Brent Hartinger's blog

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this recent post over on The Spearhead (an online magazine by and for straight men).

Okay, this is a little embarrassing, but NBC aired the season finale of Merlin last night, and I realized for the first time just what an incredible hottie Bradley James, who plays Arthur, really is.

I remember seeing him for the first time during the pilot and thinking, "That's who they cast as Arthur? That's one half of the couple all these British hoyay-lovers are going crazy over?"

Finally!

NBC aired two episodes of Merlin last night, and after ten episodes, they finally showed one with a fair amount of hoyay (or gay subtext).

I confess I'm still getting used to this whole "hoyay" thing. Gay subtext, I understand. But projected gay subtext where it can all be in the mind of the viewer? That's ridiculously open-ended, isn't it?

Still, even on the "wishful thinking" front, there wasn't much hoyay between Merlin and Arthur in "Excalibur," last night's episode of Merlin (although Merlin did admit, "You could say there's a bond between us").

Still, there were some serious Brokeback-Camelot sparks flying between Arthur and King Uther, who said to him, "You mean more to me than anything I know — more than my own kingdom, and certainly my own life."

Granted, the characters are father and son, which is admittedly very creepy, but if fans of Supernatural can overlook the fact that they're supposed to be brothers, I can overlook that.

And did you catch the way the Black Knight was eyeing Arthur?

So in "The Beginning of the End," last night's episode of Merlin, Morgana and Merlin have to decide if they should hide the creepy, but telepathic druid boy who King Uther, since he hates all things magic, is determined to execute.

Morgana, her magic awakening, feels an intense bond with the boy — but I think a large part of her excitement comes from the fact that it's the eighth episode, and she finally has a substantial storyline.

At the beginning of "The Gates of Avalon," last night's episode of Merlin, Morgana has a vision that Arthur is being drowned by an evil sorceress.

When no one takes her vision seriously, she says to Gwen, "I'm going to have to try to stop it myself!"

Bruno, the movie that everyone has an opinion about, is tanking at the box office. It made a mere $8 million at the box office this past weekend — an almost-unheard-of 73% drop from the weekend before.

"The Friday-Saturday data show that Bruno was not even the top live-action comedy about a non-American who has sex with a man," wrote Richard Corliss in Time. "It finished behind The Proposal, which has been in theaters three weeks longer."

*Deep extended sigh*

It looks as if Merlin is yet another one of those shows that has a few terrific episodes ... followed by a complete stinker.

Last night's episode, "A Remedy to Cure All Ills," was that stinker.

Yet another evil magician, Edwin, attacks Camelot, this time disguised as a healer. Honestly, Uther's "ban" on magic is turning out to be about as successful as the U.S.'s war on drugs. (Except, unlike the war on drugs, Uther's War on Magic also puts the kingdom at a huge disadvantage when it comes to taking on their magic-using enemies!)

A familiar faced showed up on last night's episode of Merlin, and it came accompanied by a very attractively hairy chest.

Lancelot!

Of course, in the Smallville-like world of Merlin, he is not yet a knight of the Round Table. Lancelot of the Hairy Chest shows up in Camelot, saving Merlin's life from a vicious griffin. In thanks, Merlin promises to help him become a knight.

Ever since grade school, my two closest friends have been a couple of straight guys — which is why I was so interested in an article in this Sunday's New York Times about exactly that topic.

Granted, my friends are bookish, geeky types. But they're straight, and I've always felt that I have far more in common with either of them than I do with your random gay guy. 

Anyway, a couple of things in the article really resonated with me.