230/@comment-76.181.222.67-20140530032510

Merlin After, thanks for your thoughtful comment and for sharing your experiences. It's nice to find someone else who discovered the show after it ended and didn't have the setup and disappointment that many of the long-term fans experienced. I agree that our more positive reaction probably has a lot to do with the fact that we weren't sitting there for years expecting Arthur to bring about Camelot's Golden Age. Also, any time a poorly done episode came along, we could simply move to the next one and quickly forget it rather than being left feeling disappointed for a whole week.

The actors do a lot to sell the show. Colin Morgan in particular does such an amazing job in so many scenes (especially in sad scenes and as Dragoon). Bradley James seems to get overshadowed but he does a great job too. (I can't find it now but there was one post in particular on tumblr pointing out how in 5x03 he holds the horn like a sword when they are hunting Uther's ghost; it was just a really impressive, subtle detail.)

I'm still working my way through your story, by the way. I was so happy to have Merlin back in Camelot at the end of Part One that it's been hard to work through all his angst in Part Two—but it makes sense that its certainly something he'd have to work through. I've also been taking time to explore other fanfictions—I don't know if you have read much other than your own but it's quite the rabbit hole!