User blog comment:Ozymandias v/A Slow Journey to Obsession: My Experience Watching Merlin/@comment-5102537-20140429103758/@comment-5102537-20140503121445

Alright, here it is :-)

I think you brought up a very important point when you wrote:

"As I was increasingly stressed with work in my real life, the show was giving me a much-needed escape. "

In my opinion, this was what the show used to be when it started and what may have been one of  the main reasons for people to love it - the escape. Generally, medieval/dark ages-stories are a lot of things but not as pleasant and warm as "Merlin" used to be. This, on the other hand, made a lt of people believe that it was a children's show which it never was to me. Suitable for minors in the first two seasons but not a children's show.

And this was what fascinated me, the mixture of a somewhat light style in combination with deep storyarcs and interesting characters. Until season four there was enough for younger people to enjoy and enough for adults to deal with, like the entire plot about the Old Religion, the conflict between the characters plus ethical and philosophical questions. Despite the drama and action, there was the warmth, represented by the atmosphere as a whole (costumes, colours, interior, sounds, stories... everything) and the love and friendship between the characters, not to mention the moral compass represented by Merlin, Gwen and others.

Of course, as you may know by now, Uther was one of my favourite characters, alongside with Gwen, Morgana and Gaius. The dragon was fascinating, too. And these characters captured my interest from the very beginning. I instantly knew that there were tons of potential conflict, but not in a much too negative way with torture, death, pain, misery and darkness all over. As the show progressed my interest grew more and more and I was eager to see how it would all end, just like when you read a book you can't stop to read because the story is so interesting and you need to read it through.

I came to like Lancelot very much and was looking forward to see more of him. Gwaine promised to become one of the best characters and maybe even Merlin's closest friend and another one who learns of Merlin's powers. And the relationship between Uther and Morgana was the most faboulous thing to me at all. A redemption for everyone involved was to be expected and I was sure it wouldn't be an easy thing but possible by any means. The entire storyline about Morgause, Morgana, Gorlois, Uther, Igraine, Arthur, Vivienne (Vivian...?) was amazing and not at all cheap but deep and the most important plot that connected everything to each other within the Merlinverse.

I guess  don't have to describe again how disappointing it was when all of this ended all of a sudden and made way for a whole new and very flat story that had nothing to do with the first three seasons anymore.