“in a time of ruthless warriors, capricious princes, and the sherriff of lily allen, a land in turmoil cried out for 1xHERO. He was robin, a beardy princess halfpint forged in the heat of the crusades.” :D
i watched it at T’s (re)housewarming party, w.marcello and A’s son J, who is 5 i think, and asked (non-stop) why are they always fighting, why are they always kissing, why was i laughing? (truthful ans = glee)
at the end someone asked j what his favourite programme was and he said “ROBIN HOOD!” — and he is right and it is mine too!
I thought it was dreadful – terrible dialogue, whether trying to be funny or political, and with awkward anachronisms that added nothing to the entertainment, and with action scenes as badly choreographed as any I’ve ever seen. I was particularly disappointed we didn’t get Lily as Maid Marian. Any show where daddy Keith is by a very long way the most charismatic figure in it has to be in trouble.
Keith Allan was easily the worst thing in it!
when is he not!? it is his PUNK ROCK RIGOUR IN ACTION!!
i am psyched for ep two! it is ages since i watched xena in real time on primetime (yes even then channel five was primetime) so it is like a second youth all over again!
The theme tune is reminiscent of Hercules more than Xena!
I didn’t mean to imply I thought Keith Allen was any good – it was rubbish acting, as usual. I stand by my claim that everyone else in it has at most a tenth of his charisma, which is not to claim he has that much of that either.
i liked robin! and i didn’t mind the dialogue either (but it was a noisy partyroom so i was maybe just merry and indulgent myself — or unable to hear)
the sam raimi approach they seem to be trying for = using semi-camp irony as a cloak to get at the energy of the form (which hercules didn’t really but xena totally did): ladling on the anachronism as thick as raimi does for some reason re-energises the function of myths and legends as moral dramas of the immediate present, or something (bcz it frames their social use-value rather than their atrophied aesthetic value?)
(the robin hood story has never not existed in anachronistic form — it’s always been a then-tale resurrected to map out the shape of now — so i want to see how they tackle this as the story gets into its richer reaches — this first set-up ep in this story is always a thankless task, everyone being boringly shuffled into roles we know too well in advance; the legend always works better when you plunge into it in medias res (as in ivanhoe, or the robin-of-the-wood section in sword in the stone) — and the key to it will be the ensemble work of the merry men, which can’t start yet, and prob won’t till abt ep 3 (ep2 being more tiresome gathering of the band: little john and tuck anyway)
(i’ve got a sam raimi proposal in the pipeline so i want to think some of this through properly: ie what is goin on in xena’s refusal to take historical or cultural proprieties remotely seriously — it goes way beyond what gets filed, rather contentlessly, as “post-modern playfulness”) (i’m not saying robin will get anywhere close to xena obv — but i’m totally up for seein if the bbc CAN do a “dr who” with the raimi style, esp. in regard to creating and sustaining momentum etc)
non-canonic robin type (ie small and broody)*; VERY non-canonic maid marion-type; hyper-canonic sherriff type (for some reason i’d taken in that KA was tuck, which i liked better); i liked much also — tho he’s a carbon-copy of hercules’s sidekick (was he called autolycus?)
*he’s a more interesting IDEA for a robin than i tht ecclestone was a who
i agree w.martin abt the clumsy action sequence at the end — but i still think we’re in “thankless” territory, so i’m prepared to be forgiving — this is the “moment he becomes robin hood”, not run-of-the-mill norman-bashing; the fact that it’s exactly what we SO know is going to happen pushes it into “make it an impossible ask” territory, which they won’t have to so much later (i hope)
For a moment I thought the writers might have indulged in major revisionism, i.e. kill off Will Scarlett, Alan A’Dale etc., but in retrospect all that would have meant would have been twelve weeks of Ecclestone wandering around dolefully a la Sherwood Josey Wales and that’s not really what we cherish in Saturday teatime TV.
Absolutely GREbT television, of course, and easily the best TV Hood since Mel Brooks’ When Things Were Rotten.
i.e. this Hood was purposely designed as an anti-Ecclestone tendency series.
I think young J grasped the fighting/kissing dichotomy very well indeed.
much is played by a SON of dr who 2! (or three if you include nigel who)
GRANDson of who 2
much the timelord’s grandson!
From the BBC’s ratings figures write-up:
Green tights have been replaced with trendy medieval attire, including combat trousers, desert boots and even a hoodie for the lead character.
CHARACTER CALLED HOOD IN HOOD SHOCKER!
There is SO MUCH POTENTIAL in a Who / Hood X-over that if it doesn’t happen the BBC are fools.
Iolaus was Hercules sidekick.
Did you ever catch the New Adventures Of Robin Hood, Mark? Much, much more Raimiesqure than this version – had Lady Godiva / King Arthur / William Tell crossovers agogo.
autolycus was Bruce Campbell’s character
it is TOO SOON to argue that this is not raimi-esque — the “setting out the stall” of xena = THREE ENTIRE RUBBISH SERIES of hercules
which one was “New Adventures” (i ph34r that cop-out title)
lady godiva’s nephew fought at the battle of stamford bridge (or hill or whatever it is) — that is one of the MANY AWESOME FACTS i learned from time commandos
so will this robin mention OLAF THE FLASHY??
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115289/
Forst episode was called RAGE OF THE MONGOLS. Non-canon involvement there later repeated with Sword Of The Samurai, and Bodecia later suggests a bit of fast and loose atmosphere. Five used to show it on Saturday mornings. I believe it also got through two Robins and at least three Marians.
It is Stamford Bridge. I know this because as a small RickyT I went to Cubs there. There were two Cub packs in the village: one named Saxons, t’other Vikings. I was a Saxon.
Lady Godiva’s nephew was a football hooligan?
I will try this again, on the off chance this isn’t wild optimism and wishful thinking, but I will be surprised if it is as good as many here think.