Just announced for the NBC fall lineup:

MERLIN – “Merlin” brings to life a new legend for a modern audience. “Merlin” is an exciting, hour-long fantasy series set in the mythic city of Camelot — but inspired by 21st Century storytelling. Before Merlin (Colin Morgan, “Doctor Who”) and Arthur (Bradley James, “Lewis”) became legends, they were ambitious young men looking for adventure, hoping to live up to their family’s expectations, discovering love and finding their own true destiny, making mistakes along the way. The innovative, action-packed drama has cross-generational appeal and paints a picture of Merlin and Arthur’s early life that audiences have never witnessed before. Anthony Head (”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Richard Wilson (”A Passage to India”), Angel Coulby (”Magicians”) and Katie McGrath (”The Tudors”) also star. A FremantleMedia Enterprises distribution of a Shine production for BBC. Source

Now, I’m all for the proliferation of fantasy on TV. I’m also for giving the Arthurian legend a serial presentation, instead of trying to compress the whole epic into a two hour cinematic format. A thorough retelling of the whole tale could easily fill half-a-dozen standard television seasons.

But I’m also very, very nervous when anyone actually tries to do fantasy on TV, because if it’s done poorly it just means that much less of a chance that anything good will be given an opportunity to do it right. And then there’s the fact that no one has ever really done a great screen version of the Arthurian legend. Excalibur comes closest, but I don’t think it’s aged very well. As much as I love Monty Python and the Holy Grail I think it’s a little sad that it’s the best movie that’s been done. And as for television — well, let’s just not go there.

So I’ll be anticipating this with the same sort of trepidation as I waited for SciFi’s Earthsea, hoping for the best (hoping that phrases like “new legend for a modern audience” and “inspired by 21st century storytelling” aren’t as foreboding as they sound), but not really counting on it.

Maybe they’ll have pretty costumes and sets anyway. And horses. Horses are good.