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Merlin

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Merlín: La serie. Reseña [spanish][English]@lap2022756d
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  1. ›Television Review: Merlin (1998)@drax1235d

    (source: tmdb.org)

    If you want to see how television production changed in last quarter of century, the best comparison can be found in different treatments of fantasy genre. One example that shows how the genre was covered on small screen is Merlin, two-part miniseries directed by Steve Barron and originally aired in USA on NBC network in 1998.

    The series is based on Arthurian legends and deals with someone who was traditionally used as supporting character. It begins when protagonist and narrator, famous wizard Merlin (played by Sam Neill), now an elderly man, starts retelling his life. His tale is set in semi-mythical 5th Century Britain when the Roman withdrawal, violent feuds between rival Briton chieftains and Saxon invasion created years of chaos and bloodshed. Mab (played by Miranda Richardson), queen of fairies, has another, more pressing concern. Arrival of Christianity threatens to make people forget their pagan Old Ways and thus erase fairies and other mythical creatures from existence. Mab’s plan is to stop it by creating a powerful half-human wizard who would stop Old Ways from disappearing. Boy named Merlin is born and raised by human foster mother Ambrosia (played by Billie Whitelaw) and grows up into man who is reluctant to use his magic powers. Reason for that is love that feels towards Nimue (played by Isabella Rossellini), daughter of local nobles. Mab tries to force Merlin to use magic and for that manipulates him from saving Nimue from dragon. She is terribly disfigured in the process and sent to island monastery of Avalon to recuperate. In the meantime, Merlin gets in service of three kings that each try to unite Britain under his rule – tyrannical Vortigern (played by Rutger Hauer), lustful Uther Pendragon (played by Mark Jax), and, finally, Uther’s illegitimate son Arthur (played by Paul Curran) who is the only one that proves to be good and just king. Merlin helps Arthur build Camelot and starts new golden age of peace, justice and prosperity but Mab uses magic to help Arthur’s half-sister Morgane Le Fay (played by Helena Bonham Carter) seduce his brother and the product of incestuous liaison is Mordred (played by Jason Dane) who would challenge his father and end Camelot.

    First thing that modern viewer might spot while watching Merlin is that the miniseries, unlike most of those with similar settings on today’s streaming services, is clearly family-friendly. This isn’t surprising, because it was originally aired on terrestrial network in times when censorship standards were much tighter. So, while Merlin has scenes of violence, it generally tiptoes around some potentially problematic themes like sex, adultery or incest. On the other hand, Merlin was very ambitious project, with budget around 30 million US$, which was quite high for television standards in late 1990s. It was spent on elaborate sets, costumes and other props that, to a degree, try to reconstruct how Britain, stuck between Roman era Late Antiquity and early Medieval period, might have looked like. Miniseries also features CGI special effects that, apart from scenes featuring a dragon, look decent for late 1990s standards. Like most adaptations of Arthurian legends, script by Edward Khmara, David Stevens and Peter Barnes takes a lot of creative freedom and by using Merlin as main character tries to give new interpretation to old myths in form of struggle between paganism and Christianity. Merlin’s story, which is, to a degree, original, however stands in the way of better known Arthurian tales that are treated almost like an afterthought and look quite weak in comparison what John Boorman did in Excalibur. The series is in the end made watchable mostly thanks to Sam Neill, who, despite being middle-aged, confidently plays character from his late youth to his old days. Miranda Richardson doesn’t waste her opportunity to shine again, this time in dual role of rather complex villainess Mab and her good twin sister Lady of the Lake. Martin Short provides good comic relief in role of Mab’s gnome henchman Frik. On the other hand, some other major acting talents are wasted, like Rutger Hauer who plays rather unimpressive villain. Fans of Game of Thrones would probably appreciate early appearance of Lena Headey who briefly appears in the role of Guinevere. Merlin, aggressively promoted as “television event” had excellent ratings and was later nominated for number of Emmys and Golden Globes, while not winning a single one. Despite that, in 2006 Sam Neill repeated role of Merlin in the sequel, two-part miniseries Merlin’s Apprentice.

    RATING: 5/10 (++)

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