After spanning an impressive five seasons and standing as one of the best adaptations of Arthurian legend that didn’t actually have his name in the title, BBC’s Merlin was a gem of a fantasy series that came to an end an unthinkable 17 years ago. Looking back, the show’s co-creator and writer, Julian Jones, has shared his thoughts on where he believes the series went wrong, and it turns out the first season had some noticeable issues in his eyes.
Speaking to The Ladies of the Lake podcast (via Radio Times) about the show, which starred Colin Morgan in the titular role as the magical pal to Prince Arthur (Bradley James), Jones confessed there were some calls he regretted making pretty early on. "I mean, we made a lot of bad decisions. Is that too harsh? I don't think we made the right decisions in the first [episode],” Jones said. “We shot them in blocks of three, and that first block… I think what happened was we were able to have a look at that, and in seeing it, we were able to go, 'Okay, oh, now I'm beginning to see the show and then the episodes that follow.’”
