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Atlantis and merlin are both British fantasy-adventure television programs. They
air once a week on BBC channels. They are both set in non-fictional times/
different eras. They mainly focus around one character such as Jason from
Atlantis and Merlin from Merlin however they have individual character storylines
that continue throughout each episode. Merlin is no longer airing but Atlantis has
just finished airing their second season. When doing primary research I found
that Atlantis was created to fill the gap left behind by Merlin, which was created
and produced by Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy. This duo, plus Misfits creator
Howard Overman, then produced Atlantis through their new company Urban
Myth Films. Both programs revolve around one character having to overcome
new enemies and protect the city they love. Along with this comes lies,
deception and heart break.
Although both have very similar storylines, Atlantis story starts off in the modern
day. Jason, the protagonist of the show, goes on a one-man submarine to
investigate a deep sea disturbance that resulted in the disappearance of his
father when he was a child. When he discovers the location he heads down to
investigate, the submarine begins to fail and he is pulled into white light. When
he wakes up he has ended up on the shores of the kingdom Atlantis, which is
ruled by a traditionalist, King Minos and his power-hungry, manipulative wife,
Queen Pasiphae. Jason is taken in by two unlikely friends who help him battle
many fights to come. The three of them encounter monsters, gods and
demigods, as they live the Greek myths and battle to do well and protect the
innocent. Along the way, they pick up some allies including Medusa, a palace
maid, Ariadne, daughter of the King and heir to the throne, and a mysterious
Oracle, who seems unsurprised at Jason's arrival. The Oracle predicts a worldchanging destiny for Jason if he stays on the right path.
Merlin is very much similar as they both have a destiny to protect the city of
Camelot and the people in it but merlin has the ability to perform magic as he is
a young warlock, this becomes very hard as he discovers that the king, Uther
Pendragon, outlawed magic twenty years ago in an event known as the Great
Purge and imprisoned the last Dragon deep under the kingdom. After hearing a
mysterious voice inside his head, Merlin makes his way to the cavern beneath
Camelot where the Great Dragon tells Merlin that he has an important destiny: to
protect Uther's son, Arthur, who will return magic to Camelot and unite the land
of Albion.
When Merlin meets Arthur, he believes that he is an arrogant bully and Arthur,
likewise, has a less than stellar opinion of Merlin. After saving the prince's life
Merlin becomes his servant and the two begin to respect and trust one another.
Merlin eventually becomes close friends with Arthur, and another servant named
Guinevere. But when Uther's actions eventually cause his ward Morgana to turn
against Camelot, Merlin must work together with the Once and Future King to
save Albion. This has quite a lot of interesting plot line to it as it was set in a time
where black people where seen as nothing but yet throughout the series we get
to see that Arthur has feelings for Guinevere who is black. She later becomes his
queen in the later series which is uncommonly known.
Both TV series have strong female characters as well as the men, I think this is a
beneficial factor as it can appeal not only to the male audience but just as

equally to the women of the world. Although there are two main characters in
both TV series I would say that they are both multi strand narratives that link in
the end, By juxta-positioning the strands the audience will not only then be
worried about the action, but also the outcome of each strand and how theyre
related to each other. I think this because there are many different characters
storylines for example, Atlantis you have Jason and his destiny, Hercules and his
fight for Medusa and for everyone to see him as a hero, Pythagoras and his fight
to be seen not only as the weak and smart one also who seem him faces
challenges from his past. And in merlin you have Merlin and his fight to achieve
his destiny, Arthur and his feelings for Guinevere and becoming the future king
of Camelot, Morgana and her finding out shes a witch and turning bad.
Sometimes they add to a certain storyline as a characters might of seen
something that eventually changes their characters, so when a characters goes
from good to bad or the other way around. Sometimes they also drop storylines
with a false ending so somewhere down the line things start to unravel even
more keeping everyone on edge. This are put here to create more of a buzz that
eventually attracts more viewers. They also do stuff like this so that they are
different to every other fantasy program. Fantasy-Adventure shows conventions
are stuff like, the good against bad storyline, there is always one hero and his
friends helping him to overcome his challenges and to achieve his destiny. There
are also different characters storylines going on in the background to make it
more interesting to watch. For example Atlantis and Merlin are both set in a
different era where they wear weird clothes and they talk different and the
natural setting is just fantasy based, so castles and armies fighting and dragons
and monsters. Sword instead of guns and horses instead on cars.
They both have mean, powerful, driven characters that try to go against
everything that is good including trying to kill the hero. Game of thrones is also
like both of these as it is also set in a fantasy based era and has dragons, armies
and creatures of the unknown to fight. As well as having the bad characters we
always have at least one kind hearted and generous characters that make sure
everyone is ok before themselves. An important part of fantasy shows is not to
exaggerate. Both TV series are both made from some sort of mythology, Atlantis
has been made from the Greek mythology for example, Medusa, Hercules and
king Minos and Queen Pasiphae. Although they arent all perceived in the TV
series as they are in the books they resemble some sort of resemblance to the
book characters. Some of the story lines are just quickly resolved and some are
stuck out throughout each episode. In each episode of Atlantis and Merlin there
is always a new challenge for them to overcome whilst keeping the characters
individual storylines going, this helps keeps it entertaining for the audience.
In the opening title of the show Atlantis the colour has a black background with
the foggy/Misty look to it giving us that feeling of the darkness the show has to
overcome and yet the actually writing is in a bright orange/Gold to it. This make
me believe this is supposed to represent the light fighting the darkness a.k.a the
goo fighting the bad. The opening of Merlin also has a black background and
orange/gold colour for the writing so I thought this could represent the exact
same theme that Atlantis has. You tend to see quite a lot of fast moving scenes
especially when the fights are happening and these types of genres have chase
scenes two. Close up reaction shots are also helpful to give the audience a feel of
how the characters are feeling. Quite a lot of the time we see quite a lot of long
shot of locations to give us the feel of the place. They also use some over the

shoulder shots to introduce a characters but not reveal the face only the reaction
shot of the person who just seen them. They also use a lot of special effects to
add that fantasy theme to it so some shots have quite a lot of fast paced editing
to give it that tension building dramatic feel to it.
With Atlantis and Merlin the TV shows are set in the modern day. As its set in a
different era and is mythological and fantasy based the whole setting and objects
we see in the show isnt the kind of stuff we use nowadays. Also the soundtracks
used during the show have to been quite abnormal as its set in a different era so
the soundtrack is important as it gives us that fantasy feel to it.
The shows costumes and characters look is important as it makes the show what
it is and gives us that realistic feel to it. Taw shows costumes in Atlantis is stuff
like a brown ragged dress and sandals for the lower class people and simple
brown ragged brown dresses down to the floor for the lower class girls whereas
the higher class people wear bright coloured long extravagant dresses for the
girls with some sort of item in their hair and the guys would wear bright coloured
robes with some sort of rings or necklace.
When filming outside they could have most natural lighting and very rarely some
artificial lighting to give it more of that sunny look to it however when doing
intimate scene or a fight scene they might have dark lighting or warm lighting to
accompany the intimate scenes. Shots at night would probably be shot with
softer low lit lighting to give it more relaxing a calm environment to make it
seem that everything is ok, some shots at night have deeper lighting as they
have some activity going on in some scenes but usually night time has a mot=re
intimate and warm feeling to it.
Atlantis and merlin both have a high production value and was very popular.
Merlin was renewed for a fifth season which ended up being there last season
and Atlantis has just finished their second season. This is due to the publics
review to they programs. They were aired at like 8pm on BBC, this gives them a
wide audience as most people would have finished work by then. And if they
ever did miss an episode they could just catch up on BBC I player or they could
record it on their box and watch it whenever they wish.
The storylines usually run through the series and very rarely ever get resolved at
least completely. At the start of every episode it gives you like a thirty second
clip of what happened last time so new viewers can pick up on storylines and
important events the missed.
Atlantis and merlin has been said to get a lot of public reviews and the public
have said to love it. Atlantis reviewers say that it gives us a deeper look into
Greek mythology in a friendly way. They have also said that it is educational as
there are many storylines about Greek mythology like. Medusa, the Disney
Hercules and Jason and the Argonauts. Merlin is popular because everyone like
the strong characters who are easy to relate to in some sort of way. Merlin is also
educational as merlin id famous in books of King Arthur and the knights at the
roundtable.
In most TV shows there are gender stereotypes like the male is the strong and
masculine and the female is the weak and girly one. In Atlantis girls are treated
like fragile little porcelain dolls whereas there are quite a few strong characters
like Princess Ariadne who is the future ruler of Atlantis. In merlin there is the

same theme going on where there are strong women maybe even stronger than
the men. Merlin is also perceived as quiet and goofy instead of mainly and
arrogant. The men and women in both shows are very much beautiful and hot so
it gives the audience something to look forward to.