In Review: Merlin – Beauty & The Beast Part 1 (Season Two Episode Five)
Written by Ian Cullen on October 25, 2009 – 3:42 pm -
Synopsis: Uther is captivated by the beautiful Lady Catrina. His flirting appalls Arthur, and Merlin is wary – he suspects her to be a troll.
The Review: I have to admit that I was quite dubious about the initial trailers for this episode. The fact that it had a troll in it didn’t really help my initial fears given that in most things i’ve seen Trolls have usually been played solely for laughs, and never been all that smart.
Not here though and I think us getting to see Lady Catrina in Troll form upfront helped that, because once that initial oh she’s a troll moment was out of the way. He helped you as the viewer buy that Lady Catrina had an agenda of her own and was quite cleverly going about it.
This episode as the first Merlin Two Parter also feels like a good move. The episode had a nice build up and some nice pacing, and was very much an episode for the more mature cast members, which in its self is a good thing given that Anthony Head and Richard Wilson were given short shrift during the first four episodes where it was mostly the younger cast members taking the limelight.
Sarah Parish who plays the duel role of the Troll and Lady Catrina does a fabulous job and is evidently having a great time with it.
It was also nice to see an episode where it’s not Merlin that figures everything out. In this episode its Richard Wilson’s character of Gaius that figured things out, which in turn causes a breakdown in the bond between him and King Uther. When the latter is utterly besotted by Catrina and can’t see reason.
All in all a grand start to Merlins first two parter. Lets hope it continues next week.
Score 8/10
Related posts:
- In Review: Merlin – The Once And Future Queen (Season 2 – Episode 2)
- In Review: Merlin The Curse of Cornelius Sigan (Season 2 Episode 1)
- In Review: Merlin – The Nightmare Begins (Season Two – Episode Three)
- In Review: Merlin: Lancelot And Guinevere – (Episode 4 Season Two)
- Review: Merlin – The Mark Of Nimueh
Tags: Anthony Head, BBC One, Merlin, Richard Wilson, Sarah Parish
Posted in Reviews/Editorials, SF-TV & Movie News | No Comments »
