Customer Reviews

Robin Hood - Season One (5DVD)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Every so often the BBC conjures up a show that they seem to put all their best creative efforts into and come out with something as brillant as this. Unlike many other shows out there these days that race through at top speed to make as action-packed-edge-of-seat-every-moment-super-stressful as possible, Robin Hood as just the perfect amount of action, adventure, humour, wit and romance to make it both interesting and thoroughly enjoyable.

Where it is a wonderful rendition of a classic tale, fresh, new and unique with narrative echoes to it's predecessors, it is still just formulatic enough to be reassuring, heartening. Like comfort food.

Absolutely brilliant, kudos again to the BBC for coming up with this gem. The actors the acting superb, dramatic, funny, what can one say, I can't wait for the next series, it has a real cult following in England and Canada, this is what we need a feel good series without the usual sex, drugs and rubbish that are a constant on the US networks.

Season one of Robin Hood started off alright, but picked up towards the end -- with massive sword fights, a hero who finally had enough and was willing to play naughty, and even mutiny within the ranks of the merry men.

Like other reviewers claimed, there was just the right pinch of adventure (even a flashback to when Robin protected the King in the Holy Land), romance (can we say "love triangle" much?), humour and evil.

Most people know the story of Robin Hood and will notice differences compared to Kevin Costner's version, or even the older Hollywood versions of Robin Hood. Yes, the wardrobe in this version is much more modern, and Marian (Lucy Griffiths) plays a feminist, who fights against cruelty and injustice. There are also historical anachronisms or "that doesn't make sense" moments, but for the most part, it's an enjoyable, eye-candy series.

It never ceases to amaze me how BBC can recreate and reimagine period drama. And they have done it again with this series. The only down side is that there is only 2 seasons!!

If you love the romantic legends of Robin Hood, you do not want to miss this series! It runs circles around any of its predecessors (The Original Adventures, Robin of Sherwood, Prince of Thieves etc).

Before watching Robin Hood, I was anticipating that it would be a historical drama like HBO's ROME series. Obviously it is a historical drama, but the Robin Hood creative team has gone in a much different direction than did the ROME people.
ROME was an intensely gritty series, with a sprawling cast and superb depth. "Robin Hood" the series however is cheeky, and a little bit gimmicky. They do some music-video style quick editing sometimes... as a character escapes into the forest you get three rapid fire shots of the character diving into the undergrowth. Additionally, after about six episodes you get tired of the look of emotional and professional cuckholding on Guy of Gisborne's face. You also start to wonder if every single episode in every season is going to be about sneaking into Nottingham castle to rescue someone from the dungeons. If you took that plot element away from the writers I don't know where this series would be.

Having said all that however - this is a fairly fun series. The actor playing Robin Hood is solid, but the series is really held together by the Sheriff and by Marian. Another reviewer described this as "comfort food" and that's fairly accurate. Don't put the show on expecting to be drawn in deep, but do expect to be entertained.

On a technical note - I have a Samsung bd-p1500 blu ray player, and these discs will NOT play on my machine. The promos actually play okay, but none of the menus on any of the discs will load to allow me to choose an episode. I've resorted to connecting my laptop to the tv and playing the discs with the VLC media player.
The discs aren't wholly to blame though - for they are playing successfully on the ancient dvd player we have in the basement. It's some combination of my samsung player and the DVD-9 format of these discs.

For fans of the Robin Hood canon, this latest series will be interesting in a light sort of way. Clearly aimed at a "younger" audience (most of Robin's merry band would fit in your average high school without much trouble) the show takes some liberties with the story. The usual cast of characters is there, eventually, but spun in different ways (the somewhat new character of the Saracen warrior is played by a woman, for example, and Friar Tuck, who makes a late appearance - he's not even in this first season- is played by a black man) which newcomers may enjoy but critics (like me) might take exception to. The action is expected and frequent but mild - the first deaths by the Sherwood bunch don't happen until the last show of season one - still it is an amusing and not unpleasant offering and yes, it is family friendly.

When the series first opened I was a bit scared because some of the writing was so cliche and kinda bad. However I stuck with it and love it in spite of (maybe because of) it's imperfections. Locations and costumes are great, acting is pretty good. Entertaining for sure. I watched all of season 1 in less than a week around work, season 2 I watched in 3 days, that's how into it you get. It is fun to watch even if the cliches make you role your eyes once in a while. Love it anyways.