Having successfully pulled off a second series that deepened its character's relationships, the stage is set for Merlin to launch into a third series that pushes this fantasy to the next dramatic level. Unfortunately, a lot of the good work in "The Tears Of Uther Pendragon" was dragged down by the show's adherence to a formula I'd hoped it had evolved beyond. Merlin feels trapped between two audiences: the young kids and families (who just want an hour of magic and monsters), and the older crowd (who value the strength of the Arthurian legend and relish the potential for an epic emotional drama). It can never quite decide where to pitch itself, so it often ends up attempting both and dividing reactions. It's been a year since a dying Lady Morgana (
Katie McGrath) disappeared in a whirlwind with her evil sister Morgause (
Emilia Fox), having been poisoned by her friend Merlin (
Colin Morgan) as a last-ditch attempt to save Camelot. During that time, King Uther's (
Anthony Head) been scouring the kingdom for trace of his most trusted ward, and this episode opened with a weary Morgana discovered by Prince Arthur (
Bradley James) and his knights walking in the forest. Returned to the castle to recover from her ordeal, Merlin is worried about Morgana revealing his attempted murder, but she actually has more pressing concerns: the surreptitious theft of Uther's tears, to create an enchantment that will make the king lose his mind and open Camelot up to attack from Cenred (
Tom Ellis), a powerful rival of Uther who's in league with Morgause.
My issues with "The Tears Of King Uther Pendragon" boil down to how Merlin as a whole is guilty of following a stale template -- this essentially being yet another story where a central character's victimized by an evil force that's snooping around Camelot, with Merlin and Gaius (
Richard Wilson) painfully slow to realize magic's to blame for everything. For anyone over a certain mental age, it's annoying how long it took people to make the deductive leap that Morgana (a woman with clandestine magic who's been held captive by a sorceress sibling for months before escaped with little explanation) returned the same day Uther started hallucinating victims of his infamous Purge of magical-doers. It infuriates me how the writers willfully allow intelligent characters like Merlin and Gaius to fumble around just to stretch a story out. On the positive side, seeing Morgana as a fully-fledged villainess has been a long time coming and spices up a character previously pushed into the background too often. The mesmeric McGrath certainly looks the part, floating around in purple/green dresses like a Disney cartoon with eyes you can lose your soul in, although it's a shame her wickedness kept being signposted by Morgana constantly smiling mischievously behind people's backs, or over their shoulder during embraces. All that's missing is off-camera booing and hissing. It's definitely the clash of tone that irritated me about this premiere, particularly when it flies in the face of developments last year. This episode again featured Arthur almost bullying his manservant Merlin, which regularly forms the show's default "comedy moment" (preferably involving Arthur being shirtless to tick another box for the female demographic). The brotherly playfulness and banter between the characters can sometimes be fun, but after what the characters have gone through together (with Merlin proving himself an invaluable resource and sidekick by now), it doesn't make sense that Arthur still treats him as a cowardly cretin. It's the third series (the fourth year, chronologically), so they should be much closer by now; with Arthur treating Merlin more like a trusted confident, not a kid brother to pour buckets of water over and openly ridicule.
A few other tropes the show can't seem to shake off: magic that extends to glowing eyes and telekinesis, always performed in secret by Merlin during fight sequences, and climaxes that involve giant CGI insects? Both present here. Even the show's disappointing reliance on the Great Dragon (
John Hurt) to solve a crisis made a surprise return, despite the fact that beast was seemingly pushed out of the picture in series 2's finale. Now it seems likely that Merlin will often summon the Dragon whenever he gets in a tricky situation (provided Arthur's not looking), ready for it to swoop down and incinerate any enemies. I sincerely hope the second part of this story finds a way to definitively end the Dragon's involvement in this show, once and for all, because it's really not necessary. Overall, "The Tears Of Uther Pendragon" improved once Morgana's plan was in full swing, there was more of a dark fairy tale tone to proceedings, and I'm optimistic series 3 will simply have to start moving towards establishing the traditional legend. But for all of its positives, it was extremely disappointing the sweep of the story was so hackneyed and the writers refuse to shake the tropes of its earlier years. There was a reason
J.K Rowling's Harry Potter became progressively darker and more mature with every book; her young readers were growing up in-between books and would have stopped reading had she not echoed their changing attitudes and emotional perspective with her own characters. Merlin could learn a thing or two from J.K Rowling.
WRITER: Julian Jones DIRECTOR: Jeremy Webb CAST: Colin Morgan, Bradley James, Anthony Head, Richard Wilson, Katie McGrath, Angel Coulby, Emilia Fox, Tom Ellis, Rupert Young, Alice Patten, Matthew Barker, Jake Phillips & John Hurt (voice) TRANSMISSION: 11 September 2010 BBC1/HD, 7.25PM
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