Are you following the BBC's Merlin? Blogger John Cooper champions the current series of the young wizard:

Thoughts on the current season of Merlin so far

Now nearing the end of second series the current run of consistently solid stories has been pretty impressive stuff. While the first series was indeed a good start, it also seemed like a cunning marketing plan to blend the successful sub-genre of boy wizard into the new Saturday night spot carefully nurtured by Russell T Timelord. Season one was good, but wasn't exactly required viewing and some of the stories were a little pedestrian.

Series two has come on leaps in bounds in both character development and narrative as if producers Julian Murphy and Jonny Capps, bitten by the failure of ITV's Demons, have run off into a forest of criticism, sharpened their mission statement and come charging out again wielding scripts and a point to prove.

From creepy child Mordred snuffing out guards to a very original two-parter with a troll and some great guest stars in Colin Salmon, Charles Dance and Emilia Fox as Morgause, causing a violent confrontation between father and son in “Sins of the Father”, there's been plenty to chew on down in ye-olde Camlelot.

The core of the show has been nailed in the performances of the main cast: Anthony Head's Uther Pendragon is a wonderfully balanced performance of a king ruling with an iron fist and horribly one sided view of sorcery, yet managing to find enough shreds of compassion to make you care about him. While Richard Wilson as Gaius pulls out all the stops when he's tortured by a witchfinder, and when the witchfinder is the deliciously harsh looking Charles Dance, who seems like he brought his own costume from home, it's telly drama as rich and sweet as chocolate cheesecake.

Colin Morgan has become increasingly watchable as Merlin with a natural desire to use his powers, if only to make horses out of smoke (admit it - if you could, you would too), and more so when he's given open ended and ambiguous moral dilemmas to deal with. I'll be honest I've yet to warm to Bradley James as Arthur, who has been perhaps a little too smug and posh at times.

I'm not sure how accurate the characters or portents are to established Arthurian folklore, apart from the obvious conceit of "Merlin and Arthur – The Early Years". But unlike the recently departed Robin Hood, the style and tone of the show fit like a glove and have developed some real depth as evidenced by evolving dialogue between the two main guys, where the young men seem to be slowly relinquishing the master/servant relationship, in favour of a genuine friendship.

Lets just hope those all important ratings do well enough for a third season.

Are you enjoying Merlin? Hit us with your thoughts below. SFX's own reviews will appear in issue 191.

This blog is a personal article by comedian and writer John Cooper, who (by the way) is coming to perform at the SFX Weekender.