Did anybody else catch this? I watched it, and so far I'm thinking it's pretty good. Decent acting, decent dialogue, decent plot so far. Special effects are just a bit on the too-obvious side of CG, but I'm willing to overlook that some for a TV show.

I think it's so far having some interesting twists on the Arthurian mythos; most key, of course, being that Merlin himself is no older than Arthur, which is a take I don't recall seeing before. It could be an interesting one, as usually Merlin is in the mentor role, and not the protagonist. (The one example of him as the protagonist that I remember seeing was a Sam Neill TV-movie a few years back that was quite good; but even then, he was older than Arthur and the tone was different.)

I think having Morgana La Fey be Uther's ward makes sense. It keeps some of the feeling of her being Arthur's half-sister from the original stories, and permits her to be close to the action, while removing the incest factor, which would both be difficult to get past network censors and would hamper the ability to provide a sympathetic factor in her portrayal. (Having some audience sympathy for her is a common factor in recent portrayals, and heck, if I remember Le Mort d'Arthur correctly, even there she wasn't portrayed as pure evil. Of course, as this series is already taking a divergent course, there's no guarantee they'll even have her betray him in the long run. They could throw us a curveball there, and it would even be an interesting idea to see something like that on a story we think we all know.)

Guenevere being Morgana's servant is a surprising change. Her apparently being part African is even more so. The first is obviously a deliberate decision; I'm not sure if the second is, or if it's just a casting decision that we're supposed to not care about. (Of course, I suppose it may be that the actress isn't part African at all, but is merely exceptionally dark for a northern European, or is Mediterranean. If Mediterranean, same statements apply. If none of the above, disregard. I'm just curious, as at first glance it's an interesting decision.)

From here on out, there be spoilers...

I thought having Arthur be an ass was a good way to start things off for the dynamics they seem to be going for. But it's nice to see that he does have some redeeming qualities from the get go; that he's willing to trust his servant's word, and that he's willing to admit when he made a mistake... although he obviously has a ways to go if he's not willing to admit he needed saving.

It's pretty clear that Uther is not very popular in the world at large. The witch in the first episode obviously had a personal grudge, but it seems that the knight in the second simply wanted to kill the Prince for the sake of doing so. Merlin will naturally have his hands full here, the more so because of Uther's decree against magic... which will be a problem for Morgana as well, of course, as traditionally she was nearly as powerful as Merlin, and here we've already seen that she is having portentous dreams.

It's a bit odd that after the first episode showed Merlin didn't need to use words to move objects, the second one shows him using spells to move some of them, such as unlocking the door. Maybe it's a control issue. Not sure. But I hope that as he learns spells, he gradually starts to go non-verbal on them. He is supposed to be different, after all.

And is it just me, or does the dragon give the distinct impression that he could snap that manacle if he really wanted to?

Finally, I know the British got this series before we did (it's originally from the BBC), so please try to warn us North Americans if you're going to discuss things happening farther down the series. Thanks.

I saw a few commercials for it and will hopefully find on NBC's website tomorrow. But after hearing it billed as "The Smallville of the Arthurian legend", I was a little skeptical. That premise barely worked for "Smallville" and I think the legend of Merlin and Arthur is (forgive the pun) a bit more set in stone. I think it'll definitely be asking for quite a lot of leeway from audiences as they reinterpret the Legend. But I plan to give it a shot with an open mind and hope for some interesting ideas.

Well... the thing about Arthurian legend is that it's been told a few thousand different ways pretty much from the beginning. Le Mort d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory was the first written account of it, around 1450 or so if I recall, but even by then the story itself was roughly a thousand years old, and subject to numerous little variations introduced by different tellers. Then, of course, T.H. White wrote "The Once and Future King" in the late 1930s, and that was a big influence on modern takes (for one thing, it inspired the Disney animated feature.) Most takes nowadays take parts from one or both of those, or try to do a "non-magical" take on what it "might have been like".

There winds up being an awful lot of variations on different things. The usual notes that have to be hit are Merlin meeting Arthur, Excalibur, Lancelot & Guenevere, Mordred, and Arthur's death. But within those ranges... things are pretty flexible.

I've seen Merlin be the classical old wizard version, a man living backwards in time (The Once and Future King), a middle-aged man (Excalibur), a relatively young man (Sam Neill's take), half-faery, half-demon, and not even a wizard at all, but a man with a large spy network.

I've seen Excalibur be explicitly mentioned as Caladbolg (the sword from the legend of Fergus mac Roich, a much older legend), a new creation, a gift from the lady of the lake, a normal sword well enchanted, stuck in a stone, stuck in an anvil, and not stuck anywhere at all.

I've seen Arthur as an unknown ward with no claim to the throne (The Sword in the Stone), and knowing he's the heir (most takes).

Mordred has sometimes started off as a loyal knight. Lancelot and Guenevere's affair has sometimes been largely platonic. Some takes -- old enough to not be just playing around with sensibilities -- have even had Morgan Le Fay be Arthur's half-brother and scrapped the whole "child of incest" aspect with Mordred. (Interestingly, Le Mort d'Arthur has her as the standard female version -- naturally, since it pretty much set the standards -- but it also has a Sir Morgan as a knight on the Round Table. It distinguished the two -- at least in the version I read -- by using the name Morgana for Le Fay. Her name, of course, is one of the things which also varies; Morgan, Morgana, or Morgaine.)

So on the whole... I would say that Superman's mythos is probably much more set in stone than King Arthur's. But really, on any fictional/legendary story, there's a lot of room for playing with the story. Only real history is set in stone, and that's only if you can confirm what actually happened. Even then, historical what-if fiction is a pretty solid genre in its own right.

I actually really liked it when it aired over here, not missing any episodes. I don't want to spoil anything but let's just say unlike Smallville it does build to a good finale. As opposed to building to something for an entire series then having the final episode fizzle out.

I'd actually be happy to find out what you think of it as the show goes on. As a great deal of my friends on these shores don't watch it. Also as with most of the genre tv shows I watch Mrs Ridge usually leaves the room. So at least I can chat about it finally on here, huzzah!

Well, its been running here for about 6 or 7 weeks now. My wife is a fan, but I'm usually working on sunday nights, so I haven't seen much of it. I have rather enjoyed what I have seen, though, and even haven't minded how they've "interpreted the story" (Read: "Mesed around with the myth") mostly because there have been so many different versions of it out there already. Funny thing though - I have, as yet, not seen Merlin do any magic at all. But like I said I haven't seen that much...

Caught the two episodes last night, and I have to say I'm enjoying this. Good mixture of adventure, mystique, and humor.

Something that I thought was an interesting twist was Nimue being an ancient enemy of Uther. This is useful from a story perspective, as it gives them a recurring villain with (presumably) actual motives for plotting Camelot's downfall. But it's interesting in that it strongly changes the relationship between her and Merlin from the standard tales. The standard version has Nimue as being Merlin's lover, and inexperienced in magic until Merlin teaches her. She then betrays him shortly before the fall of Camelot by encasing him in rock (or crystal; tellings vary slightly.) The reason for the betrayal varies slightly, and I don't recall the one given in Le Mort D'Arthur, but usually it's because she's feeling spurned because of his dedication to Camelot.

Obviously, they aren't going that route.

Of course, they seem to be pushing Guenevere into the role of his girlfriend, which is a bit of an odd twist. It was nice seeing her father in yesterday's first episode though, to get confirmation that she's meant to be part African.

It was also nice to see Gaius performing magic, confirming that he is able, just not normally willing.