Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Robin Hood

New BBC series. Started tonight. Much hyped, big things expected.

Don't bother. Really, just don't.

Watch Robin of Sherwood instead. That has Ray Winstone and is really good.

Or Maid Marion And Her Merry Men. Funnier, more dramatic and far more historically accurate.

Or anything with Errol Flynn.

But not the new version. I suppose the first epsiode could just have been a glitch or something and the subsequent ones could be briliant.

But I really, really doubt it.

I have the old Robin of Sherwood on DVD. The picture quality is not that good, but the stories were great.

Really, watch that instead even if the tape is falling to bits. It'll be much, much better than the new one.

Did anyone besides me ever watch "When Things Were Rotten?" That show used to crack me up!

The real test: The new BBC show versus Kevin Costner as Robin Hood?

Oh, come on, Eryk! The Costner pic was such a snoozer! (It just occured to me your above post is probably a joke...)

No matter whether EDE was joking or not, the unfortunate answer is... the Costner version. At least there you had Alan Rickman being amusing. Even Keith Allen in the new version couldn't rescue it.

well at least Carey elways was able to speak in an English accent. in " Robin hood:Men in tights"

I agree with Bevis. Unless this one improves over the long term it really is dross. It tries to be a costner version, and wants to be all trendy and "cool". I have to say I think part of the problem is that it has been made with more than half an eye on the export market so it has lost allmost all sense of being about a British hero.

Keith Allen is an underated actor imho, but even he seems subduded and Rickmans verson was far better.


Still it drew in 8 million viewers (very high figures for UK terrestrial tv) so maybe they know something we dont B?

Or maybe, like me, they were suckered in by the hype and watched the whole thing just in case it got better.

To be fair, they were talking about it on Newsnight Review the night before and they pretty much all said that while the first episode is rubbish the second one is a lot better. I'm slightly sceptical about that but I'll probably still watch it just to see fi they're right.

At the moment though I'd happily take almost any other version of Robin Hood over the new one. It's kind of like they decided they wanted to do something more 'real' than previous versions but then also prettied it up and made it too neat and safe and clean and hung on modern (mostly New Labour) sensibilities and because of that the whole thing falls to pieces. It's not one thing or the other. It's not real enough to be a good historical drama but it's not fantastical enough to be a good swashbuckler either. Which is a huge shame because I really wanted ti to be good and it's just not.

Awww I love Maid Marion and her Merry Men!

Not having access to the BBC and all, didn't Sean Connery's kid do a Robin series? I just remember seeing a pic of the cast and they seemed very King Arthur-ish from the Clive Owen travesty.

That's Robin of Sherwood. Richard (?) Praed was Robin in the first two series and then Connery Jnr took over for the third one. It also had Ray Winstone in it and was actually pretty good. Not brilliant, but entertaining and certainly worth a watch if you ever see it on.

Funnily enough I really wasn’t going to watch this at all. When something gets all that hype it worries me that the producers don’t think it is good enough to get word of mouth recommendations. I also didn’t really like the trailers. But somehow, maybe I was just too numbed to move after the abysmal England game It appeared and I watched it.

This has started airing in the US on BBC America. I've rather liked the first two episodes. Not the best show ever, but far from the worst. I miss the cheesy adventure/fantasy series that filled up the weekend hours from the mid-nineties till just a few years ago, so this comes pretty close.

Jonas Armstrong, the actor playing Robin, is adorable, if a bit slighter that I would prefer my heroes. I think I'll continue with it.

I'm a sucker for Robin Hood (I assume the Robin of Sherwood series discussed above was the same that aired in the US on Showtime--lots of Clannad, Herne the Hunter, etc. I loved it at the time, haven't been able to find it since), so I gave it a try. Definitely not perfect, but entertaining and I could watch it with my kids--something I can't say about too many shows I'm willing to watch. The second episode was much better than the first, although the fight scenes kinda suck.

Also, I liked the almost subtle stick at the Bush administration, what with the prisoners held without trial, hunt for glory, marital law, war in the Middle East, etc. Yecch, we're becoming what we used to hate...

I've seen the first two episodes. Not overly impressed.

Robin (Jonas Armstrong) is very handsome and I like watching him. That really is the high point of this show for me.

Much really grates on my nerve. Even the other characters call him "whiney".

I don't see myself going out of my way to watch this, but I might watch it if there is nothing else on.

I also dislike the promos BBC America is doing. "Star Wars set in Sherwood Forest" "Grittier" "Edgy and young"