Episode II.I: The Curse of Cornelius Sigan
Join us, as we embark on Season 2 of BBC Merlin!
#DestinyAndChicken
Check out The List of Destiny to see where we ranked this episode and get in touch with your Lessons by midnight Tuesday next week to win points and climb the dragon scoreboard
We love hearing from listeners! Come talk to us on Twitter and Tumblr, or email us and please review us on iTunes.
If you wish to support us, you can do so from $1 a month via Patreon, or as a one off, by buying us a Ko-Fi or two. Thank you.
19th April 2020 @ 3:30 pm
I thought the whole breast in Arthur’s face scene in the courtyard was rather ridiculous. After all, people are dying and they have time for a romantic moment? Just no. I’m also really not a fan of how Arthur was treating Merlin this whole episode. It didn’t help that Colin had lost all that weight for Parked and he looked half-starved through most of this – making it look like Arthur was treating him so poorly that Merlin was starving and exhausted. I did like Cedric’s humor, though. The actor’s reactions were priceless!
8th February 2020 @ 8:52 pm
I already wrote in with thoughts but then I read Rez’s comment and thought more about how you commented on Merlin never being shirtless after episode 1 and I think I have an idea as to why? To me, both Bradley and Colin look slightly older when shirtless, especially with Colin in comparison with his usual loose clothes over his skinny frame – it seems ok for Arthur to look older, but I think Merlin is supposed to be younger than 20 at this point (could be wrong, just the impression I get) and his youth/naivety is an important part of who he is at this point.
8th February 2020 @ 10:16 am
My lesson is a lesson I learnt, that fan service (by way of shirtless scenes/low-cut dresses) is actually disservice. 😉 No really, I think about it whenever I write my own stories now!
Sure, we’ve seen both Merlin and Arthur shirtless in season 1 or had their looks highlighted somewhat, but those moments felt incidental, not glaring. It’s particularly frustrating with Arthur because we’ve been given a perfectly likeable, interesting (heck, intelligent) character in him, so the fan service seems overkill. Like the show runners don’t know their strengths, assets or their fans, to think the shirtless routine is needed (so often, as we’ll see). Over time, it feeds the Arthur as a dumb-jock thing and overrides that he is capable and interesting. Something Merlin isn’t subject to, even with his silly moments or shortcomings, because this particular element of fan service doesn’t apply to him.
On a positive note, I liked when Arthur tells Gwen ‘You always surprise me’. So the other lesson would be zeroing in on Arthur/Gwen, that true love is something subtle, someone winning you over surprisingly, as opposed to something world-shaking like Romeo-Juliet!
8th February 2020 @ 7:59 am
Hello Ruth and Michelle,
I’m so glad you are back now. I found your podcasts just before Christmas and have been binge-listening to them. I particularly enjoyed the drinking game. 🙂
Concerning your discussion how Merlin should have more efficiently stopped the arrow from killing Gaius, I think my main issue was that the edits and camera work just wasn’t fast enough to pull off the trick. It felt like the arrow took to long to get to Gaius so that Merlin had time to be extravagant. He should have just burned the arrow to ashes while it flew through the air. Done.
Here are some lessons learnt from the Sigan episode:
Arthur has learned not to leave his keys in easily accessible drawers, especially when his routine was to lock said drawer and then leave the key to the drawer in the keyhole. Instead, after this episode, he orders Merlin to fix some hooks to his cabinet where he can hang the keys in plain view of everyone, ready for some jangly Merlin anticks in seaons 4.
Merlin has learned that performing magic in the middle of the courtyard with a lot of people probably watching from windows, wanting to know how the tragedy is going to unfold, is okay. No one will see because no one will see. (Cue final episode of the season!)
The writers have definitely learned by now that using the dialogue line ‘I have no choice’ or a variant thereof must become a Merlin staple, a no-brainer in every creative meeting and a wonderful way to frustrate viewers by avoiding to face up to actual sensible choices that could be made by characters. (Sorry, I have such an issue with this line played on repeat throught the show – it’s so..lazy! I once made a list of how many times characters in Merlin ‘don’t have a choice’ and I think it’s used 17 times in season 2 alone.)
13th February 2020 @ 7:23 pm
I agree with your point about the arrow, I think they actually do themselves a disservice quite often on the show, by slowing stuff down, sort of for audience benefit, and sort of to show that merlin (in his mind) slows stuff down, except to me that never quite comes across, and it always just makes it really obvious, when their timing doesn’t quite work out or is just a bit lame. Burning it mid air would have been super cool!!