For months now, when I scroll the Reddit app, I get ads for the Daily Wire (?!)’s new show (??!!), The Pendragon Cycle: The Rise of the Merlin. I am low-key obsessed.

1. Why does The Daily Wire have a streaming service? Why is it making shows? What on earth could the other shows be like? I googled it just now and one of the founders is a film director, so I guess there’s a tiny connection. Maybe Ben Shapiro’s wife has a medical advice show.
2. Oh and that director is a co-director on this show, makes sense.
3. Okay I had heard of Lady Ballers, I didn’t realize that was a Daily Wire joint. I guess they saw a Rotten Tomatoes score of 47% and were like, the people need more movies from us!
4. Wait, what: “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (also simply known as Possum Trot) is a 2024 American drama film directed by Joshua Weigel, and co-written by Rebekah Weigel. Actress and activist Letitia Wright served as executive producer. ” (Wikipedia)
5. Okay, Possum Trot is the name of a city, I was really worried for a second.
6. Anyway, back to my main point. I’m not a huge King Arthur guy, so I have no interest in these books or watching this show, but I have read the Wikipedia and TV Tropes summaries multiple times because I am confused.
7. Why is it “The” Merlin? Like he’s a dude, right? It’s not a title? The summaries I’ve read suggest it’s about his plan, but wouldn’t like “The Merlin Gambit” or “Rise of Merlin’s Vision” or something make more sense? Did they name it like this so losers like me would get sucked in?
8. I have seen several iterations of trailers/ads, but only once did I see one that featured one of the actresses, who was like “hey cool check out this thing I’m in.” Were the metrics for that ad poor? Did the Daily Wire realize they were giving a woman a voice?
9. Yet two women who are styled like “influencers” are in several of the ads. Who are they? Do they work for the Daily Wire? One looks like she’s filming in an office space with glass-walled cubicles. Are they actual influencers or actual fans of the books?
10. Doesn’t the woman with the dyed red hair look kind of. . .woke???? Hmmm
11. One of the ads with an influencer lacks subtitles. Which is odd, because subtitles are smart; I’m not having the sound on while scrolling Reddit. But the previous ads did have subtitles. Did they realize they were being too woke and DEI?
12. I’ve only been able to discern two female characters in the trailers, and they both look alike. Coincidence?
13. And one of them has very prominent. . .cleavage. And is called “The Mistress of Lies.” hmmm
14. The red-haired influencer is like “OMG this looks insane!” The fight scenes do not look insane, they look pretty basic. But I watched a lot of Xena as a kid, so maybe I’m biased.
15. This description from Wikipedia also fascinates me: “The cycle was originally planned as a four-book series, but the original publisher opted to stop after the first three books, resulting in an abrupt ending to Arthur and the existence of many unfinished stories and plotlines; the first three books were thus originally called “The Pendragon Trilogy”. Lawhead moved to a new publisher a few years later, and it was decided to expand on the trilogy by finishing the series, with two additional books planned.”
16. Why did the publisher stop? Why “Cycle” instead of “Series”? “It was decided.” By whom?
17. “Avalon mostly follows James Stuart (the reborn Arthur), Merlin, and the fictional Prime Minister Thomas Waring.” But the books have a heavy Christian theme, and that’s a selling point in the trailers. How is someone reborn in the Christian mythos?
18. Also Atlantis exists?
19. Adding to that, how does magic exist in this world? I always get lost in the weeds; I’m willing to concede it’s just a show and I should really just relax.
20. This comment from TV Tropes haunts me: “Aerith and Bob: Similar to other historical-flavored Arthurian retellings, most archaic-looking names for people, groups, places etc. are based on Celtic, Latin, Germanic and other languages, sometimes with the author’s own spellings or just made up, to go along with the more familiar ‘Arthur’ (itself once given in Latin as ‘Artorius’) and a few other names like ‘Blaise.’”
21. The books are meant to be historical but the author sometimes just made names up?????

What I think doesn’t matter. I’m not going to watch or read this. I’m definitely not going to watch anything associated with The Daily Wire. I just had a lot of thoughts.