Black Dog Blog

I'm just getting into Merlin on BBC One, Saturdays. I'd taped a few (what turned out to be almost the whole series, apart from the first ep, I think) and hadn't got around to watching them. Over the weekend I watched three or so to free up drive space.

It's pretty ok for what I take to be a children's series. (No idea if it is supposed to be a children's series, but if I read it as such I don't get offended by being dumbed down at or by the main characters being young teens.)

The dialogue is jarring in places (a few Americanisms, lots of modernisms).

There is Dragon and because I missed the first episode or so, I don't know what its deal is. Dragon has a trendy chain and is suitably Dragonlike (in a sense Suitov would recognise, no less): mysterious, knowledgeable, given to talking in riddles and not always prepared to help directly.

There's a lot of heavy-clawed foreshadowing about Merlin and young Arthur and their shared destiny. I bet the fanshippers have been licking their chops over all that.

The magic is the real fun and I'm seizing at the little systembuilding details with pleasure. Hoping the 'magic language' they talk in is good old gobbledygook and not Celticese. (I strongly dislike Celtic stuff of any description. Too many trendy idiots get squiffy over it.)

All in all I'm enjoying the series surprisingly much, given that it's no exaggeration to say that the Arthurian mythos and derring-do with swords are two of my pet loathings!

It's probably a lot to do with who they've got playing Uther Pendragon. (DRAGON GEDDIT LOL? I sure did, an episode or two in…)

Dragon wallpaper and all sorts of other stuff on the programme website. (I don't know if I'm missing a gene or something, but despite working with and on the web constantly, I never really bother visiting programme support sites.)