Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24691863-20140427042038/@comment-5102537-20140427145419

I understand why you wonder about this all. According to my experience with reviews, opinions, comments there is no either love or hate for this show but too much in the grey zones. Speaking for myself, I wouldn't consider myself as being obsessed. There were indeed times when I really had no interest in debating the show anymore, and if I werent an admin here I probably wouldn't check this site more than maybe once a month, if ever. However, since I have to take a look at it more often I see more and more interesting debates, especially when some new members signed up here recently and some other admins contributed interesting stuff and opinions.

I doubt that people who really dislike the entire show would discuss it so detailed. There may be a few trolls who seek to annoy others here but they're not fans who like to discuss.

One of the reasons for discussing the show might be that a lot of fans loved particular seasons and then were disappointed with the outcome. Some preferred the first few seasons, others the last two seasons and, according to what fans wrote on the internet,  a few preferred season five over all the others. Personally, as I've already mentioned, I loved the first three seasons and thought that now things are going to get better and better. To my disappointment, things went worse (in my opinion) and maybe, just like I do, some fans would still like to get some answers and tie lose ends for the show they used to like so much. If there hadn't been so much interest in whatever season (older or newer ones) there wouldn't be a discussion.

The question what fascinates fans about whatever season or the entire show: the characters, the actors, the looks of the actors (and yes, there is no doubt that especially the younger protagonists/antagonists drew a lot of attention to the viewers, most of all the younger viewers, which isn't a bad thing but which also was the focus of the last two seasons, like half-naked knights, for example, the bromance of Arthur and Merlin etc...), the magic which is always somehow interesting, the drama, the humour (though most of it was too childish for my taste), the approached storylines of deep character-development (which was stopped all of a sudden), the logic operation of past events that led to the unknown future events in the beginning (which was also stopped all of a sudden), the philosophical questions, the religious questions, the slight signs of anthropological questions - and all that mixed with a modern style of the dark ages, represented by modern characters who partly behaved old fashioned and partly modern which gave the viewer the possibility to identify with the characters and to follow the story (until it went chaotical). Then there was the atmosphere of a somehow colourful era that actually wasn't so colourful. There was warmth, friendship and love but also action and hatred, but in the beginning all presented with hope for the better. The ethics and the moral questions were integrated into the stories, and again the audience could work with it and everyone could ask themselve what they would do in similar situations. It gave the viewers the possibility to compare it all to real life situations.

Another explanation is the fun way to analyse something which is of interest like we all did (or still do) at school, only most of the time with things we didn't find so compelling. At school/university, people can learn a lot for life from lyrics, books, texts they have to analyse. It broadens one's horizons, and by time it gets fascinating (which is why classic literature fascinates so many people). Only here,. on "Merlin", as well as on other TV shows or movies, it was done in a playful and fun way with good looking and attractive characters, and, what's more important, it is voluntarily ;-)

Last but not least, if you get invested and if you like particular or all characters and/or storylines, and you see something you disagree with, you automatically wish to state your opinion. This is the reason why people discuss so many things on the internet, may it be things in real life like politics (for example) or things on TV shows or movies that you find interesting because it challenges our mind.

And if you get all this and wonder what was going on, why things were changed or how it would continue if there were more seasons, you develop an interest in other people's opinion and get a chance to exchange the opinions.