O__o

[ewein2412]

my daughter is making me watch the whole second series of Merlin with her. OMG you guys it is so incredibly BOOOORRRRINGNNNNNNGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DO NOT UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!

the dialogue, the acting, the plot, the characters (or lack thereof)... it makes me want to slit my wrists. also, I find most of the actors very unattractive to look at (the girls are pretty enough, but they're ALL SUCH DRIPS!!!!!)

i really, truly DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

:ppppppppppppp

!!!!!1111!!!

Comments

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I know many people who love it, but I am baffled by its appeal as well! The whole second series, augh. I am so sorry for you.

[sovay]

!!!!!1111!!!

Oh, dear. That sounds dire.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I like it. I have only seen part of the 2nd season, because I was watching it on Youtube and the BBC is rabid about removing their content, to the point that the episodes wouldn't even be up for 24 hours.

[ewein2412]

that is true. it is a pain. part of the reason I'm getting this overdose is because i've put it off all season and now we only have about ten days left in which to watch 6 episodes.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Alas, to be living in such an unpleasant alternate universe! In my universe, MERLIN is unevenly scripted but overall quite entertaining and sometimes genuinely moving, and everyone is quite attractive, albeit in a normal-people kind of way as opposed to a Hollywood kind of way. Also, it sold me on the Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot relationship for the first time in my entire history of reading Arthuriana, which is quite a feat.

That being said, not everything is for everyone, and I am sorry you are being forced to watch something you don't enjoy.

I am also sorry for the two-parter about the troll.

[ewein2412]

ack, the TROLL!

nope, we are definitely living in an alternative universe. Genuinely moving??!!!! what, when the incredibly unconvincing CG cat morphs back into a girl, right??? please.

I don't know why I don't like the looks of arthur and merlin. they are somehow a combination of too wholesome and too pale. some of the baddies are all right. (I have always liked Charles Dance.)

nah.

Pale

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

During the filming, the actors were given little video cameras to make "behind the scenes" and personal life kind of video diaries. I was unreasonably amused by the one where Bradley James (Arthur) removes an enormous spider from his bathtub, filmed by Colin Morgan. They set it free outdoors. CM says "The balance of the universe is restored." BJ: "What does that even mean?" CM: "I have no idea."
Two of the actors mention separately that during summertime filming Colin Morgan was required to sit in the shade because otherwise (in his words) the "pasty Irish boy" would get tanned or burned, leading to continuity problems, I suppose.

Re: Pale

[ewein2412]

oh, continuity problems--you mean like in the dying cat girl scene when I said to sara, "ew, what is that black spot on Merlin's cheek" and she said "what black spot?" And it had gone. And five seconds later it was back and she goes, "OH, THAT black spot!"

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've seen any of season 2. Saw only a couple of season 1, but didn't feel a need to seek out any more of it. Tony Head was pretty, though.

[ewein2412]

he IS pretty! and this is one of the reasons I can't stand watching it--I keep wanting him to do something GOOD or EVIL and he doesn't, he just acts like a lunkhead. (in both senses of the word "acts.")

I think it is the STUPIDITY of almost every character in the show that makes me squim. Actually, I feel this way about the Harry Potter series too. How can SO MANY CHARACTERS make SO MANY BAD JUDGMENTS every single time they are called upon to do anything?

gah.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

I did not understand why we were focused on these children stumbling around pretending they weren't doing magic, and pretending they didn't notice the magic, when there was this lovely grownup who looked really, really pretty in that cape. But I think I was not the target audience!

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

I watched most of the first season, but not really because I was especially interested it--more because my siblings enjoyed it and I wanted to be in on everything, you know? I liked some parts and not others... it was very 'meh' for me.

The siblings have gone on with season two, but I'm giving up. I just don't care enough.

[ewein2412]

I've seen more of series one than series two--was very excited about the show when it first came on the air (for obvious reasons) and was utterly bored out of my brain after the 2nd episode, so quit watching. now that my daughter is into it (the 9 year old boy can't sit thru 5 minutes) I have seen a bit more.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

I watched the first maybe three episodes of the first season and decided it wasn't worth my time. I'd kind of thought about trying it again, but I'm glad that I didn't bother.

[ewein2412]

yeah, that's exactly what i did. i'm doing this for sara now.

she keeps luring me on by saying things like, "MORGAUSE is in the next episode" or "MORDRED is in the next episode" or "CHARLES DANCE is in the next episode" or "A FLYING CAT is in the next episode"

but it never improves.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

Who is Charles Dance?

I sat through the second season of Lost for my sister, who kept baiting me with promises that it would get better again, and it did. But it had started off better than Merlin had.

[ewein2412]

britain's previous generation of cute actors.

he was in "Jewel in the Crown" and "White Mischief" and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. (Showing my age... I still find him attractive.)

[mhari.livejournal.com]

I know I am going to wind up watching the cursed thing eventually, just because Angel Coulby/Gwen is SOFA KING CUTE. But I expect to spend 90% of the time going "WHYYYYYYYYY".

(and then continue to hijack their faces for my own nefarious purposes.)

[ewein2412]

gwen is absolutely VERY cute. too bad all she gets to do is hang up dresses and occasionally avoid being eaten.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Every time I come in contact with it I lol uncontrollably like an immature boy hearing a sex joke and then I have to go put my head in a paper bag for a while.

[ewein2412]

you know, I expect this is a healthier attitude.

but Arthur of the Britons is just so much funnier AND so much better in every other way. And they have way more sheepskin.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Frankly if I want a nice, historically inaccurate version of Arthuriana I use Arthuriana itself. Alternately AKOTAS.

[ewein2412]

I feel I shouldn't need to point out that I have no problem with historically inaccurate versions of Arthuriana.... ya know?

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

I don't actually count yours as historically inaccurate, just because it's so historically correct for its canony thingy akflasjs please tell me you know what I mean.

[ewein2412]

i personally like to think of mine as definitive.

ahahahahaha

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Oh good! ^___^

[3rdragon]

I haven't watched it and so have no opinion, but I think that the above is the way everyone I know who enjoys watching it reacts to it.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

XD oh really.

[3rdragon]

Indeed. You have company.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Got me. I saw ten minutes once and that was quite painful enough, even if it did have Anthony Stewart Head.

[(Anonymous)]

Unfortunately i'm addicted. I've long ago gotten over the shoddy acting and as a 19 year old find the actors appealing. It's not true to anything but it's entertaining. :)

[marguerlucy.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'm entirely clear on your true feelings towards this series ;-)

What are some of your fave filmed versions of the legends?

[ewein2412]

I've definitely become a srs fan of this Arthur of the Britons which pays not even lip service to any canon I've ever encountered. I liked Excalibur back in the day... but I tend to be dissatisfied with most everything else.

I saw Richard Burton in Camelot (in Lincoln Center) when I was young and impressionable and that was rather hard to beat. I've also seen a couple of amateur theater productions that wowed me--locally written and produced. A student group did a show in the Worcester College Gardens in Oxford that included an arm clothed in white samite rising from a real lake and handing Arthur a real sword. It was the most spectacular and convincing live special effect I have ever seen and to this day I don't know how they did it!

[ewein2412]

oh... let's call a sheep a sheep... definitely Monty Python and the Holy Grail wins hands down!