Season three of the BBC produced series ‘Merlin’ comes out on DVD today (January 13th). If you haven’t seen this fresh take on Arthurian mythos and you dig that sort of thing, give it a shot. While a first reaction to a ‘Knights Of The Roundtable on Puberty’ might dismay you, this modern version of the story actually works. It’s a quality coming of age tale between the young wizard, Merlin and the boy who would be king, Arthur. ‘Merlin’ does a fantastic job at filling in the blanks of their early relationship and the destiny that binds them together. The stories, while not all that complex, are meant to entertain not educate and ends up morphing into something more real than previous incarnations or takes on the material. It has monsters, sword fights, morals, friendships, hardships, and on top of that ‘Magic’. I don’t think that I have fully appreciated a series like this in a really long time.

Now, while it would be AWESOME to get a review copy when these are DVD’s get released in the states (Hint, Hint BBC) I have NO problem with throwing down forty dollars for it and YES, I did pick it up today.

Hi, My name is Mark. And I am obsessed with the television show, ‘Merlin’. This is my guilty pleasure. My GEEKY guilty pleasure.

By definition a guilty pleasure is something that one enjoys and considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it.

We all have them. Whether it’s the shows that you feel like you shouldn’t be watching at all or the music that you are afraid to crank because it doesn’t fit with your pseudo hipster identity that you were trying to cultivate in your sophomore year of college. Even the thought of slumming every now and then, enjoying a pristine bottle of Boones ‘Strawberry Hill’ or some ‘Ancient Age’ on the rocks. Eff a bourbon snob.

A guilty pleasure may have craptastic, disconcerting, downright cringe-worthy components, but there has to be something to them to make me write an entire dissertation on it. These simple pleasures with no aspirations of higher art. All this delicious trash that just sucks you in. You know the kind– at least two horrible actors, no significant overall plot (even thought they do a sad attempt at one) and damn it, ever so much stupid charm. You might have started watching for the attractive people and the jokes, but really did stay for the plot. Of course you did, right?

Well, I did too. Guilt can be subjective depending on your perspective. I mean, you have to feel it in order for it to be a guilty pleasure. Yet, I feel none when I watch ‘Merlin’. When it’s bad it’s still got the mythology and when it’s good, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Forget bowing your head in shame. Cop to that show BEFORE the other person does it. From a certain angle, these shows could be decently plotted, well written, wonderfully acted and well executed. Or intentional camp and I love them for that.

If something gives you pleasure, OWN IT. Who cares what other people think! If they don’t like it or think is lame, tell them they are ‘So, 80’s TV movie of the week’ (I like some of those too).

So there, I’m going to eat Doritos in my bed all day, Watch this new season and then dance around like a fairy in the shower to Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’. Is there something wrong with that?

-Dagobot