By Will Barber – Taylor

Mordred finds himself torn between loyalty and love, but little does he realise that the path he chooses will shape Camelot‘s destiny.

Once again, Merlin has disappointed. In the episode in which the beginning of the end was prophesised and a story which would turn Mordred against Camelot, Merlin has once again frustrated its audience by not living up to the expectations and standards it has set in previous series.   Mordred turning against Arthur is one of the staples of the original myths (in the original myths he’s Arthur’s son) and it seems that the creators of the show have simply rushed it so they can get to the climactic battle between Arthur and Morgana which is annoying and disrespectful towards the audience. This episode, like the finale that follows it, has been built up throughout the entire series and to cop out in this way is counterproductive.

My second complaint is about Mordred’s love interest, Kara. Not only is she underwhelmingly written but not that well-acted either. The fact that she is effectively another Druid who hates Arthur just mounts up to the stack of reasons this series is wrong. If the producers were going to show Arthur’s final show down with Morgana then really they should have set this series several years later as opposed to three.  Merlin is meant to be like Smallville (A show based on the early adventures of Clark Kent before he becomes Superman) but like Smallville it falls into the trap of trying to show our main characters as we know them and very much messing it up. How can the producers support the claim that Arthur is the once and future King, when so many people hate him? The legends of King Arthur were meant to be about a united Britain under one very good King. However, saying that, if Arthur suddenly changed his mind and thought magic was good then we would be robbed of the scene that the series has been building up to since Series One: Merlin revealing to Arthur that he has magic.

Again, the acting is not outstanding so instead I shall talk about the effects. The effects during the scene in which Mordred has seen the death of his beloved and he decides to escape are very good. They do not look simply like a shaking camera and are obviously well put together and look as though Mordred’s feeling of loss is really seeping through and is shaking his cell to pieces. It is a shame that the story is not as good as the effects that are used to illustrate the story.

The Drawing of The Dark is not the best of the series, nor is it the worse but it nicely sets up the series for what should prove to be an excellent series finale.

Related articles

• Merlin: The Disir Review (theconsultingdetectivesblog.wordpress.com)
• Merlin: A Lesson in Vengeance Review (theconsultingdetectivesblog.wordpress.com)