To be honest, I feel the BBC tricked me with this episode of Merlin. I was prepared for upbeat fun after last week’s dark sobbery, but that wasn’t what I got at all. In some ways, this was an even bigger downer. Which I will be spoiling, by the way, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know.
Does this mean Merlin has finally come of age? Or, worse still, is this the angry puberty of the show?
The King Is Dead
The worst part is, they did this to me with complete self-awareness. I mean, look at the opening scenes: a stranger comes to Camelot! But he has dark intentions! Bright, colourful images! Arthur is half-naked, but the bottom rather than the top! And then, as the baddie makes his play to assassinate the Prince, things take a different turn.
Of course, after all the reviews complaining that Merlin can be predictable at times, usually in the exact way I just described, I shouldn’t complain about an episode that subverts those expectations cleverly. Nor am I surprised that it’s written by the excellent Howard Overman, of Misfits and Vexed, not to mention many of the better Merlins.
And then, to further torture us, they dangle hope in front of our faces and… well, in spite of the shiny images in the final moments, the bad guys kinda win don’t they? For a family show, there are some unhappy messages here.
Long Live The Topless Man
As well as being a nicely composed episode, this changes things for the future. Anthony Head is gone from the cast, which is a shame, although does answer questions I had about his future usefulness as a broken man in a rocking chair. And Arthur is now installed as new, often-topless monarch, which is a big change.
Meanwhile, Merlin is here using his elderly self as a secret identity for when he wants to do magic in public. If that becomes a habit, it could be set-up for a series ending where he gets stuck in that body forever? If the rumours about Merlin concluding with the end of series five are true, they would want to start setting that up.
But, back in the present day, this was a strong episode of Merlin, possibly better even than the quite-good two parter they opened with. Join me next week to see if they throw us a shred of happiness, just for novelty value. Or relive the misery on iPlayer, then let us know below about how it made you feel.
More Merlin on Dork Adore | Merlin: The Darkest Hour – Dork Review
Nick Bryan
Nick learned to read and write at an early age. This has developed into an unhealthy need to either write stories or consume them for later dissection. He reviews film and TV on Dork Adore and The Digital Fix, lives in London and enjoys a nice white beer.
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I think Bradley James gets more and more interesting to watch as an actor, as his character grows. Gwen, Gaius, and Merlin, on the other hand, seem, rather stuck…
They’ve definitely grown the most as actors, I used to find them both a little stiff and OTT in earlier series, but they’ve greatly improved. They do seem to be struggling to find much to do different with Gaius, and not sure what Gwen’s actual role will be. I guess this is why they’ve been accelerating her relationship with Arthur, since she’s running out of excuses to be in the castle.