Each year when the BBC launches a new series of its hit fantasy drama Merlin, we're told that the latest run will be the "darkest" yet - back in 2010, lead actor Colin Morgan was talking up the show's more adult third series and earlier this year the Irish star claimed that the fourth series had seen his wizard character "tipping over into a darker side".

Darkness and an adult tone seem to be something that Merlin aspires to - the show's co-creators Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy also indicated that the series "needed to grow... up a little bit" and - at a recent screening for Merlin's fifth series premiere - even admitted to feeling slightly envious of more 'adult' programming...

Capps commented that there are other fantasy shows in which "they can do exposition scenes where [characters] can be having sex, or [there's violence]", while Murphy went all out to confess: "We envy Spartacus."

Shine

But how dark is too dark for Merlin, or indeed for a series often seen as the fantasy epic's sister show, Doctor Who? How much should a 'family drama' cater for its younger viewers and how much should it allow for a more adult viewership?

At the aforementioned screening, Murphy and Capps seemed to suggest that a certain amount of growth was inevitable as the Merlin cast have grown older and the audience has grown with them; an issue which Doctor Who - with its ever-rotating cast - has never had to face.

"We're transmitting later - [the darker tone] is partly a response to that... and our adult audience is growing dramatically," said Murphy.

"That shift in time means you do have to think about the tone and make it a little bit more sophisticated, a little bit darker, for that slot," Capps agreed.

Shine BBC

It's clear though that there's a line to be drawn. It's arguable whether the addition of gore or sex would actually improve Merlin as a show and, indeed, as Capps argued, there's an argument to be made that the series would lose something were it to go full-on Game of Thrones on us.

"There's a certain sort of innocence... at the heart of the show and you wouldn't want to destroy that," said the writer. "If you go too dark, too sexual, too violent, you'll lose that innocence. Arthurian legend is full of incest, so that's where the line's drawn!"

So a more visceral, sexual, bloody Merlin is something we'll likely never see and in all likelihood that's probably a very, very good thing. But the show's tone and themes becoming more adult? That's something we've already seen in action and it's a change that, the Week in Geek would claim, has seen the drama go from strength to strength.

Shine

"There's always enough comic fun in an episode," Capps said. "[But] this year we don't necessarily have a big comedy episode like we did last year."

The humour in Merlin has always been one of its strengths, but anyone who remembers Richard Wilson mugging as a goblin-possessed Gaius in series three's 'Goblin's Gold', or a bewitched Uther (Anthony Head) marrying a troll in series two's tiresome two-parter 'Beauty and the Beast', would probably agree that the eradication of these 'comedy' instalments is no bad thing.

Yes, there's a line in terms of on-screen content that Merlin should probably never cross - the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight being named by Capps and Murphy as a storyline they'll likely never tackle, for example, since "deep, deep down, it's about sexuality".

And if there's anything we've learnt from certain other cult shows, it's that the addition of blood and nudity can sometimes make a show seem less adult, more juvenile. Merlin simply doesn't need it - but if being 'adult' and 'darker' simply means portraying a fun action-adventure storyline in a more serious fashion, then the Week in Geek is all for it.

Do you think Merlin would benefit from a darker tone? Or is the show fine as it is? Let us know below!

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