Merlin hid his magic for five seasons. That is the engine of the show, and it is also the thing that nearly breaks it. The BBC One fantasy drama ran from 20 September 2008 to 24 December 2012, created by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy. It took the Arthurian legend and made the wizard a teenager with a secret and a prince who needed saving more often than he ever knew.
Trailer, via BBC.
A warlock sent to Camelot
The premise is simple and it holds. Merlin arrives in Camelot because his mother sent him there, convinced his “special gift” meant something. He saves Prince Arthur’s life in the first episode and winds up as the prince’s manservant. That is the joke the show never stops telling: the most powerful man in the room is the one fetching the armor.
There is a complication, and it is the whole point. Magic is banned in Camelot by King Uther Pendragon. Anyone caught practising it is executed. So Merlin spends years doing the one thing that would get him killed, in the one place where it is a capital crime, for the benefit of a man who despises the art.
Colin Morgan plays Merlin. Bradley James plays Arthur Pendragon, prince and later king, commander of the kingdom’s knights. The two of them carry the series on their backs, and the friendship that grows between them is the reason to keep watching.
The cast around the two of them
Katie McGrath plays Morgana. Angel Coulby plays Guinevere, called Gwen, Morgana’s servant who later becomes Queen of Camelot. Richard Wilson plays Gaius, the court physician and Merlin’s guardian. John Hurt voices Kilgharrah, the dragon. Anthony Head plays Uther.
The show uses them well, at least at first. Gwen is spirited and brave, and the attraction between her and Arthur causes conflict within the court. Morgana’s arc bends from ally to enemy, and McGrath gets the most interesting runway of anyone in the supporting cast.
- 5 seasons, 65 episodes
- First aired 20 September 2008
- Last aired 24 December 2012
- Network: BBC One
- Genres: Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
The secret that will not stay kept
Merlin’s magic is a secret he keeps from almost everyone. Only Gaius, Hunith and Lancelot know. That is a small circle for a man who uses his powers constantly. He even invents an alter-ego, “Dragoon the Great,” by casting an aging spell on himself. As Dragoon he is a wanted criminal, and he terrifies Morgana, who recognizes him as Emrys, her prophetic nemesis.
This is where the show does its best work and its most frustrating work. The double life gives Morgan a lot to play, and he plays it. But the writers lean on the same trick for years, and the audience figures out the pattern long before the characters do.
By the end, the circle widens. Mordred, Agravaine, Morgana, Gwen and Arthur all learn about Merlin’s powers. The show had been promising that reckoning since the first episode, and it delivers it late.
Arthur, Uther, and the ban on magic
Arthur is the more interesting character on paper. He carries out his father’s harsh edicts, but the show writes him as a far more compassionate man. He stands up for people accused of crimes before the king, and he occasionally defies Uther outright. He welcomes commoners as knights: Lancelot, Gwaine, Elyan, Mordred and Percival.
He falls in love with Gwen, a serving girl, and marries her. He comes to regard Merlin as a close friend and confidant, never realizing how many times Merlin saved his life with magic. That irony is the show’s best running idea, and it pays off.
Arthur initially promises to lift Uther’s ban on magic when he becomes king. He changes his mind when he thinks magic killed his father. That reversal is the tragedy the series builds toward, and it is earned.
Arthur is prophesied as “The Once and Future King.” He is killed in the final episode, and the prophecy means he will rise again. The show takes that seriously enough to end on it.
A legend stretched across 65 episodes
Five seasons and 65 episodes is a lot of ground for a premise this narrow. The show was nominated for several awards and won the 2011 British Academy Television Award for best visual effects. Broadcasting rights were sold to over 180 countries, which tells you the reach it had.
The BAFTA is the award that matters most here. Visual effects is the hardest category for a BBC fantasy show to win on a television budget, and Merlin took it in 2011. Kilgharrah, voiced by John Hurt, is the clearest proof. A talking dragon is a hard sell, and Hurt makes it work.
Where Merlin struggles is repetition. The show finds a shape early, the secret, the rescue, the near-miss, and returns to it. Individual episodes are often good. Seasons are often too long. The middle stretch sags.
The cast keeps it upright. Morgan and James have the chemistry the whole thing depends on, and the show is smart enough to keep putting them in scenes together. Wilson’s Gaius is the conscience of the series. McGrath’s Morgana gives the back half a real antagonist.
The reimagining is loose, as the show’s own framing admits. This is not the Arthurian legend as written. It is a young-adult fantasy adventure wearing the legend as a coat. That is not a criticism. It is the most honest thing about the show.
What holds up and what does not
The central relationship holds up. Merlin and Arthur become trusted friends and companions, and Merlin spends years trying to influence Arthur into becoming the king he is destined to be. That arc lands, even when the episodes around it do not.
The magic ban holds up too. It gives every scene a floor of tension. Merlin cannot simply solve problems, because solving them openly would kill him. That constraint is good writing, and the show respects it more often than not.
What does not hold up is the pacing. The show takes too long to let its secret out, and when it finally does, the payoff is compressed into the final stretch. The reveal to Arthur should be the centerpiece of a season. It is not.
The show also wastes its own premise. Merlin’s powers are extraordinary, and the show rarely lets him use them in ways that change the board. He saves Arthur. He hides. He saves Arthur again. The cycle is the point, but it is also the ceiling.
The finale is the test. Arthur dies. The prophecy says he will rise again. The show ends on that promise rather than on the friendship it spent five seasons building. It is a defensible choice and a slightly cold one.
Merlin is a good show with a great central pair and a structural problem it never solves. It ran five seasons, won a BAFTA for its effects, and sold to more than 180 countries. It earned its audience. It also repeated itself until the repetition became the show.
The version of this story worth remembering is the small one: a servant with a secret, a prince who never looks closely enough, and a friendship that survives both of them. That is what Merlin got right, and it is why the show still has defenders 18 years after it ended.
7.8/10 from TMDB audience score (1,194 votes).
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