Robin Hood

[Avalanche]

The BBC series starts up tonight. Thought I'd pop a thread up in preparation.

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Robin Hood
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Sat 7 Oct, 7:05 pm - 7:50 pm 45mins</B>

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Robin of Locksley heads home from the Crusades to find his people starving and brutalised under the tyrannical rule of the new Sheriff. He quickly discovers that the only way to reason with this Sheriff is with bow and arrow - even if it means sacrificing his title and his lands and consigning himself to life in the forest. [AD,S]
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[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Subtitles Stereo Widescreen [/FONT]
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[Bastila]

I am watching that tonight, I think it looks really cool, but I hope its good.

 

[3dman27]

would this be on bbc america?

 

[Avalanche]

How long do you guys wait for Doctor Who over in the US? It will probably be around the same time frame for Robin Hood.

I'm probably going to miss some of tonight's episode. It clashes in part with X-Factor I think. Still, it will be on the net before long.

 

[Lady Stormcrow]

I'm going to watch it, it looks quite good

 

[Happenstance]

Yeah im quite looking forward to seeing it, the trailers for it look promising.

 

[Lord Valumart]

instead of going into a long winded explination as to why i'm looking forwad tothis...i'll just say:

ROBIN ****ING HOOD!!!! HELL ****ING YEH!!!

 

[Vapor]

I'm missing it at the moment.. I don't think I'm that bothered for it, I wasn't overly impressed by Dr Who although I'll probably try catch a repeat some time and give it a chance..

I always thought they should do a decent film version with Sean Bean as Robin and Rufus Sewell as the Sheriff..

 

[_BB_]

Well, i think its pretty good so far, its a bit slow and a bit confusing but its only the first episode so its to be expected i suppose. Character and setting have to be establishe dfirst then the action can begin next episode, kind of like spiderman 1 and 2 in a way

 

[regwec]

I saw some but not all of it.

I was pleasantly surprised by the script, and most of the acting. The baddies are quite good, which is crucial, and Jonas Armstrong is quite believable.

Marion is quite sexy, though of course, as with all media of this type, she has been flavoured with a rather tired "girl power" theme.

Alan-a-Dale was appalling. A more accomplished performance would have been achieved by casting by sight in a shopping centre.

The action sequences were really very poor. One understands the constraints of a BBC budget, but we're not talking Daleks here. If a group of amateur enthusiasts can recreate a convincing medieval battle in a field on a Sunday afternoon, then I'm sure the BBC can achieve a reasonable sword fight.

The arms and armour looked rather feeble. Many of the Anglo-Norman soldiers were clearly wearing sequins. Again: chainmail, swords and medieval costume are broadly available in the UK. A little money spent this way would have saved some embarassment.

But in general, it looks okay. I'm glad that there has been an attempt to retain some dramatic weight.

 

[Avalanche]

Marion is quite sexy, though of course, as with all media of this type, she has been flavoured with a rather tired "girl power" theme.

She as been imbued with Girl Power, but that does make her a more appealing character in my eyes. Damsels in distress are boring. I like a woman who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty and kick some ass herself. She demonstrated at the end she has some skills with the throwing of the hairpin.

The action sequences were really very poor. One understands the constraints of a BBC budget, but we're not talking Daleks here. If a group of amateur enthusiasts can recreate a convincing medieval battle in a field on a Sunday afternoon, then I'm sure the BBC can achieve a reasonable sword fight.

I didn't think the fight scenes where that bad. They just weren't very lavish, but then, in real life, what fight scenes are?

 

[Happenstance]

I didnt actually like Marion too much, I think its to do with her mouth. Would have prefered the hot blonde from the beginning to play her!

 

[JackBauer24]

Okay... *deep breath*

'Robin Hood' was by far and away, and without a shadow of doubt - One of the worst things I have ever seen ...and I'm not just talking TV shows.

I mean... just... fmmuh... where do I begin?! It was completely, totally, utterly, irredeemably awful. Never before in all my years of televisual experience, have I seen something so apocalyptically bad that it has robbed me of the basic power of speech. It was like some kind of nightmarish train wreck. I couldn't speak, I couldn't even change the channel. I was rendered motionless, sat there for the entire toe-curling hour, watching through clenched fists, out of sheer morbid curiosity to see just how bad it could get.

First casting. Okay, just think about this one for a second. Robin Hood. Robin of Loxley (yes LOXLEY, not Locksley!). Robin *beep* Hood, one of the seminal heroic figures of British folklore - an icon of good vs. evil, a picture of what it means to be a true man, a warrior and a hero. ROBIN HOOD I tell you, has been cast as no less than a smirking diminutive chavvy Manc tw*t. I mean it literally looks like somebody pulled him off the street from outside Argos, gave him a bow and arrow, let him keep his hairstyle and his hoodie, and told him to ACT. The result we see is about what one would expect from this situation. From the look of most of the women in the show, the casting agency for this series was located directly across the corridor from where those rejected for 'Hollyoaks' exited their auditions. The Director clearly also took his main influence from that fine example of British culture as the show itself is shot much in the style of this bad soap opera. This is meant to be ROBIN HOOD god damn it! Mythic, grand, bold and heroic storytelling set in days long ago. Instead it looks like a bunch of Gen-Y w*nkers pissing about on the local rec. The costumes look like they were thrown on as an afterthought. All the architecture looks like it was built yesterday (because it WAS) and you can almost SEE the discarded syringes, used condoms and emptied Carlings lurking in the undergrowth. There is no way whatsoever that anybody would ever mistake this for the middle ages. Especially as all the actors talk as if they work down your local chippy.

The writer for the most part makes no effort to have the characters speak as if they lived in the past (mythic or real) and when he does actually try to make it all sound a bit more 'ye olde', the acting is so bad that it just sounds as though they are taking the piss.

I normally wouldn't even bother giving a show like this my time, but the fact is I am so disappointed as a TV series about Robin Hood has so much potential - and could have been something that the BBC could be proud of. Instead, they turned into the latest sad example of the increasing trend toward Chav TV. Pathetic.

And yes, I got more where that came from.

 

[Avalanche]

I was rendered motionless, sat there for the entire toe-curling hour

And yet the show was only 45 minutes in length. You were clearly left stunned for a further 15 minutes.

There is no way whatsoever that anybody would ever mistake this for the middle ages. Especially as all the actors talk as if they work down your local chippy.

The actors talk with a midlands-ish accent. Makes sense to me.

 

[IronLion]

lol. i thought it was good. what do you expect from a show that is going to be on at 7(ish)pm on a saturday night?

if it had been on later, then maybe, they could have made it darker and serious, but you have to remeber, because of the time it is being shown, it is being aimed at the younger market.

i also enjoyed the torchwood trailer, but that is for another thread.....

 

[Everyman]

Seen it. It was quite bad. The script was really weak, better than POT, but that isn't saying much, the dialogues are filled with modernism and therefore sound unauthentic and fake, and there are numerous miscasts. The actor playing Robin Hood is totally unbelievable, he does not look heroic nor does he have charisma or the shadow of a commanding presence, and he is supposed to be a Crusade veteran? Laughable! Maid Marian is ugly and they should have written her as a medieval woman, not as an empowered feminist. Olivia de Havilland's Marian was intelligent and resourceful, but she had grace and charisma. That actress looks like she was picked up in a pub and she was still half-drunk when the camera started rolling. The sets look fake, and the script is not good enough to compensate. The action scenes are cartoonish and the camera is way too nervous. There is no feel of danger. Maybe the series will grow to be better, but I am skeptical. It looks like a lazy attempt to make a series for MTV audiences, using an iconic name.

 

[regwec]

I don't want to push my points too far, because I saw only the first five and the last fifteen minutes of the show, but...

1) I don't see why anyone would object to the characters having Northern accents. They are from the North of England. I could live without it, but I don't really think it does any harm.

2) I don't think Jonas Armstrong is too bad, and he has a tang of heroic air about him. But he is very young. So are his comrades. This is a fault in almost all populist media nowadays: the assumption is that only very young actors can appeal to young people. I think that is a mistake. We see it with David Tennant as Doctor Who, Brandon Routh as Superman, and even Viggo Mortensen as a far-too beautiful and youthful Aragorn. I can just convince myself that this Robin Hood has been on crusade. People grew up quicker in the twelfth century, and a young aristocrat would be more likely to travel to the holy land than a mature noble with lots of concerns at home. But there is no reason for all the cast (except the baddies, who are the best bit) to be so young.

3) Marion can be a powerful and brave character without resorting to Xena type antics. Robin Hood is, whether just or not, a terrorist, and Marion has obvious potential as his mole or diplomat within the circles of power. I would prefer to see Marion as a medieval noblewoman playing upon her strengths to achieve what she may. Instead of throwing knives at people, why doesn't she shame them by appealling to their sense of chivalry?

4) The problem with some of the action sequences is over ambition, which looks silly. Both Robin's use of a sword as a shuriken and Marion's throwing knife looked ridiculous. It wasn't just that it was out of place, but that it didn't look even slightly real. Slow-motion is the last refuge of an unimaginative director.

5) There were some moments that didn't quite add up. Why and how did Robin avoid the soldier's arrows by riding towards them? I simply couldn't understand this.

Still, I think there is some potential here. The show really needs more investement, and more of a "costume drama"s eye for detail. But I won't give up on it yet.

 

[Avalanche]

Robin Hood performs well in the ratings:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4801879.stm

Good viewing figures. It averaged 8.2 million.

 

[kit1982]

It took some time to adjust seeing the hero in combats and a hoodie, but overall I thought it was alright nothing spectacular but hey hopefully as it progresses we see something abit different. I'd have to agree that Jonas Armstrong looks a tad young (so much so that he looked as if he'd just walked off the Hollyoaks set) but it was a big improvement on Dr.Who which basically had been appalling IMO.

 

[Everyman]

I don't want to push my points too far, because I saw only the first five and the last fifteen minutes of the show, but...

1) I don't see why anyone would object to the characters having Northern accents. They are from the North of England. I could live without it, but I don't really think it does any harm.

2) I don't think Jonas Armstrong is too bad, and he has a tang of heroic air about him. But he is very young. So are his comrades. This is a fault in almost all populist media nowadays: the assumption is that only very young actors can appeal to young people. I think that is a mistake. We see it with David Tennant as Doctor Who, Brandon Routh as Superman, and even Viggo Mortensen as a far-too beautiful and youthful Aragorn. I can just convince myself that this Robin Hood has been on crusade. People grew up quicker in the twelfth century, and a young aristocrat would be more likely to travel to the holy land than a mature noble with lots of concerns at home. But there is no reason for all the cast (except the baddies, who are the best bit) to be so young.

3) Marion can be a powerful and brave character without resorting to Xena type antics. Robin Hood is, whether just or not, a terrorist, and Marion has obvious potential as his mole or diplomat within the circles of power. I would prefer to see Marion as a medieval noblewoman playing upon her strengths to achieve what she may. Instead of throwing knives at people, why doesn't she shame them by appealling to their sense of chivalry?

4) The problem with some of the action sequences is over ambition, which looks silly. Both Robin's use of a sword as a shuriken and Marion's throwing knife looked ridiculous. It wasn't just that it was out of place, but that it didn't look even slightly real. Slow-motion is the last refuge of an unimaginative director.

5) There were some moments that didn't quite add up. Why and how did Robin avoid the soldier's arrows by riding towards them? I simply couldn't understand this.

Still, I think there is some potential here. The show really needs more investement, and more of a "costume drama"s eye for detail. But I won't give up on it yet.

A comment on your comments...

1)I see no problem either. I think Northern accents are more authentic for the program anyway.

2)The problem with the actors is that they are not only young, they look young and they lack presence and strenght. People in medieval time looked more mature than nowadays, for the same age. A young lead can be an advantage: he an stay on the show for long and gain maturity and experience. That is, if the script is good in the first place and if the actor can pull it off. Jonas Armstrong is simply unbelievable as a war veteran and a tough guy, and while the writing tries sometimes to make him heroic (much more than in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) he fails to convince and looks more like a cocky rock star than a medieval Saxon hero.

3)I agree with you there. Maid Marian killing the guard was ridiculous. And it was embarrassing that she was the only person to kill anybody! The series should be more violent, even if it is a kids's show.

4)Agree there.

5)Like I said, there was simply no feel of danger. An invincible hero is a boring one. Robin Hood should be in danger sometimes, it should feel like a lot is at stake. So far he has been fighting the odds too easily.

 

[Lord Blackbolt]

Welll....it can't be as bad as that terrible Robin Hood TV show we had in the US a couple of years ago.

 

[Lord Valumart]

Welll....it can't be as bad as that terrible Robin Hood TV show we had in the US a couple of years ago.

no...that would be impossible
lol

 

[regwec]

That show was so bad that I actually quite enjoyed it. And I thought the chap playing Little John was not too bad.

 

[Bastila]

I really liked it, can't wait for next weeks one.

 

[Mr. Thing]

I didnt actually like Marion too much, I think its to do with her mouth. Would have prefered the hot blonde from the beginning to play her!

That girl was smokin'.