This episode will screw with you. I suppose it's not totally unreasonable to expect that Uther will eventually die, as he eventually dies in all Arthurian legend, because people die. It's fairly surprising that in an episode with so much campy "old Merlin", it would end with Arthur being crowned king.
But there you go, I just spoilered this entire season / series / episode / life for you if you haven't seen the show. If you do want to start watching, it plays in the U.S. on Friday nights at 10pm on SyFy.
Continue reading "Merlin: The Wicked Day" »
If you missed it, last week we started recapping Merlin. We realize that it's the fourth season, kind of an odd time to start recapping a show. Will we recap the other seasons? Probably not.
And now for the exciting conclusion of "The Darkest Hour." Tune in to SyFy on Fridays at 10pm to continue watching this season as it airs in the U.S. (It's pretty terrific.)
Continue reading "Merlin: The Darkest Hour, Part 2" »
Guess what, kids. Over on Tumblr, Brittany, a fan of Merlin, does these Game of Thrones recaps that are hilarious. So we figured, since we've already seen Merlin Season Four, we'd recap it as a thank-you to Brittany for giving us something funny to read at work. Also it's for everyone who wants to enjoy our little jokes right after they've enjoyed the episode on SyFy. (Friday nights at 10pm.)
Continue reading "Merlin: The Darkest Hour, Part 1" »
I will be the first to admit that Laura and I talk about Merlin way too much. I don't even know how we keep finding new things to discuss. Although, to be fair, we somehow kept ourselves discussing Smallville for far longer than we should have. Since Merlin is supposedly based on the idea of Smallville (and it happens to be better than Smallville,) I guess it shouldn't be a surprise at all that we spend our free time planning ways to expand our love for Merlin and pizza to include the whole world.
Continue reading "Merlin Times: Coming to a Strip Mall Near You" »
The first season of Camelot ended last Friday, which means it's an excellent time to see how it measures up to TV's other King Arthur show, Merlin. This comparison will, of course, be completely fair, as I am completely unbiased. We will ignore the fact that Merlin has had more than three times as many episodes to find its footing. We will also ignore the fact that I really didn't like the first season of Merlin at all. You know what? I'll stop pretending this will be fair. This is not Fox News. Be warned though, there are some spoilers for both series after the cut.
Continue reading "Camelot vs. Merlin: TV Grudge Match" »
"The Coming of Arthur," (heh) Part 2 premieres Friday, April 8 at 10:00 p.m. on Syfy. Syfy will also run an all-day marathon of the third season of Merlin on Friday, starting at 8:00 a.m.
The episode presents the first glimpses of many iconic characters, moments and items in the centuries-old legend. From an appearance of the Lady of the Lake, the return of Lancelot and the introduction of Percival to the first appearance of the Round Table and the initial wielding of Excalibur, fans will be thrilled with this all-encompassing episode that ties together loose strings for the season, and leaves open the door for seasons to come.
More pictures and behind the scenes stuff (including clips!) after the jump.
Continue reading "Merlin Finale: Pretty Boys For A Limited Time" »
This is why DVRs were invented. Yesterday we posted a review of Starz channel's Camelot, which officially premieres Friday night at 10pm (EST). Today we post about its older, equally good and much more fun cousin, which also airs tomorrow night at 10PM, on SyFy. "The Coming of Arthur, Part 1" is the first episode of Merlin's two part season finale, and if you've been keeping up with the series, or are even a casual fan, you do not want to miss either part. Just don't get confused. I'm pretty sure there is some British porn out there with the same exact title. There's got to be, right?
Continue reading "Merlin Versus Merlin: Bring On The Sexy Times" »
In the behind the scenes promo Starz has been showing for its new series Camelot, Joseph Fiennes says, "I think people should watch this show because it's not a musical." If you have followed me at all here on the blog or through the podcast, you know that I don't consider not being a musical to ever be a good thing. But I watched the sneak peak of the premiere that aired on February 25th anyway.
Continue reading "Let us go to Camelot. It is a sexy place." »
I was just complaining yesterday about there not being a Willow sequel, and today I find out Warwick Davis is guest starring in tonight's episode of Merlin. If you haven't been watching the show, we're now on season three on SyFy (Fridays at 10pm EST,) and, to quote our CBQ BFFE, PattyBoom, "shit just got real." After the jump, we have a clip from tonight's episode, "The Eye of the Phoenix", and an interview with Wicket himself, Mr. Warwick Davis.
(On a semi-related note, as a kid it always messed me up that Brad, the dickhead from Superman III, was the dickhead soldier in Willow. Asshats can transcend universes? FREAKY.)
Continue reading "When you are drunk you forget that I am in charge! " »
In an interesting turn of events, Starz has decided to produce an Arthur show of its own: Camelot. It stars Joseph Fiennes as a bare-headed Merlin, and Eva Green as Morgan. (It also has Claire Forlani in it but let's pretend it doesn't.)
In the following "Behind the Making Of" clip, I draw the conclusion that it's the less funny, more dirty version of Merlin. Merlin for cable television, I guess. Although technically Merlin airs on cable tv in the U.S. (SyFy,) it doesn't really have a whole lot that would tip the scales to an "R" rating. I mean other than beetles that eat your brains and people exploding and unicorn murder and decapitations and stuff. Other than that, Merlin is a pretty tame show. There's not even any incest.
Camelot, on the other hand, gives me the feeling it's trying to play off the success of The Tudors, a show I still can't manage to stay awake through. (I'm still stuck on the third episode.) On the plus side, there's an actual sword in a stone and there is also plenty of pretty things to look at. On the down side, Claire Forlani no Bradley James.
Speaking of Bradley James, he had this to say about the possibility of a second Arthur moving in on his territory:
I’m quite looking forward to it actually. I’d quite like to see what they do with it because I think it sounds like it’s sort of something that is going to be very different from what we’ve done.
Clips to compare and contrast:
Continue reading "Dueling Wizards: Rock you like an Uruk-hai!" »
As far as I know, I am the only person in North America who watches Merlin. Objectively, I know this is not the case, since SyFy boasted some significant ratings for the show, but I have no idea who those people are. I think they might all be on Tumblr. Is it just me and a bunch of teenage girls? In all likelihood, yes.
This does not stop my enthusiasm for the show, or the fact that I was pleased to see that this side of the pond will not have to wait until the Summer for the latest series. Series 3 of Merlin only ended a few weeks ago in the UK, but it has already been announced that it will air in January on SyFy. The premiere episode, "Tears of Uther Pendragon, Part 1," will air January 7th at 10 PM. If you want to catch up on the series, SyFy has already begun re-airing series 1 on December 13th, and will have a marathon of series 2 during the day on January 7th. (For those interested in catching up or rewatching to get in the mood, I would also point out that series one is streaming on Netflix and both series are on Hulu.)
Here's what the press release had to say about what is coming up:
Continue reading "Camelot XC CC X" »
Since they've finally seen fit to send us some pretty pictures, I figured I could at least post them. Above is not-yet-king Arthur and some girl. Sadly, Arthur is not shirtless, but we make do with what we've been given. This is to promote this Friday night's episode, which is all wacky with love potions and stuff. After the jump, you can find another picture of Arthur and the executive producer talking about the episode and having fun with romantic comedy devices. There's also some information and a link at the end about a sweepstakes to win that hideous red scarf Merlin wears all the time. One can only hope that giving it away means it won't be adorning his neck in series 3.
Continue reading "Merlin Has Pretty People" »
Undoubtedly due to my glowing recommendation of the series (or the fact that we were already on their mailing list), we have received promotional material for the latest episode of Merlin, part two of "Beauty and the Beast," airing this Friday at 10 on SyFy. Mostly, I'm just amused by trolls, and the fact that Anthony Stewart Head, who will always be Giles (or the guy from the coffee commercials) to me, is in love with a particularly ugly one. Honestly, part one wasn't that great, probably due to minimal Arthur, but I think this week should have more of him and an appearance by the dragon with John Hurt's voice, the one unequivocally cool thing about the series, not to mention Giles staring lovingly at a troll. (It just makes me giggle.)
After the jump is what the PR material had to say.
Continue reading "Giles Loves Trolls" »
Series 2 of BBC’s “Merlin” premiers in the U.S. tonight on SyFy at 10:00 PM EST. You probably didn’t see series 1 when it aired on NBC this past summer, since only about 5 of us actually tuned in. That shouldn’t stop you from jumping into this “Smallville” inspired version of Arthurian legend now though. (Series 2 is way better anyway.) I’ll help you out. I can recap pretty much every episode of the first series right now. Some evil wizard tries to kill Arthur and Merlin has to save him without letting anyone know that he can use magic, because it is forbidden in Camelot. Occasionally, Morgana (the story’s future bad guy) or Guinevere (the story’s future fickle queen) will do something relatively unimportant, and towards the end of the season the writers seemed to catch on that Arthur was their most attractive interesting character and had more episodes focusing on him not playing the damsel in distress. Other stuff you might need to know: BBC totally chickened out on an Arthur and Morgana romance even though they’re not biologically related in this show; Merlin’s like twelve years old or thereabouts; Guinevere is a maid; Mordred is no longer the product of incest but some randomly evil Druid child; and Uther Pendragon is a huge douche, who will execute people with little provocation. (For those of you who never saw the John Boorman classic “Excalibur,” and shame on you if you haven’t, that last one’s a departure from the legend only in that in the legend, Uther was more of a huge douche who liked to rape women by impersonating their husbands.)
However, if you dig Arthurian legend, but formulaic plots, British hey-its-that-guys, and really cheesy special effects aren’t your thing, it looks like there’s plenty other Arthurian adaptations coming up.
Continue reading "In Short, There’s Simply Not, a More Congenial Spot" »
