The Pitfalls of Adaptation in BBC’s Merlin
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
English
Faculty Mentor
Jo Koster, Ph.D.
Abstract
The BBC’s Merlin is a bright, active, and charming modern take on the stories of King Arthur and the Round Table that are so adored by Western art. However, in this paper I take a critical look at some of the adaptational missteps taken by the writers of Merlin through comparison to Chretien de Troyes’s “Perceval, or the Story of the Grail” and sections of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur. These missteps include the inherent problems with removing religion from the hyper-Christian medieval Arthur without replacing its role in the legends with a comparable modern ideological stance; the television series’s halfhearted attempts to produce both a retelling of the love among Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere and create a passionate love story that will enrapture modern audiences; and the overall lack of narrative cohesion that is Merlin’s ultimate downfall as both an adaptation and a piece of art on its own merits. This critical take on BBC Merlin is meant to demonstrate that the television series’s lack of strong commitment to new narrative and modern morality undermine its attempts to appeal to a secular audience. The completed paper has a length of 2,487 words and can be delivered in under twenty minutes.
Course Assignment
ENGL 307 – Koster
Start Date
21-4-2017 3:00 PM
The Pitfalls of Adaptation in BBC’s Merlin
West Center, Room 219
The BBC’s Merlin is a bright, active, and charming modern take on the stories of King Arthur and the Round Table that are so adored by Western art. However, in this paper I take a critical look at some of the adaptational missteps taken by the writers of Merlin through comparison to Chretien de Troyes’s “Perceval, or the Story of the Grail” and sections of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur. These missteps include the inherent problems with removing religion from the hyper-Christian medieval Arthur without replacing its role in the legends with a comparable modern ideological stance; the television series’s halfhearted attempts to produce both a retelling of the love among Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere and create a passionate love story that will enrapture modern audiences; and the overall lack of narrative cohesion that is Merlin’s ultimate downfall as both an adaptation and a piece of art on its own merits. This critical take on BBC Merlin is meant to demonstrate that the television series’s lack of strong commitment to new narrative and modern morality undermine its attempts to appeal to a secular audience. The completed paper has a length of 2,487 words and can be delivered in under twenty minutes.
