User blog comment:Broman178/Should the filler episodes be stopped?/@comment-4623180-20120116100328

It doesn't matter what people like or not, it's up to your individual perception. Anyway, filler episodes have annoyed me, as I am guilty of judging a book by its cover and childishly disowning an episode if I can tell it has no relevance to what has previously happened. I think Series 4 DID improve, other than with Aithusa (while it was important with the white dragon they could have mentioned Uther!!) and in Lamia, Agravaine was too much of a good guy- the only bad thing he did was kick the gravel or something to make them lose track because he didn't want Arthur finding his knights, or maybe because he got bored and wanted them to go back (because, you know, he was Agravaine). I loved the episode The Goblin's Gold, I though it was hilarious, but it did seem to exaggerate the funny side of Merlin and throw away the serious side of the show, and maybe the way it did that stood out like a sore bud. I'm sure the producers have their reasons to make fillers. I think the 'Lamia' filler, while the Lamia monster was a little ridiculous, we got to explore Merlin and Gwen's friendship and I loved that aspect. But the moments were a little too brief. We're yet to actually see the critics/fans/audiences reaction to a whole series without fillers, some may not like it, or a lot, but there are ALWAYS people who complain about anything different, so really, there's no answers to what is good or bad, what should be done or shouldn't be, and anyone's attitude can change at any time. I think we shall just wait and see! If I were in charge of a team re-releasing the series in a DVD set, with improvements (and I'm not saying this ever SHOULD happen) I probably wouldn't remove the filler episodes, as they're still very relevant to the magic of the show and we get to see the characters in new situations, and I like that! Perhaps too much continuity, while more realistic, may make the characters seem like strained sausages on the same path and nowhere else and nothing else to do! So yeah, I contradicted myself a little, sometimes a little less continuity can be realistic. There's a balance. And I would've re-adjusted some scenes to be included and the lengths of them in only the filler episodes, to add a little more balance. Merlin is still a relatively 'new' show, I think, and the writers may not have that much experience dealing with a modern show based off such an old legend with so many different versions. What's happened has happened, and what will happen will happen. But believe me, the producers likely do listen to their fans and implement what fans want in their scripts- because what the fans want probably intervene with what they want. I bet there'll be less fillers, but also less Arthur/Merlin moments (there's a blog post on that, where I explained with Guinevere now as queen, and Merlin more like an advisor, they gotta change the formula a bit or it'll be too repetitive).