Pair of Fives

Intro/Overview

Hey there, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've been running around Houston like a chicken with its head cut off and then visiting family in Dallas. Meantime, I've finished both Fringe and Merlin. I'm going to go ahead and review the fifth Seasons of both shows today.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen all of Fringe or all of Merlin, be aware that I'm horrible at keeping spoilers out of my reviews.

Fringe, Season 5 - Review

I'm really pleased we got to see the dark future from that one episode in Season 4. I loved Season 5. I loved Henrietta. I loved September. I loved seeing older Broyles. I want to gush and gush about this season and how awesome it was. I'm extremely glad Fringe went out on a giant high rather than dragging out forever and ever like some other series I could mention.

All of that said, I do have some issues with how some stuff was handled. I did not at all like Peter almost turning into an Observer. I understand he was grieving and all, but you don't just stick unknown tech from the bad guys into your head! I think I yelled at him through my computer screen for the entirety of those episodes. Peter is generally smarter than that. Hell, he yells at Walter about that kind of thing! I was so annoyed with him.

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about Walter randomly reverting to his previous persona. That didn't seem realistic to me, even in the admittedly unrealistic landscape Fringe has built for itself. Largely, though, that's just a niggle I had.

My last issue is timelines. Honestly, I didn't think about it while watching Fringe, but the entire timeline the Observers are working with is messed up. Unless they're jumping time tracks, there's no way they could be getting things from the future or even going back there, especially after that radical of a timeline change. Like I said, I didn't really think about it while watching and I know that "time is more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey...stuff" but it bugs me a little in hindsight.

Overall, I really enjoyed Fringe. The last season was like the last couple chapters of a good book. I did not want to stop watching for anything. I highly recommend that anyone who hasn't watched Fringe should go do so. It's brilliant.

Merlin, Season 5 - Review

So here's the thing, if you've ever been told the legend of King Arthur and Camelot you know what's going to ultimately happen at the end of the story. It's actually kind of annoying because, throughout the telling of the story, you're waiting for things to happen. When they don't or take an extremely long time getting there, you begin to get disappointed and you just want it to end already. That's what happened for me with Merlin.

Season 5 essentially takes us from post- Arthur and Guenevere's wedding to Arthur's eventual death. Because I knew going into Season 5 that it was the last season of Merlin, I spent much of the time wondering when exactly Arthur was going to die. That said, most of the suspense was taken away because a) I knew Arthur was going to die and b) I knew how he was going to die. Therefore I was quite annoyed it took as long as it did. Yeah, it was realistic for Morganna to make tons of attempts on Arthur's life, but the fact that a) it took so dang long to get to the actual death and b) no one was taking the constant threat to Arthur's life seriously bugged me to no end. I was ready for Arthur to just up and die by the middle of the season.

I wasn't at all pleased with the return and knighthood of Mordred. Yes, I knew he had to return in order to kill Arthur. Yes, I know that Mordred was a knight of the Round Table. Neither of these things mean I had to be happy about it. There's also the fact that you know he's a villain from the outset, even if the character himself didn't. Merlin's suspicion of him is, yes, founded mostly in prophecy. However, the viewer's suspicion of him is founded in the root legend. It makes all of his goodness, as it were, completely ridiculous.

I was also incredibly annoyed that Morganna was back. She annoyed me throughout the Season. I was even more annoyed when she showed up again in the last episode. I had honestly thought she'd died on the battlefield or at least that she wouldn't be showing up again. Morganna honestly went from being one of my favorite characters to one I wished would just go away in a matter of a season. Keeping her around as long as they did was annoying at best.

Speaking of the last episode, the entire last two-parter was too drawn out for my liking. This goes along with the whole "Arthur's going to die" thing. The fact that he stayed alive as long as he did was ridiculous. I also didn't like that Merlin was transformed into his older, more classic, self for the battle. That had me rolling my eyes. Yeah, it's classic but the Merlin of this timeline usually had to use an aging spell to look like that. 

My overall thoughts on Merlin as a whole are this: Merlin really would have been better served being a shorter, more adult, more realistic series than it was. It spent way too long getting where it was going. The villains were largely laughable and those that weren't were so annoying by the time they were disposed of. The only reason I stuck through the series was because I'm personally interested in Arthurian Legend. Seeing how things happened through another storyteller's eyes is kind of a thing in that regard.

Housekeeping

Now that the summer has really started up for my TV watching, I'm going to be slowing down a lot on blog posts. I know I said that before, but then there was the SyFy "spring" season so... yeah. I'm really slowing down the blog from here to September.

I am currently planning to hunt down Primeval: New World on my own to watch and I'll probably review that when I finish the series. Now, though, I'm off to finish watching SeaQuest DSV and Hemlock Grove.

Love ya, Jessie.