Today I decided to give the series a look on Netflix. I am sorry I looked. First there is no effort made to make this appear set in days of old England. We see a clean, well dressed boy hiking through the woods and his clothing looks new and contemporary. This is suppose to be a younger version of Merlin.
Next we hear he is heading to Camelot.., wait what? Wasn't Camelot built and ruled by King Arthur and his knights of the round table? No. This one was built by Uther Pendragon and everyone was enjoying 20 years of peace. Beheading evil magicians and witches because they are bad. Maybe it is not the "real" Camelot? All the peasants looked very clean, there was a complete absence of filth.
Later in this first episode Merlin bumps into the King's son Arthur and... oh wait, he knew he was the king's son and the King had not died and left that sword in the stone? That's right! Next we see other people who shouldn't exist or exist in the wrong fashion. Lady Morgana you would know her as Arthur's half sister which he fathered Mordred. Thank God he didn't make an appearance!
Gwen was played by a black actress who was a maid, not a maiden, a house servant maid. Wasn't Gwen married to King Arthur and cheated on him with Sir Lancelot? Which at this point I thought Arthur was going to say to Merlin, "Dude! Let go down to the corner and hang with my best bud Lance.". Lance would then turn out to be of Asian decent.
Merlin then goes down to the dungeon to see the "evil" dragon imprisoned there by Uther. Cool! Not so cool, I try not to judge or rate CGI, but honestly people this looked like the dragon from the video game "Spyro". Paint it purple and orange and they would be twins! Then it told Merlin that it was his destiny to save Arthur and change the world.
Then minutes later Merlin saved Arthur. The End. What?? That is it? That was more than enough for me. I couldn't watch another episode knowing that this was no better than the ramblings of some 12 year-old child's version of the King Arthur and Merlin story.
Next we hear he is heading to Camelot.., wait what? Wasn't Camelot built and ruled by King Arthur and his knights of the round table? No. This one was built by Uther Pendragon and everyone was enjoying 20 years of peace. Beheading evil magicians and witches because they are bad. Maybe it is not the "real" Camelot? All the peasants looked very clean, there was a complete absence of filth.
Later in this first episode Merlin bumps into the King's son Arthur and... oh wait, he knew he was the king's son and the King had not died and left that sword in the stone? That's right! Next we see other people who shouldn't exist or exist in the wrong fashion. Lady Morgana you would know her as Arthur's half sister which he fathered Mordred. Thank God he didn't make an appearance!
Gwen was played by a black actress who was a maid, not a maiden, a house servant maid. Wasn't Gwen married to King Arthur and cheated on him with Sir Lancelot? Which at this point I thought Arthur was going to say to Merlin, "Dude! Let go down to the corner and hang with my best bud Lance.". Lance would then turn out to be of Asian decent.
Merlin then goes down to the dungeon to see the "evil" dragon imprisoned there by Uther. Cool! Not so cool, I try not to judge or rate CGI, but honestly people this looked like the dragon from the video game "Spyro". Paint it purple and orange and they would be twins! Then it told Merlin that it was his destiny to save Arthur and change the world.
Then minutes later Merlin saved Arthur. The End. What?? That is it? That was more than enough for me. I couldn't watch another episode knowing that this was no better than the ramblings of some 12 year-old child's version of the King Arthur and Merlin story.