Riding Through The Glen
Robin Hoodie
So, Robin Hood is back on Saturday evenings on BBC1 and The Other Viewer and I (and by all accounts, 8.2million others) merrily watched the unfeasably young Jonas Armstrong in the lead role attempt to lure another mammoth audience to the “Doctor Who slot” in the latest incarnation of this medieval tale. Series pilots are always difficult affairs as they try and introduce the characters, situations and settings as well as the general theme of proceedings, while at the same time trying to tell an engrossing tale that will keep the punters coming back for more… a tough ask, no doubt. Despite being set in 1192 it was clearly aiming for a modern demographic with all the potential twee’ness removed in favour broodingly handsome leading men, a feisty Marion, a not-quite-Alan-Rickman, OTT performance by the magnificent Keith Allen as the Sheriff, and no sign of tights or camp costumes whatsoever. It was a solid if not magnificent opener with Robin and Much heading back to their old stomping ground after a battling four years fighting with King John in the Holy Land. He soon puts the rich folk’s collective backs up, appeals to the poor population and gets expelled to the forest. So far, so good. The problem I guess is that the story is already a familiar one so the tale lost a little of its edge with everyone knowing full well what was coming. Still plenty of potential for greater things as the stories get a little less familiar, so we’ll be staying tuned.
Tags: BBC1, Doctor Who, Jonas-Armstrong, Keith-Allen, Period Drama, Robin-Hood
October 18th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Episode two “Sheriff Got Your Tongue” was an improvement over episode one. Still has that sense of a show that is having difficulty in finding its feet and I can’t help but feel that (i) the forest, (ii) the village, and (iii) the plastic castle are soon gonna get tired as the only locations being used.
And isn’t that “thwack’ing” arrow sound irritating?!
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:50 pm
[...] Debuting with a more than respectable 8m viewers and keeping 5m or 6m of them happy throughout its 13-week run, the latest incarnation of Robin Hood was a curious beast. Trying to capture the newly formed family viewing slot of “Saturday at 7pm on BBC1″ it was roundly panned by critics to begin with but I felt quite comfortable with it all along assured that it would get better as everyone settled down. By the time the final episode aired last week (the oddly titled “A Clue: No”) things were indeed somewhat better. Marion’s ‘fake death’ (expertly deduced by The Other Viewer) provided the first and only cliffhanger of the series and led to a belter of an opening as Jonas Armstrong’s eponymous hero got nasty on the Sherriff and his henchman, Guy and then got nasty with poor old Much for good measure too. Other than a faintly ridiculous ricochetting arrow shot at the climax, it was a great episode. Classic ‘good versus evil’, adventure yarn that did exactly what it said on the family viewing tin. [...]