It has an all-star cast, some superb effects - though also some weak ones - yet Merlin is upsettingly poor. Forgive what sounds like a childish exaggeration, but while I had looked forward to this very much, I came away from it feeling despair. The cast lives up to its reputation for technical quality but there's no feeling of character, no involvement. Everyone says exactly what they're thinking - sometimes even when there's no one around to hear them - and in case you should happen to miss the obvious, it's said to you in speech, underlined with pantomime gestures and then repeated in a voiceover narration. It feels strongly as though the cast were hired, the effects planned and the network broadcast slot arranged before someone realised that there should be a story. They didn't think of it in time. In the UK this show screened in two parts but I didn't even bother with part 2.