Family viewing
Oct. 17th, 2006 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielWatching an episode of Secret Army at the weekend brought clarity to the nature of the suckage of Robin Hood.
Do you remember Secret Army? It's the 70s BBC drama about the underground railroad in Belgium during the Second World War, smuggling out crashed British airmen, all from their base of operations, which is a cafe. They turned it into 'Allo 'Allo (honestly, they did). (And what exactly went on in that meeting, you have to wonder: "Do you know what this programme about the Nazi occupation of north-west Europe needs, Bob? It needs more laughs.")
The episode we watched at the weekend was particularly good. It was about a little boy who befriends a British airman hiding in a barn, and manages to get in touch with the resistance in his small town, with not entirely positive consequences for the people around him (this being a 1970s BBC drama). Brian Glover is in it as a German colonel. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hafren, we said, "I read a book once - green it was" and thought of you.)
So basically it's the same set-up as Robin Hood, isn't it? You've got your villagers, you've got your outlaws on the run, you've got your resistance moving between the two, you've got your occupying baddies (Nazis/Normans), you've got your trial of the week.
So why does Robin Hood suck so much? Well, it's because nothing happens. Two episodes in, and they've done exactly the same plot in each episode, which is the not entirely interesting story: "One or more of our number have been captured! Let us effect his escape, and without suspense, given he is the lead/they are the sidekicks!" Which - despite it being five minutes shorter than your average episode of 1970s BBC drama - makes it crashingly dull. There aren't even any interludes with men in antler-hats to keep you going. But in Secret Army, you didn't know what was going to happen to the kid, and you didn't know what was going to happen to the airman, and this all despite how you knew for a fact that all the leads were going to make it to the next episode.
The other thing that was good was that the Sheriff/Gisborne, Servalan/Travis characters in Secret Army (Kessler and Brandt) took part in the plot without actually having to interact at all with the resistance - you know, hand-rubbing and cackling and saying things like, "Now I know your weakness: you will not kill but I, I am willing to destroy all in my pursuit of you!" - they just sat in an office and bitched about the best way of going about the investigation into whether or not there actually was an airman on the loose (which they never did quite determine, IIRC).
Anyway, apparently Robin Hood is getting good viewing figures and very good audience appreciation ratings, and my mate Commander Lytton loves it, so what the hell do I know?
Do you remember Secret Army? It's the 70s BBC drama about the underground railroad in Belgium during the Second World War, smuggling out crashed British airmen, all from their base of operations, which is a cafe. They turned it into 'Allo 'Allo (honestly, they did). (And what exactly went on in that meeting, you have to wonder: "Do you know what this programme about the Nazi occupation of north-west Europe needs, Bob? It needs more laughs.")
The episode we watched at the weekend was particularly good. It was about a little boy who befriends a British airman hiding in a barn, and manages to get in touch with the resistance in his small town, with not entirely positive consequences for the people around him (this being a 1970s BBC drama). Brian Glover is in it as a German colonel. (
hafren, we said, "I read a book once - green it was" and thought of you.)So basically it's the same set-up as Robin Hood, isn't it? You've got your villagers, you've got your outlaws on the run, you've got your resistance moving between the two, you've got your occupying baddies (Nazis/Normans), you've got your trial of the week.
So why does Robin Hood suck so much? Well, it's because nothing happens. Two episodes in, and they've done exactly the same plot in each episode, which is the not entirely interesting story: "One or more of our number have been captured! Let us effect his escape, and without suspense, given he is the lead/they are the sidekicks!" Which - despite it being five minutes shorter than your average episode of 1970s BBC drama - makes it crashingly dull. There aren't even any interludes with men in antler-hats to keep you going. But in Secret Army, you didn't know what was going to happen to the kid, and you didn't know what was going to happen to the airman, and this all despite how you knew for a fact that all the leads were going to make it to the next episode.
The other thing that was good was that the Sheriff/Gisborne, Servalan/Travis characters in Secret Army (Kessler and Brandt) took part in the plot without actually having to interact at all with the resistance - you know, hand-rubbing and cackling and saying things like, "Now I know your weakness: you will not kill but I, I am willing to destroy all in my pursuit of you!" - they just sat in an office and bitched about the best way of going about the investigation into whether or not there actually was an airman on the loose (which they never did quite determine, IIRC).
Anyway, apparently Robin Hood is getting good viewing figures and very good audience appreciation ratings, and my mate Commander Lytton loves it, so what the hell do I know?
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Date: 2006-10-17 09:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 09:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 09:59 am (UTC)[1] Marion's still shit, though. I mean, really, really bad. The character's dull, the actor can't, and she doesn't even have the saving grace of being eye-candy.
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Date: 2006-10-17 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-10-17 10:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 12:32 pm (UTC)Little John is the least annoying, but I'm biased towards the gentle giant characters (I had a thing about Clive Mantle, too).
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Date: 2006-10-17 08:20 pm (UTC)I was struck by the fact that, well, he isn't that tall, really, is he? I mean, seriously. They failed at one of the very basics of Robin Hoodness. Did they cast it in the dark? (That would explain Marian and Robin, anyway.)
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Date: 2006-10-17 08:25 pm (UTC)More Roy Hudd than Robin Hood.
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Date: 2006-10-17 09:52 am (UTC)I've always thought Secret Army was one of the best popular dramas the BBC ever made.
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Date: 2006-10-17 10:19 am (UTC)I can only watch Secret Army in very small doses, because it's so depressing. Brilliant, though.
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Date: 2006-10-17 10:45 am (UTC)Ah, I might give it another go then. Richard Armitage in black leather is quite an inducement to watch.
I can only watch Secret Army in very small doses, because it's so depressing.
Me too. I felt like such a wimp when I discovered that because I used to lap it up when it was first shown, but now it's just incredibly gruelling. Looking back at the bleakness of late 70s/early 80s TV I sometimes find it amazing that we didn't all just slit our throats!
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Date: 2006-10-17 10:49 am (UTC)Looking back at the bleakness of late 70s/early 80s TV I sometimes find it amazing that we didn't all just slit our throats!
I know! Maybe Blue Peter was keeping our spirits up.
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Date: 2006-10-17 11:14 pm (UTC)Just read the paper until Our Guy comes on screen.
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Date: 2006-10-17 09:56 am (UTC)I can never see Glover without thinking of Heslop. Haven't seen much of Robin Hood - for me, Wayne Morris gave the definitive performance. The sexiest, too.
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Date: 2006-10-17 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-10-17 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 08:18 pm (UTC)Well, be fair. It isn't just that nothing happens. There's also the agonisingly bad script, the awful acting, the moronic fighting and stunts, and the WTF costuming choices.
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Date: 2006-10-17 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 11:18 pm (UTC)I like Guy's black leather too, of course, but I don't think I could carry it off. Even if I could ride a horse.
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Date: 2006-10-18 08:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 08:59 am (UTC)