Merlin: Series 2 (2009)

Yet another series has recently come to an end on TV, this time is was the Saturday tea-time treat that is Merlin. Building on the foundations of the good-but-could-be-better first series, this time around Merlin felt like a much more entertaining, confident show. The acting was better, and the stories were more interesting, leading to developing characters and arcs, such as Arthur's falling for Gwen and Morgana's disillusionment with Uther.

Chief among the best parts of Merlin the series' growth is the blossoming of Colin Morgan as Merlin himself, he's just so good. His easy relationship with Bradley James' hunky Prince Arthur provides most of the humour and heart of the entire series. Theirs is the love story I want to see develop, not Arthur and Gwen's! There's such great banter between the two characters, and more than a little homo-erotic tension - and I know this isn't just wishful thinking as others have said the same thing. I particularly like the frequent excuses Arthur has to get his top off in Merlin's presence, and then there was that great scene when Merlin was hiding under Arthur's bed.

The problem with Arthur and Merlin's love story is that it's more believable and interesting than the necessary romance between the prince and Gwen, his future queen. I think the main fault here is that Gwen gets so little to do other than hand things to Morgana that she's vastly underwritten - it's hard to see what Arthur sees in her. Uther suffers a similar character flaw in that he mainly exists to denounce those who practice magic and to put people to death for the same reason. He's terminally grumpy - the few moments Anthony Head gets to lighten Uther's character are not enough. Why waste such a fantastic actor?

Luckily Richard Wilson is not wasted in his role as Merlin's mentor, Gaius. Aside from the Merlin-Arthur dynamic, the Gaius-Merlin relationship is both funny and touching, and Wilson shows that he can do dramatic as well as comedy. He's an expert with a raised eyebrow too! Morgana was under-used in the first series, and she was only occasionally the focus of series two's episodes, but towards the end she really made an impact as she chose her path, leading to Merlin's shocking action when he poisoned her.

Rounding out the regular cast - sort of - is the dragon. A strange character, as voiced by John Hurt, he spent all series 2 helping Merlin save Arthur (and Camelot) only to launch an attack on the place when Merlin was forced to free him in the last episode. Odd. I was expecting one of the main cast to die in the last episode, but it turned out that (although Morgana was magicked off somewhere to be tended to by her evil sister) the only death was Merlin's father, who managed about 10 minutes of screen time before snuffing it on the blade of a random knight. A bit disappointing, but it obviously gave Merlin the dramatic impetus to carry on and defeat the dragon.

Another slight disappointment with this series is that Merlin has not yet come out to Arthur. In terms of magic I mean. Hopefully next series Merlin will have the courage to let Arthur in on his secret without the prince reacting too badly. We'll see. The best episodes this year involved high comedy elements - notably the 2-parter with Sarah Parrish as a hideous demon disguised as a human who married Uther. Next year I want more of this, and more Arthur-Merlin bonding please!