Evil Smirk = Bad Script

Inspiration hit me this evening, hence the following incredulous squawk. I was overdue for one anyway!

I’ve not long finished watching the season 3 opener of Merlin on BBC iPlayer and whilst it’s not a wonderful series, it’s a guilty pleasure and generally a fun watch. That said, the script on this one called for Katie McGrath’s Morgana to perform an evil smirk almost every other scene the character appeared in. And in a Morgana-heavy episode, that’s a lot of scenes, and a lot of smirking!

Now for those of you regular viewers out there in telly-land, you’ll know that Merlin is supposedly savvy, as with his mentor and protector of his magical secret, Gaius (Richard Wilson), but I found myself wondering how it was that this already suspicious twosome failed to see Morgana’s evil grin. I mean she was doing it all the time! This was evil of the proudest pantomime tradition.

In fact, even ‘if’ our heroes failed to witness this overworked plot point, surely some of the numerous courtiers and castle guards would have spotted it. I was almost willing one of the cast to enthusiastically point with an ‘Ooooh! Evil! Look everyone, she did the evil look! We should burn her! Evil!!’ In fact it got to the point wherein I was pointing at the telly in some childish attempt to warn the King that his beloved Katie McGrath had been taking lessons from the Caruso/Shatner School of Acting. Come on Katie, insist on something better.

This is the digital age, not the age of stage. We have plasma TV’s and 3D Blu-Ray Discs. Gone are the days of the black and white talkies where actors ply their trade in the only way they know how, over-blown and obvious. Television and film allow intimacy and subtleties that theatre cannot endue without some git in the back row wondering that the hell is going on! So why do the production team on Merlin seem to believe that the viewing public need constant reminding of such nefarious intent of the most gratuitous kind? A four year old could figure out that Morgana is up to no good, or at the very least we are supposed to believe she is (allowing for the just as likely – mythology aside – misdirection and latter confirmation of her hero status, just in the nick of time).

Pick up your game, please!
TC