Merlin - The Wicked Day - An Epsiode Review

Well, I can honestly say that I'm a bit relieved to see Merlin returning to its usual cheerful state this week, despite it being a rather dark episode on the whole. This week we see Arthur celebrating his birthday!

Of course, Merlin has matured as a series recently, and no longer holds with being just a fun program to watch on Saturday evenings. Naturally, there must be an assassin hidden among the performers that have come to entertain the kingdom, and naturally something will go terribly wrong.

When Uther is injured, Arthur resolves to turn to magic for help. Merlin points him towards an old shack in the woods and magically ages a hundred years to become Dragoon the Great. From there, things get progressively funnier.

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You heard me right. Dragoon the Great has returned! I have to admit that Dragoon the Great, ie Merlin in disguise as an old man, was one of my favourite characters in the original series. I believe he appeared in the first series when Gwen was to be burnt at the stake, but I may be wrong.

As Dragoon the Great, Merlin can finally get his back on a rather bewildered Arthur, who must suddenly obey this grumpy old man's every whim. Giving Merlin a piggyback ride was by far the best thing about this episode, at least for me. I laughed most deeply at the sight of this.

Unfortunately, the whole episode takes a rather unwelcome turn of events when evil witch Morgana interferes. This for me isn't the best thing ever to happen on TV, because I was enjoying the rest of it so much.

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I fear I must draw this review to a swift close, as I am short on time. Stories to write, programmes to watch, etc etc.

I shall give this episode a six and three quarters out of ten. It was sufficiently funny to return the light, merry air to Merlin in the first half, and the addition of including a fairly insignificant one-time enemy invented for a single purpose really brings home the original Merlin. However, the darkness brought in by Morgana's interference ruins the whole set-up. It doesn't so much balance it out as completely crush the scales upon which both sides are being made and catapult the lightness, merriness and funniness out the window and into the throat of a passing old woman named Gladis. Apologies to all Gladis-named people out there.

So, in short, it begins light and merry with a good fun enemy with obvious evilness and ill intentions, but gets progressively darker from there until it's as if you're wearing a blindfold. A good episode, but a balance must be struck.

I include the iPlayer link here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01692qr/Merlin_Series_4_The_Wicked_Day/