Tweets for Today

[rj_anderson]

• 22:49 My back aches. :( #
• 09:14 Saw MERLIN 1x03 last night. Okay, officially in love with this show now. #
• 09:15 @achuka Snickers... flapjacks? Dare I ask where this recipe, if recipe it is, may be found? It sounds so wrong, and yet... #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Comments

[ewein2412]

ack, MERLIN???

no accounting for taste!

so.. um. have you seen David Tennant and Peter O'Toole in Casanova?

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

MERLIN falls into the category of "so wrong it's right" for me. I would be more intellectually committed to a thoughtful quasi-historical treatment which pays more attention to the sources, as opposed to a fairy-tale mashup in which Merlin is essentially a total geek (albeit a likeable one) and all the usual character roles are turned on their heads.

On the other hand, it makes me curious as to how they're going to get all these characters to slot into their usual places later on in the story (Guinevere the blacksmith's daughter? Not interested in Arthur at all? For real?) which could actually constitute Clever Plotting and Character Development.

At least Arthur only behaved like a spoiled royal brat with entitlement issues for one episode. I don't think I could have taken much more of that.

[ewein2412]

i would have watched the whole thing just to see how the story slotted in, but unfortunately we fell behind in episodes and i just lost the momentum. I had a really hard time with the triteness of the dialogue and the flat characters... it kept making me squirm. and, you know, they're all so dim. GAWD.

also, that evil serpent knight character, whatever he was called, was played by a guy that i know best as a real deadbeat 20-something off a sitcom called "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps" (which is, woe is me, my favorite show). So the whole time he was on stage I was like, DUDE! It's the GAZTER! which is not really anybody's fault, but I had a hard time taking him seriously.

but you really do have to see Casanova.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I find the dimness endearing, since they are (in that sense) such believable teens.* Even though they manifestly aren't teens for the most part, or are within a whisker of not being teens anymore.

What I find harder to take is the way in which the combats against CGI monsters are so badly edited and full of fail. Especially Arthur and his Oh-So-Specially-Trained Knights of Camelot facing off against the griffin in "Lancelot". Basically it consisted of Arthur poking a spear randomly in the direction of the CGI griffin who was nowhere within range, while the other knights stood back and... well, I am still not sure what they were doing. Not anything useful, to be sure.

Ah, well, I grew up on DOCTOR WHO, I can handle terrible special effects. :)

* Which is certainly not to say that all teens are dim, but that the emotional cluelessness of the MERLIN characters is of a kind appropriate to their age and inexperience, rather than to the kind of basic raw stupidity that can affect you at any age.

Except for Uther. He really IS dim and has no excuse. But he is played by Anthony Stewart Head, which helps to make it a little less tooth-grittingly frustrating.

[ewein2412]

I have a low tolerance for CGI monsters even when they're GOOD.

Except for Uther. He really IS dim and has no excuse. But he is played by Anthony Stewart Head, which helps to make it a little less tooth-grittingly frustrating

I think he does the Prime Minister on Little Britain, which is my favorite Little Britain sketch. Every time he comes on I want this guy to be Prime Minister. He doesn't even have a name.