In Camelot, peace talks are being held between rival kingdoms. King Alined (David Schofield) arrives with his dogsbody jester Trickler (Kevin Eldon), determined to undermine the possibility of a treaty that will be detrimental to his war-orientated finances. To do this, they plan to enchant Prince Arthur with a love potion and make him infatuated with Lady Vivian (Georgia Moffett), the beautiful daughter of overprotective King Olaf (Mark Lewis Jones), to create a diplomatic faux pas. Complicating matters further, with Arthur enchanted and plotting to sweep Vivian off her feet, Merlin (Colin Morgan) mistakenly believes his master's interest lies with Gwen (Angel Coulby), whom he passes a love-note to, and when King Alined realizes Vivian doesn't fancy hunky Arthur... well, he's forced to bewitch her, too..."Sweet Dreams" was an entertaining wrong-end-of-the-stick comedy, nursed along by the usual mix of engaging guest performances, although I've personally grown tired of Kevin Eldon trotting out his unctuous underling schtick (didn't he play essentially the same character on Robin Hood earlier this year?) Georgia Moffett was a pleasant diversion, particularly when she was put under a love spell and allowed to sashay around the castle talking like a squeaky-voiced, besotted twelve-year-old. David Schofield was sadly underused as the warmonger King Alined, though, but I guess it made a change to have the villain essentially get away with their plot for once.
For me, the major failing of "Sweet Dreams" was how it felt like nothing we haven't seen before – particularly as it shared obvious similarities to the "Beauty And The Beast" two-parter: Merlin sought counsel from the digital-Dragon (John Hurt) and was given a similar solution to the problem (to break the spell the afflicted must have their true feelings made known to them), Trickler was the clichéd henchman we see every other week, and it all climaxed with another of those overplayed duels-to-the-death Arthur seems to accept with tedious regularity. So, while there was some good stuff cooking away on the sidelines (although even the Gwen/Arthur stuff didn't massively develop what we knew from "The Once And Future Queen"), most of this episode felt over familiar and humdrum.
Overall, "Sweet Dreams" was a big improvement over last week's debacle, but it was still below the high-standard this series was achieving until very recently. Still, it was watchable and innocuous fun for the majority of the time, and I'm sure a great many will have enjoyed it. I just feel like my time's wasted when episodes are retreading old ground so incontrovertibly, particularly as there are so many new and exciting directions this show could be taking instead. Hopefully the remaining three episodes will shift this series back into gear, pushing the mytharc and characters down fresh and exciting avenues.28 November 2009
BBC1, 6.05pm
written by: Lucy Watkins directed by: Alice Troughton starring: Colin Morgan (Merlin), David Schofield (King Alined), Georgia Moffett (Lady Vivian), Kevin Eldon (Trickler), Bradley James (Arthur), Anthony Head (King Uther), Richard Wilson (Gaius), Mark Lewis Jones (King Olaf), John Hurt (Dragon, voice), Angel Coulby (Gwen) & Katie McGrath (Morgana)
