5 sci-fi and fantasy shows that disappointed fans

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Merlin

How do you refresh the King Arthur story? From Sword in the Stone to Excalibur to Monty Python’s Holy Grail, everyone has had a go at the legendary myth. One of the best adaptations has got to be BBC’s Merlin — a TV series focusing on young Arthur (a prince rather than a king at this point) and young Merlin growing up together in Camelot. It was dramatic, it was funny and it had a stellar cast including Colin Morgan as Merlin, Bradley James as Prince Arthur, Buffy’s Anthony Head as King Arthur and they even recruited John Hurt to be the voice of the Dragon. What could go wrong?

Nothing, for four seasons. The show rested on Prince Arthur not knowing that Merlin was a wizard-in-training, but with the audience knowing that (as the legend goes) Merlin would one day be integral to King Arthur with his magic. Coupled with the evil plans of Morgana and Morgause, the series was always headed for an ultimate showdown where secrets would have to be revealed.

For five seasons the characters grew and developed, but Merlin was completely robbed of a real ending. It’s not like Merlin hadn’t gone to dark places before (Freya’s death still hurts even now), but to kill off Arthur before the two of them could even begin to reconcile with Merlin’s confession of being sorcerer just felt ridiculously cruel. Worse than this though, Merlin actually ends in modern times with Merlin walking alongside the lake of Avalon, waiting for Arthur to return.

On the one hand, this leaves the series open to return. Who wouldn’t want to see Arthur and Merlin in a modern setting, think of the possibilities there? But as the BBC had already announced the show was not going to be coming back, it seems like a bit of a cop-out.