Merlin

[Pinky]

Merlin is still running in some countries, but I think most of us have made it through all 5 seasons and probably got the DVDs if we got tired of waiting. There are other forums completely devoted to the show Merlin, but since this forum has such a wide variety of interests, all the Merlin here will probably go into this thread to start. Please don't post any shopped photos of characters' heads onto nude models here. I'm ok with spoilers.

Merlin grew on me slowly. I'll say more later.

[Pinky]

[Pinky]

One of my fave Merlin fan made videos.

[JadenOfAlbion]

Okay, I like it. Off to a good start!

[Pinky]

At the time of this post, there are already 47 views on this thread and there is hardly anything here yet and no one else posting... Somebody likes Merlin.

I'm in the US, so if it hadn't been for the Syfy channel, I would never have seen Merlin. Syfy and BBCA are the better ones for bringing outside stuff in, otherwise we're in a little bubble over here thinking nothing else exciting is going on in the rest of the world, which is very far from the truth. The most exciting TV year I ever had was 2012, hanging on twitter for live tweets from Pierrefonds during season 5 filming, and San Diego Comic Con. I don't think I slept more than 20 hours in 3 weeks during that. And then I couldn't wait an extra 6 months for season 5 to get to US fans, so I live streamed straight from BBC One and watched in real time with fans on the other side of the world. Christmas 2012 was emotionally exhausting as the series ended, and I was all over getting 2013 calendars and a t-shirt long before season 5 aired here.

So here we are, it's a year later from when I jumped into twitter and discovered the joys of live real time world fandom, and I'm finally coming up for air from continual Merlin immersion in 'feed' via twitter, tumblr, facebook, and youtube. I've pretty much seen it all, it's been the most satisfying fan experience I've ever had, and it has forever changed the way I view entertainment. I am no longer a passive fan waiting for tidbits when networks schedule them into my life. I aggressively seek out what I want when I want it, and I am discovering a way bigger world than network execs had led us to believe existed.

Just to be clear, I'm not a noob to fandoms. I've been running around lists and forums since the early 90s. I'm not even going into all that.

So everything that can conceivably be said about the TV show Merlin and all its characters and what should or should not have happened and the fanfic and fanart and fanvids have saturated the internet, and now the show is over for most of us around the world, what is there left to say? For me, the best part was the fans. I. Love. Fans. Fans are so creative and loyal and fun and amazing, and they team up and share stuff or they break into camps and have fan wars, and they create a whole new culture that breeds such a nostalgia that years later just a memory can bring a warm fuzzy tear. And that's what Merlin is for me.

I don't move in and out of fandoms very easily. I'm usually a late comer because I'm a foot dragger at every new thing, and then I fail to move on very well because I like something so much that I don't have a need to replace it. Merlin may have officially ended on Christmas of 2012, to the wails and consternations of thousands of fans, but as long as I have a full set of DVDs to marathon any time I want, it's never truly over. I have been through so many series endings in so many fandoms, they just don't phase me any more. If anything I'm becoming more picky and more loyal than ever, and if no one ever made a new TV show again, I'm content with what I have. And I have never felt more fulfilled by a series than with Merlin.

There are Farscape and Stargate fans out there growling that this makes me a traitor. Far from it. Merlin just went a little deeper into the personal depths for me. I think it did for a lot of us.

I'm not going into the details here, but I should have another kiddo in my life about Colin's height, looks, and just a wee bit older. I used to wonder how fans get so 'insanely' attached to actors and the characters they play, well, I had a chance to learn that last year for myself. It's very personal stuff, but sometimes something happens and you break a little, and you patch over with a borrowed bandaid and keep it together. As I went through this myself, it finally made sense to me what I was seeing in other fans who get a little more intense than is probably psychologically healthy. Fortunately I knew exactly what was going on with me and had help and I'm doing very well, but not everyone gets that. I've already written articles on the benefits of mythology in our lives, the way we use stories to help us figure out who we are and how to handle problems and decision making, but soon I'll be writing more from my new experiences.

At any rate, I'm not an exclusionist. I like the whole show, all the characters, all the actors, the story, the way the creators and directors handled it, everything. I've seen a whole lot of Merlins and Arthurs come and go in the entertainment world, this version is my favorite, and I'm really glad it happened.

And now I'm going to go get busy doing something. Maybe I'll come back later with more stuff. Feel free to jump in and say stuff with me.

[Pinky]

Not taking sides on 'ship' issues, just really loving that someone made a Merlin vid for one of my favorite songs.

[Pinky]

This video is a fantastic representation of the world wide enthusiasm and overall support I've seen in the Merlin fandom. It's one of my favorite videos and picks me up out of any funk, any time.

[Pinky]

I think one of the strangest things I've seen come out of internet fandoms is the tendency to group up and titillate each other's frustrations. I think it happens in every fandom regardless of who the actors are or what the show is about or even what the viewer's lives are like. The thing that remains the same is that sex sells, and that the viewers either catch the subtext and go crazy or miss the subtext and simply just geek out. Either way, the driving force is carefully crafted on screen for maximum response, whether the viewer is aware of the emotional entanglements or not. This is becoming so formulaic over the last decade that a wide variety of new shows out there feel the same to me, no matter the setting or genre. And once a show wraps up, I watch the frantic herd mentality move on to the next show for another group frustration fix. This has probably always gone on, but now with internet making it so easy to watch fandoms en masse, it's getting easier to see how the chain yanking results in high dollar sales.

Lurkers who know me from way back know I don't get involved in fanfiction and photoshop manipulations. There are some remarkably gifted fans out there who create some pretty cool stuff, and some of them go on to near celebrity status themselves doing that, but I made the decision many years ago to avoid that path. Besides the anonymity of internet making strange bedfellows of both the very old and the very young, it's also weird watching fans mourn their lengthy dry spells while they hole up in dark rooms over a glowing monitor creating or reading phrases together. I find the visual disturbing. If you don't understand any of this, you probably have a fairly normal life.

I said all that to say this made the Merlin fandom so much more fascinating. Just sitting back watching the fans angst and gnash their teeth was almost a sporting event. I sometimes find it repulsive, but in the Merlin fandom it was weirdly cute.

[Pinky]

After last night's blurb I feel the need to write something more positive about internet fandoms, because they're pretty incredible and changing not only the way fans find each other and interact, but changing the way tv shows are distributed and marketed. No longer are we hostage to CEO executives contracting airing schedules, and no longer are they bound to such limited venue themselves.

I think the key ingredient in fandoms is common ground, but there is something deeper and much more subtle going on. We find each other when 'real life' leaves us feeling alone in the crowd and insecure, and the warm fuzzies fill us up with something we can't seem to find in the faces around us at home or at work or school. Our inner dreams can creep out and blink in the light, we nurture each others' hopes and comfort each others' pains and fears, and we forge friendships we never thought possible in our daily lives.

One thing I'm noticing about tv shows nowadays is the way they tackle the hard stuff, the big emotional abysses that make us cry and ache and cheer along with the characters. I grew up on sitcoms and dramas, but rarely did a tv show cross a line into deeper spiritual meaning or the taboo of stepping outside a box. Nowadays formula depends on crossing the lines and jerking the viewers around because it spikes ratings and subsequently sales, but while they're doing that, we're hugging each other on the internet and dealing with our real stuff. The mythologies created in tv shows carve new roads for communication, yap around the water coolers as it were, and the common ground of the tv show gives us a launching platform for diving into our deeper stuff.

Again, if you don't have a clue what in the world I'm making a big deal about, that's cool, you're hopefully having a normal life without boats rocking too hard and tipping you out into the cold. That is what's wonderful about shows like Merlin, they're constructed to handle several different layers of fandom feels and thus retain much wider audiences than they might if they'd been less subtle. One very subtle layer that I don't see discussed much is the dream of Albion being handed to a serving girl out of the kindness of her king, which honestly flies so far under the radar that even racist Americans kinda missed it. And I just distracted a whole bunch of you from the other subtext. And before we argue about whether there is subtext in the first place, just remember that subtext of any kind sells more merchandise.

The wave of the future is remote friendships. Yes, we need and crave real life interaction. But while we transition into a faster paced world media market, we practice the deeper meanings online in big warm fuzzy fandoms.

[Pinky]

I think I'm going to start regular Merlin watches on Mondays starting 2nd week of September. Times might be variable but I'll mention on twitter when and what episodes. If you're interested watching with me, we can hang out in the chatroom here on syfydesigns, easy login with twitter or facebook.

[Pinky]

Merlin Mondays started today in my house. Every Monday I'm going to try to watch a couple episodes of Merlin, starting today with the very first two shows, The Dragon's Call and Valiant. So here we go.

This is the story about the kid who cuts through my yard every day. His name- Merlin.



The first ten seconds pretty much sells the show because it feels EPIC. See that mountain? EPIC. I was sold.



You just missed a squirrel running across the road. Merlin was talking to it.



So much of this series I can't get over how they just miss getting my house in some of these scenes. They could have shot this in the Ozarks and most viewers around the world would never have known the difference.



But I really love the woods, despite my lengthy diatribes on twitter about spiders, so yeah, I was hooked because they walk through the trees all the time.



My neighbor's house across the ridge. Ok, ok, this is the Ch?óteau de Pierrefonds in France, and yes, it's real. No, Merlin didn't just walk to France.



The forums allow only so many pix per post, and I'm still in the middle of watching, but I'll be back later with more commentary. If you have never seen Merlin or haven't seen it in awhile and want to see it again but don't own the series yet, check with Merlin on Yidio to see where all you can find it.

[Pinky]

Every show needs a badass and this one has Uther. King Uther. Arthur's mean ol' daddy. Hufda. I like Anthony Head, he's pretty badass himself.



Obligatory Colin close-up. This guy's HAIR has fans. Definitely not a bowl cut.



And right off the bat we get this awesome old lady who does witch stuff before our very eyes, and boy is she mad at Uther. Shegonnagithim.



I really like her sweater.



Intro Merlin as the classic sneaky type. I lost count through this series how often he poked his head around a door or peered through windows or snuck an eyeball around a corner. Very cautious sort of lad. And sneaky. Scott has plenty to say later in the series that cracks me up.



Hang on, getting more.

[Pinky]

If they were losing me at all after that epic mountain, they got my attention right back in Gaius' 'lab'. Details.



While a lot of fans undoubtedly froze their screens on the actors, I so constantly freeze set scenes that I think I'm wearing grooves in my disks. I mean, the bunny mask, right? And who wouldn't want to poke around all that stuff? I love sealing wax and elixirs and I better stop already before I write an essay just about that table.



If you're as into the set designs and decor as me you can read more about Gaius' chambers but watch out or you could wind up stuck in lengthy discussions like this one about every shred of deep meaning in every scene. In the meantime, don't forget Merlin is still in the room.



I really liked some of the camera angles they got, made the show a lot more fun and interesting.



That's where I stopped, so now I need to resume the show.