Good take on the Arthur story. We've supplemented with "King Arthur and His Knights" by Howard Pyle. Good way to introduce differences in fiction. I'm on the border with the violence and some of the creature effects; however, both tend to be overshadowed by the positive and classic 'good vs. evil' role played out by the characters. From a Christian perspective, magic is presented as "...the old religion" but it is shown as being "practiced" and not worshiped. I would watch at least a few episodes so that you can address any concerns.

A fresh take on the story, and buffy-style monsters would have made this show fun to watch, had it not been for the HORRIBLE script. Everything you see in this show has already been seen before in Smallville or Buffy (which, thanks to it's brilliant script, is probably the best show ever). The only thing raising Merlin from shame is anthony head's sometimes brilliant character portrayal. Besides that, it's just not worth watching. It's too similar to the extremely bad show "legend of the seeker". Watch Buffy or Harry Potter 2 instead.

Okay, this show is beyond the best thing on TV nowadays, and not just for Englanders (I know, not a real word...). With the third season just ended, I'd say that the show is a bit darker, a bit more adult, however just as family like as it's always been. The good about this show, common sense wise and not opinion wise, would be that it does kind of have good role models. The would-be wise character, the Dragon, doesn't always give the best advice, but the good thing about that is that the audience realises that along with Merlin. Merlin and Arthur usually always make the right choices, despite the fact that the plot may move along faster if they didn't, and when they don't it is shown well that they made the wrong decision. Many of the characters on the show have shown numerous selfless acts, and the show, though it has tons of violence, has more of the swashbuckling sword fights than the gruesome reality fighting you'd see in a PG13 type thing. The romance is, let's face it, annoying. You can always tell when it is coming due to the music. Tons of kisses, but nothing bad. The worst thing I think I saw was a main character's (under a love spell) kiss, and it wasn't that bad at all lol. Lots of alcohol references, one character perhaps liking it too much, but that character actually got in trouble for that =P. Language is light, Merlin calls Arthur all sorts of made up insults that are quite entertaining, though there are a FEW uses of real curse words. Three people in my family watch this show, ages 16, 17, and 46, therefore I really wouldn't know how young exactly to go with this, but depending on your family, I'd say no younger than around 11, middle school age. Love this show :P.

My daughters and I watch the show together. I agree with the review above except that I think there are definitely positive role models. After the first few episodes, you see Arthur's character developing - he becomes much less of a bully and learns the value of loyalty to people regardless of their status. Merlin would do anything to help his friends and shows great strength of character, though he is young and sometimes makes mistakes. Also, one review below says there are a "lot of bad swear words." I have watched the entire first season and some of the second and I cannot recall one.

My husband and I watch this show regularly, and our kids occasionally--but this is because we have a 5 and 8 year old and they are frightened by some of the monsters. We have let them watch some of the more funny episodes. The story is fun, the acting is good and you are excited to watch the next one. There is violence, but mostly sword fighting and no gore. Of course, there is romance--but in a mostly very clean way. There are great themes of loyalty, tolerance, and courage in a fictional setting. Why isn't there more tv available like this? Watch the series from the start on Netflix. Beware if you record this on SyFy, the previews for the other shows are NOT kid appropriate.

I love the dragon

We all love it...such a nice change from the usual crap on tv.