Merlin stars Doctor Who vet Colin Morgan as the eponymous wizard in a version of the Arthur legend that can be entirely encapsulated in three words: “Smallville meets Camelot.” It’s the sort of show that drives my sister crazy for all the seemingly arbitrary departures from the classic versions of the characters: Buffy’s Anthony Stewart Head plays a noticeably not-dead King Uther who hates magic and has trapped a John Hurt-sounding dragon beneath Camelot. Guinevere is a servant girl who pines for Merlin, and Lancelot is that guy from Heroes who did too much Heroin.

For all its weird reimaginings, Merlin is a fun bit of puffery, and it gets a bit better as it goes on. But like the BBC’s Robin Hood series, it feels trapped by its own formula (there are secrets that must never get out and so, of course, they don’t) and like Robin Hood, it never produces a moment as emotionally powerful as the ones we find in a good episode of new Who.

The first season of Merlin ran thirteen episodes and should be debuting soon on NBC. A second season has been commissioned by the BBC and it should show up on UK sets sometime later in 2009 or early 2010.

 

 

I’ll be honest. The main reason that I tracked down Moses Jones was that it features Matt Smith in a supporting role. (Matt Smith was recently tapped to take over the Doctor Who franchise in 2010.) Well, despite Smith’s prominence in the advertising, his role in the series is fairly minor.

But that’s hardly a knock on the production, which is first rate.

Moses Jones is a three-part crime drama written by British playwright Joe Penhall, centering on London’s Ugandan immigrant community. Doctor Who vet Shaun Parkes stars as detective Moses Jones, a Londoner of Ugandan descent who must reconnect with his roots to solve a bizarre murder. It’s a dark, moody piece with some great performances, including Shaun Parkes as Moses and Oz’s Eamonn Walker as Solomon, the series’ token tortured tough guy Ugandan band leader.

(Such a cliché! We get it, okay? Tough guy Ugandan band leaders have it rough. Play us a different song, already!)

TTTGUBLs aside, the one real fault of the piece is that it overplays the fear of the immigrant community. Without giving too much away, the villains of the piece cow their enemies for much of the series with little more than a hammer and a scowl. And, yes, they do some rather gruesome things with that hammer, but it takes entirely too long for the community to realize they have the numbers to stand up against their oppressors.

In one scene, two of the villains come looking for a witness who’s been put up at an upscale hotel. She’s safely locked away in her room, within arm’s reach of a telephone, but she’s so terrified of the villains (who haven’t even found her yet!) that she goes running out pass them into the hallway, desperate to get away. Cue chase.

Despite such lapses in logic, everything comes together in a satisfying way in the end, and everyone who deserves a comeuppance gets one. Which is not to say that it’s an all-together happy ending.

Not perfect, but worth watching for the acting performances alone. And Matt Smith does okay for himself with his limited screen time. Still trying to get my hands on a series called Party Animals, which I’m told is a better reflection of his abilities.

Moses Jones will presumably make it to BBC America eventually, but there’s been no official word just yet.

 

 

The best of the lot, for my two cents, is Being Human. This series was created and head writer’d by Toby Whitehouse who wrote the episode of new Who that brought back K-9 and Sarah Jane Smith.

Admittedly, the premise for Being Human sounds a bit like the set-up to a bad joke (or an even badder sit-com). To wit:

A vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost live together under one roof.

I know. But it’s not daft, I swear. The characters are fully realized, the mythology is well-thought out, the performances are all solid to great, and the scripts are funny when they’re meant to be funny and serious when they’re meant to be serious.

There are some “adult moments” in the series, so it’s not appropriate for the little ones, but unlike, oh, I don’t know… season one of Torchwood... these moments never feel awkward or forced. Instead, you get the real sense that you’re watching television created by grown-ups for grown-ups.

Odd, I know.

A number of roles were recast between the pilot and the first episode of the regular series, with all of the changes for the better. They kept Doctor Who vet Russel Tovey as George the Werewolf and added Doctor Who vet Lenora Crichlow as Annie the Ghost and only-guy-in-England-never-to-have-appeared-in-Doctor-Who Aidan Turner as Mitchell the Vampire.

The three co-stars share the screen brilliantly. Even Mitchell, who is explicitly “the cool one,” never overshadows the others when they’re all together. On other shows, there’s usually a character who’s less interesting than everyone else. You know, the character who gets you shouting at the television every time he gets his own sub-plot. “Get back to the characters I actually like, you stoopid teevee!”

(I’m looking at you, Heroes and/or Lost and/or Laverne & Shirley.)

Anyway, that’s never a problem here. All three protagonists’ journeys are equally compelling, and you get the sense that any of the three could be spun-off into his/her/its own series without losing an ounce of awesome.

The first season is six episodes, with a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. Except for a climax that’s ever too slightly drawn out in episode six (how many times can the same group of people enter and leave a single room?), the entire thing holds together quite well. Definitely my favorite piece of Brit TV since new Who premiered four years ago, and my favorite piece of TV period of the last year.

BBC America will be running the first season later this year. The BBC recently picked up the series for a second season, which should air in the UK sometime in 2010.