![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragojustineThing 1: There's been tons of interesting meta out there about Merlin, and the ways it's the next Not Very Good show- in particular, Skeevy About Gender Issues show- to captivate fandom. I'm up to ep 8 or 9, and I like it immensely; it can hold up to a fair amount of meta discussion of Arthurian legend (might I recommend this one?) and allegory and such, and it's a ridiculous amount of fun. But I don't love it, and after 9 episodes, I expected to.
See, for me, liking a text and loving a text aren't quantitatively different things, they're qualitatively different. Merlin so far is missing the fundamental thematic draw, the zing, the magic thing that turns fun to love. For everything I love, there's at least one of those magic elements, and that enables me to overlook practically any amount of truly terrible race or gender issues, or cheesy effects or lousy dialog or questionable acting. When a show loses track of that essential zing, I start rapidly being less able to overlook the problems (Supernatural, paging Supernatural), or I shunt the show off to the box labeled "fun but not worth engaging with."
Basically, it's this: If you ask me to beta something for you, the first thing I will say is, "the more I criticize your work, the more I find it worth engaging with." So the fact that I'm not bothering to get all grrr about Merlin? Should tell you something.
Anyway, I strongly sense a long ramble coming about what those magic elements have been, in the past, and why Arthurian legend is solid magic for me but so far Merlin isn't, and what the zing could be in Merlin but the show is so far failing to give me.
Thing 2: I really really want this vid. I've never had a vid bunny before. (Okay, I don't think saying "Somebody should vid 'Only the Good Die Young' for Jack and Daniel!" really counts, because it's dreadfully obvious, and I don't think "Somebody should vid 'Gonna Raise Hell' for Sam and Dean!" should count, for the same reason)
I want a gateverse vid set to "We're not Gonna Take it," all about the non-Earth peoples. Seriously. I want lots of shots of Teal'c and the Jaffa rebellion, and the free Jaffa, and the Jaffa of birthright, and the rebel Jaffa of The Warrior (and then shots of them taking down Imhotep). And I want Teal'c in Continuum (because that's really important to his character to me, that he would fight the Goauld even without the Tauri). And I want shots of Teyla and the Athosians, and the Athosians getting angry at Lantean suspicion, and Teyla kicking Wraith ass. And I want Ronon, and Ronon's revenge in Sateda, and Ronon and his Satedan band on the hive, and Ronon with his training camp in the Last Man.
Bonus: Sha're hiding her son. The Genii, Jonas defending Kewlona, any other awesome inhabitants of either galaxy you can come up with. (Not the Nox or the Tollans or anything- the ones who are actually fighting).
There are three points to it, really. First, the inhabitants of both galaxies aren't going to take it from the Wraith and/or Goauld. But also, that they aren't going to take it from the Tauri- shots of Teyla and Ronon beating up John, Teal'c in conflict with the SGC leadership (during Crossroads and Warrior and other places I'm forgetting) and leaving to lead his people, Ronon giving pissy glares to the IOA people when they doubt him, shots of Teyla being frustrated in the Lanteans for not doing more to find her people. And, thirdly, there's a bit of a snarky undertone that we aren't gonna take it from the show writers. For this, I'm seeing that horrible camp set up in Misbegotten and shots of Teyla in captivity and the Athosian hybrids. And the line, "if that's your best, your best won't do" pretty much has to be the Ronon/Teal'c cage match.
I'm just saying, if I could vid, that's what I'd vid.
See, for me, liking a text and loving a text aren't quantitatively different things, they're qualitatively different. Merlin so far is missing the fundamental thematic draw, the zing, the magic thing that turns fun to love. For everything I love, there's at least one of those magic elements, and that enables me to overlook practically any amount of truly terrible race or gender issues, or cheesy effects or lousy dialog or questionable acting. When a show loses track of that essential zing, I start rapidly being less able to overlook the problems (Supernatural, paging Supernatural), or I shunt the show off to the box labeled "fun but not worth engaging with."
Basically, it's this: If you ask me to beta something for you, the first thing I will say is, "the more I criticize your work, the more I find it worth engaging with." So the fact that I'm not bothering to get all grrr about Merlin? Should tell you something.
Anyway, I strongly sense a long ramble coming about what those magic elements have been, in the past, and why Arthurian legend is solid magic for me but so far Merlin isn't, and what the zing could be in Merlin but the show is so far failing to give me.
Thing 2: I really really want this vid. I've never had a vid bunny before. (Okay, I don't think saying "Somebody should vid 'Only the Good Die Young' for Jack and Daniel!" really counts, because it's dreadfully obvious, and I don't think "Somebody should vid 'Gonna Raise Hell' for Sam and Dean!" should count, for the same reason)
I want a gateverse vid set to "We're not Gonna Take it," all about the non-Earth peoples. Seriously. I want lots of shots of Teal'c and the Jaffa rebellion, and the free Jaffa, and the Jaffa of birthright, and the rebel Jaffa of The Warrior (and then shots of them taking down Imhotep). And I want Teal'c in Continuum (because that's really important to his character to me, that he would fight the Goauld even without the Tauri). And I want shots of Teyla and the Athosians, and the Athosians getting angry at Lantean suspicion, and Teyla kicking Wraith ass. And I want Ronon, and Ronon's revenge in Sateda, and Ronon and his Satedan band on the hive, and Ronon with his training camp in the Last Man.
Bonus: Sha're hiding her son. The Genii, Jonas defending Kewlona, any other awesome inhabitants of either galaxy you can come up with. (Not the Nox or the Tollans or anything- the ones who are actually fighting).
There are three points to it, really. First, the inhabitants of both galaxies aren't going to take it from the Wraith and/or Goauld. But also, that they aren't going to take it from the Tauri- shots of Teyla and Ronon beating up John, Teal'c in conflict with the SGC leadership (during Crossroads and Warrior and other places I'm forgetting) and leaving to lead his people, Ronon giving pissy glares to the IOA people when they doubt him, shots of Teyla being frustrated in the Lanteans for not doing more to find her people. And, thirdly, there's a bit of a snarky undertone that we aren't gonna take it from the show writers. For this, I'm seeing that horrible camp set up in Misbegotten and shots of Teyla in captivity and the Athosian hybrids. And the line, "if that's your best, your best won't do" pretty much has to be the Ronon/Teal'c cage match.
I'm just saying, if I could vid, that's what I'd vid.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 04:25 am (UTC)I do.
But I have friends who call them weasels.
(I use 'weasels' for particularly tenacious bunnies)
:)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 04:32 am (UTC)(For Merlin, I'm finding that the pretty basically makes up for everything else. And even if there were no pretty at all, anything that makes
no subject
Date: 2009-01-11 04:20 pm (UTC)I enjoyed watching the programme, as a light, family, Saturday evening entertainment thing; and I enjoyed what I thought was the writers having a little play-around with the legend, making everyone young, except grumpy old prejudiced Uther.
I think the reason it hasn't quite made me squee and want to join communities is that I feel it's ever-so-slightly aimed at kids. The actor playing Young Merlin hasn't grabbed me, and since he's the central character that's a shame; but I've got no issues with the skill of the players, or the writing of the show against all the various legends, and previous portrayals we've come to know and love.
(I think my favourite Merlin might be the one with Sam Neill, Miranda Richardson and Martin Short - but don't tell anyone!)