I FEEL REALLY GUILTY, OKAY, BECAUSE NOT LOVING MERLIN AS MUCH AS USUAL FEELS LIKE KICKING A PUPPY WHILE LISTENING TO NAILS DRAGGING ALONG A BLACKBOARD. BUT. IT WASN'T AS AWESOME AS I'D HOPED. D:

There is more positive stuff under the cut, I promise, I did love it and I love my show and I love the characters and I'm happy. I just - I could be happier.

( Le Chest d'Arthur )

As usual, longer and whinier and more ridiculous than I expected it to be, and I'm oddly conflicted. But, I have Rifleman Harris diaries to cheer me up, and there is nothing more delightful than watching Sean Bean in his Sharpe uniform, smoking a fag and listening to football results and reading Esquire. And spilling coffee over himself. El Beano, I love you.

Definitely the best Arthur/Gwen fic I've read so far: Sometimes I Forget I'm Still Awake by paperclipbitch. It's so rich and well-written, just the way I like fic to be, all thoughtful dialogue and gradual build-up of respect. Gwen is spot-on, in particular, everything she should and could be.

I'm shockingly on top of my to-do list at the moment, but behind on making useless observations about Merlin, so: ( Merlin chat behind here, spoilers for episodes 1x9, 1x11 and 1x12, and the extras. )

Also, that turned into much more of a ramble than I expected, and I'm useless at meta, so coherence and insight: not here.

EVERYONE ON MY FLIST WHO DOES NOT WATCH MERLIN (I THINK YOU'RE IN THE MINORITY, LOL), WATCH IT! IT IS THE MOST SATISFYING BUT SOUL-DESTROYING SHOW EVER, OK?

( SPOILERS FOR 1X10 - I THINK THE TITLE WAS AWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOME OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. )

Ahem. That turned out to be way, way more angsty and LONG than I expected. Oh, Merlin.

OMG, YOU GUYS, THAT WAS AMAZING!

Seriously, this show can do no wrong. I'm a state of awe. And it only grew at the National Lottery because Bradley looked hot, although WHERE WAS COLIN and why did Angel team those trousers with that top? Although her hair looked cute.

Hurry the fuck up, iPlayer team!

( SPOILERS FOR 1X08, K? )

Or possibly re-read moonythestrals's amazing Fratboy!AU, over here because even though I'm pretty sure everyone and their mother has read/recced this, it really is deserving of SO MUCH PRAISE.

I can't wait to read all of your reviews, guys, in much more coherent/insightful prose than mine!

And Siri, HE WILL BE FINE. You know what I mean. ;-)





Seriously, iPlayer, what is your beef tonight?!?!

ETA: As soon as I posted, iPlayer started working. Coincidence? Hmm.

BBC iPlayer, please don't fail me now! I need to do train of thought commentary because I can't keep still!

Before the incoherence begins, just know that I LOVED IT. If this episode was a person, I would marry it.

( Summary: Pretty, pretty, cool! Pretty, pretty, touching! LOL LOL LOL LOVE! )

Also, I was wondering if any of you think there would be an interest in transcripts of the episodes? Because I would be willing to do them - sit through the episodes? Again? What a chore!

Expo! After being totally disorganised (a theme that lasted throughout my weekend), I finally did arrange to go, and it didn't disappoint at all.

Firstly, meeting all you guys was fab, thisissirius, seektheinfinite, zeitheist, krazykipper and gossy16, you're all absolutely lovely and proved to be amazing at getting there on time, being first in the queue, and then (especially you, Sissi) fielding my calls of "Where am I? How do I get in? What's going on?" with total patience.

And the con itself! Everyone above has coherent and brilliant expo reviews, and I would advise going to them for beautiful pics of the panel - both Bradley and Colin were adorable and looking gorgeous. They both have amazing hair - why didn't at least ONE of us ask to run our hands through it?

Highlights I remember:

1) In the video, I swear there was a clip of Uther in full fighting gear - so I am so excited to see that in an episode soon.
2) Bradley makes as many hilarious faces in real life as he does when he is ACTING. He sat down and immediately knocked his mic, and froze for about five seconds with this genius oh-shit face, wide eyes and everything. He was very witty and funny and apparently has a psychic link with thisissirius.
3) Colin answering the question from the small boy at the front, who wanted to know where he got his powers (said in his lovely Irish accent so it actually sounded more like "pars") was possibly the cutest thing ever. He asked him where he got his powers from - the kid was dressed as Spiderman!
4) At the signing, Johnny and Polly were lovely and said that they were going to find out whether they were going to get a second series very soon, and also that they were really confident! Yay!
5) Asked Bradley how much of his horse-riding he did, while trying not to sound too much like a creep with a total kink for men on horseback, and he said he did as much as possible, and apparently had a 'knack' for it. Colin was adorable and I asked about his accent and keeping it hidden during the show, which I'm going to guess was a question he got asked a lot that day, and then they were very sweet and posed for photos despite the big sign on the wall saying that there would be none! There were no signs warning against inappropriate touching, though, and I do think we should have taken advantage of that!

Such a good weekend, and I have stolen internet access for more than ten minutes for once! I have managed to watch Merlin, too, but with a non-fandom friend so I don't think it had the full impact. I'll catch up properly tomorrow night. And, continuing the disorganised trend of my life weekend, I forgot to bring the paper copy of my fic (12,000 words rough draft, and I haven't had them kiss yet. It needs WORK.) to check over on the train. I suck. (Anyone good at brutal cutting?) But also, it's difficult to attempt to write an NC-17 slash scene while sitting next to a middle-class woman eating an M&S salad. It felt a bit scandalous!

I rarely post long reviews like this, but my brain has been taken over by Merlin and I'm really hyper tonight. I actually missed it on TV tonight, unexpectedly went to see a friend and ended up going for dinner, and then when I finally got back, avoided LJ spoilers, and pressed play on iPlayer, another friend called and stayed on the phone the entire way through! And I didn't press stop, because it was one of those conversations where I could just make the right noise at the right time and she was quite happy. And so I used my mobile to tap in a few random thoughts while the episode was going on. Then I went back, and watched the episode properly, and wrote a much, much longer commentary because I couldn't always make sense of the text commentary.

And so, TV reviews under cut. But I am waiting excitedly for reviews from other people who take the time and effort to cap stuff, like the awesome lonely_fajita (no pressure hon! ;-p), or all the other fab people on the Merlin comms who put real thought into what they're writing, not just, pretty!pretty!pretty!huh?pretty!touching!

( Short, barely comprehensible text commentary. )

( Longer - NO REALLY, STUPIDLY LONG - commentary. )

( Does ANYONE watch Silent Witness? )

Some icons from the first three episodes, building up to tomorrow's new ep - is everyone else so excited they could scream? Arthur going on a quest to save Merlin? If they do it as well as they've done everything else so far, I'll be over the moon.

Merlin has taken over my life recently, with all the slash and the cute!

Firstly, icons.

Examples

1	2	3	4

( It's my duty )

Secondly, ( Oh Em Gee! )

Anyway, Merlin is great and you should all go watch it if you don't already.

And while you're at it, possibly go and see Brideshead Revisited at the cinema. I wouldn't recommend seeing it if you haven't either read the book or watched the original TV series, because it really doesn't stay close to the actual themes. But it's gorgeously, gorgeously shot; I covet all of Julia's costumes, and the scenes that they do stick to are really well done. Ben Whishaw is a fantastic Sebastien, possibly equalling Anthony Andrews, and Hayley Atwell was pretty amazing too. It made me want to go read the book and watch the series again, which I purposefully didn't before seeing the film. But I mean that in a good way.