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I just finished watching the fourth episode of NBC's new series Merlin and I think I like it. The show follows a young Merlin (approximately 17 or 18) as a servant of Arthur Pendragon at Camelot. The king, Uther Pendragon is played by the only actor I actually recognize, Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Repo), who plays a really wonderful mean old king who is extremely over-protective of his children and also hates the smallfolk (which includes Merlin) even though Merlin has saved his son's life approximately five times in four episodes... which is kind of the problem with this series. It's getting difficult to believe that Uther is going to keep spewing this hatred for Merlin even though the young chap has proven his faithfulness and dedication and trustworthiness time and again by doing a significantly better job at keeping his son alive than he seems capable of himself. Besides this constant conflict, we find the typical elements of television drama such as young romance, family conflict, trust issues, and fear of the unknown (generally in the form of magic). Unfortunately, the show lacks witty dialog and seems to feature fairly low-budget effects. Still, it's entertaining given the current drought of new programming and I'm a sucker for fantasy, especially in prime time on a major network.

3/5