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tardis_stowawayTonight I:
(a) finished and filed my taxes. Go me!
(b) ate a large bowl of ice cream, but I have a nasty sore throat so it's medically excused.
(c) squeed a bit at the fact that there is NEW WHO NEXT WEEK!!!!
(d) watched two episodes of Merlin, "Excalibur" and "The Moment of Truth." A few random thoughts below.
Excallbur: No strange women lying in ponds distributing swords as a system of government in sight.The mysterious knight bursting in and offering a challenge definitely has hints of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." It would be cool if they visited the Green Knight story properly at some point. Meanwhile, if the wraith couldn't be killed by any weapon forged by man, the obvious solution is to get a woman to forge a sword. Gwen is a blacksmith's daughter; I bet she knows how. Eowyn could tell them that womanhood is a perfectly legit way to get around prophecies about ominous black-clad wraiths that can't be killed by man. If they'd gotten Gwen to make a sword, Merlin wouldn't have had to deal with the dragon's hissy fit when the wrong guy handled the sword it forged. Meanwhile, Gaius is, as usual, the most interesting character around and Uther gets some backstory.
The Moment of Truth: If this show was any slashier, it would spontaneously manifest Jack Harkness. Arthur totally disobeyed his father in order to go impress Merlin by helping Merlin's mom (and, not coincidentally, spend a lot of time sleeping next to Merlin). Merlin's mom sees the obvious and wishes those crazy kids luck. Meanwhile, Merlin's old friend Will really came across to me as an ex who still hasn't gotten over Merlin after Merlin moved to Camelot. It explains Will's initial hostility toward Arthur perfectly. Then he takes Merlin's secret with him to his grave. Awww. (Also, Arthur finally noticed one of Merln's uses of magic, even if he didn't realize that it was Merlin! That's a slight improvement from his usual total obliviousness.)
However, the real story here is the amazing badassery of Morgana and Gwen! They insist on helping Merlin defend his village when no knight in Camelot would step forward to help out people in need. They are bright enough to see that the village defense needs every fighter it can get, even if some of those fighters happen to possess ovaries. Gwen points out Arthur's bad manners, and Morgana is sassy to Arthur. Meanwhile, the ladies trade lots of significant glances and hugs while they stride around in trousers looking badass and in charge.
The barbarian leader looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place him. it bothered me enough that I looked up the actor on IMDB, and behold! It was Dr. Bashir from Star Trek: DS9! Merlin really does get an impressive variety of guest stars. This show is not exactly deep, and it occasionally makes me twitch at the lack of logic, but it sure is fun.
(a) finished and filed my taxes. Go me!
(b) ate a large bowl of ice cream, but I have a nasty sore throat so it's medically excused.
(c) squeed a bit at the fact that there is NEW WHO NEXT WEEK!!!!
(d) watched two episodes of Merlin, "Excalibur" and "The Moment of Truth." A few random thoughts below.
Excallbur: No strange women lying in ponds distributing swords as a system of government in sight.The mysterious knight bursting in and offering a challenge definitely has hints of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." It would be cool if they visited the Green Knight story properly at some point. Meanwhile, if the wraith couldn't be killed by any weapon forged by man, the obvious solution is to get a woman to forge a sword. Gwen is a blacksmith's daughter; I bet she knows how. Eowyn could tell them that womanhood is a perfectly legit way to get around prophecies about ominous black-clad wraiths that can't be killed by man. If they'd gotten Gwen to make a sword, Merlin wouldn't have had to deal with the dragon's hissy fit when the wrong guy handled the sword it forged. Meanwhile, Gaius is, as usual, the most interesting character around and Uther gets some backstory.
The Moment of Truth: If this show was any slashier, it would spontaneously manifest Jack Harkness. Arthur totally disobeyed his father in order to go impress Merlin by helping Merlin's mom (and, not coincidentally, spend a lot of time sleeping next to Merlin). Merlin's mom sees the obvious and wishes those crazy kids luck. Meanwhile, Merlin's old friend Will really came across to me as an ex who still hasn't gotten over Merlin after Merlin moved to Camelot. It explains Will's initial hostility toward Arthur perfectly. Then he takes Merlin's secret with him to his grave. Awww. (Also, Arthur finally noticed one of Merln's uses of magic, even if he didn't realize that it was Merlin! That's a slight improvement from his usual total obliviousness.)
However, the real story here is the amazing badassery of Morgana and Gwen! They insist on helping Merlin defend his village when no knight in Camelot would step forward to help out people in need. They are bright enough to see that the village defense needs every fighter it can get, even if some of those fighters happen to possess ovaries. Gwen points out Arthur's bad manners, and Morgana is sassy to Arthur. Meanwhile, the ladies trade lots of significant glances and hugs while they stride around in trousers looking badass and in charge.
The barbarian leader looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place him. it bothered me enough that I looked up the actor on IMDB, and behold! It was Dr. Bashir from Star Trek: DS9! Merlin really does get an impressive variety of guest stars. This show is not exactly deep, and it occasionally makes me twitch at the lack of logic, but it sure is fun.
