Sorcery

I'm trying not to add too many spoilers because I know Merlin doesn't show on BBC America, and as a result Carisa won't be able to watch the current (and final!) series until the new year. However, I was going to write about this at the weekend and then got delayed, so didn't.

So with ten episodes gone, we now have only three left - as the final two should be a two-part finale, as they typically are and have been, this means that next week's episode should be the setup. This week's episode should be building up to it. Except that at the moment it seems to be wandering still.

We don't have a proper antagonist in this series. Morgana is sulking about in the background, walking moodily from place to place wearing a black cape and with only her raven for company - it's horribly cliched. Mordred is earnestly proving how loyal and reliable he is, which should leave the suspicion gnawing away at you as to his true motives, but instead is just rather boring.

Merlin himself is not exactly helping things on - his fixating on what might be happening is now taking at least half of the episode, as he sullenly wonders whether Mordred fated to kill Arthur is fated irrelevant of his moping around thinking about it and if anything he can do to stop it or only make it come to pass. It drags. In an amusing juxtaposition of plots, Morgana is having a similar sulk-fest in the opposite corner, as she harangues everyone and anyone for a clue as to who Emrys is. Considering that he's fated to be her doom and destruction, she seems pretty keen on meeting him.

Hopefully it'll pick up next week, and leave us with a good couple of episodes over Christmas to finish on a high. It'll be interesting to see how they resolve it, but it seems that all the story writing resources have been absorbed into the grand finale and the journey along the way has become a bit lacklustre.