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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: January 10, 2010 Distributor: BBC America Director: · Various Cast: · Jonas Armstrong · Richard Armitage · Keith Allen · David Harewood · Sam Troughton · Gordon Kennedy · Joe Armstrong · Lara Pulver · Joanne Frogatt Related Sites: · See more at the official BBC Robin Hood series website! Grade: C+

Robin Hood is the quintessential English myth. And as myths tend to do, the story has evolved and changed with each retelling. The Saracen, for example, is a relatively new addition, though familiar to modern audiences from the roles of Mark Ryan as Nasir in Robin of Sherwood or Morgan Freeman as Azeem in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" or even Dave Chappelle's debut role as Ahchoo in the Mel Brooks parody "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." Changes, for better or worse, are essential to the grand tradition of storytelling.

The British Broadcasting Corporation brought Robin Hood back to the small screen in 2006. The series starred Jonas Armstrong as Robin Hood, Sam Troughton as his trusty sidekick Much, Harry Lloyd as Will Scarlett, Gordon Kennedy as Little John, Joe Armstrong (no relation to Jonas that I know of) as Allan A Dale, with the ladies represented by lovely Lucy Griffiths as Lady Marian and the wonderful Anjali Jay as Djaq the Saracen. The merry men and women were opposed by Keith Allen as The Sheriff of Nottingham and Richard Armitage as Sir Guy of Gisborne. Armitage caught my attention straight off as I mistook him as Hugh Jackman at first sight. I'm a tough critic for casting of roles I'm familiar with, and it took much of the first series for the cast to win me over. Keith Allen never really did. I'm sure he's a fine actor, but I think villains work best if they are visually awesome (Darth Vader) or if you can relate to them in some way (the X-Men's Magneto was a WWII concentration camp survivor, so you can understand his rage). The Sheriff of Nottingham was simply a greedy tyrant who was a bit off his rocker. I guess I wanted a little more depth than that. But Series Two was so good I didn't care. I felt that the cast had really come together, the chemistry was evident and Guy of Gisborne began to shine on his own, becoming more than just the Sheriff's primary henchman.

And then they killed Marian. Think about that for a minute. They killed Robin's girl. The jealous and jilted Sir Guy ran her through with his bloodied blade. My mind raced through the possibilities. Maybe King Richard's physicians could save her? Perhaps Jonas Armstrong and Lucy Griffiths would wake up in each other's arms under the green canopy of Sherwood Forest ala Newhart and say, "I just had the strangest dream!" But no, the writers and producers of Robin Hood had done something that I had not ever even considered possible -- they took away Robin's fundamental reason for living. Sure, ever since Disney's fantastic animated version of the tale from 1973, Robin has been depicted as robbing the rich to give to the poor, and opposing Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham in the name of King Richard, but even more basic than that was his love of Marian. He'd have opposed Richard himself if need be to win the hand of his lady love. Series Two's grand finale was the death of the one character I could not conceive of killing. Where would the show's creative team go from there?

With both Lucy Griffiths and Anjali Jay leaving the show after Series Two (Djaq and Will Scarlett stayed in the Holy Land after Marian died), the show introduced two new female characters in Series Three. Kate, a pretty blond Locksley villager, was played by Joanne Froggatt and Lara Pulver played the dark-haired Isabella. Toby Stephens does a remarkable job as an unbalanced Prince John. His portrayal was everything I wished the Sheriff of Nottingham would have been. The first three episodes of Series Three is a study in self destruction, as Robin alienates his crew and recklessly battles Gisborne. He loses and is nursed back to health by Friar Tuck (David Harewood), who finally makes an appearance in the series. After getting a handle on his grief, Robin reorganizes his band, bringing the traitor Allen back (he spent much of Series Two in the employ of Gisborne) and adding Tuck and Kate. He might have added Isabella too, whom he seemed to find attractive until he discovered that she's Gisborne's sister. And that's when the great Sherwood shark jumping began.

I realize that 14 scant episodes is not much time for fostering a believable romance. In '24' Jack Bauer has lost several loves, but at least his terrible days weren't sequential. The whole BBC Robin Hood series is very linear. I couldn't stomach seeing Robin smile and flirt with Kate and Isabella so soon after the loss of Marian. About midway through this series, Robin's father, long presumed dead, shows up and offers a framework for an origin flashback. As it turns out, Robin's father had an affair with Guy's mother, and sired a son with her. While they were never able to tie the knot, this bizarre affair essentially makes Robin and Guy stepbrothers with a shared half-brother. Considering how hard these two tried to kill each other over the years, the sudden childhood connection is difficult to swallow. So, too, is Robin's romantic inclination to Isabella, his near-stepsister. I found myself trying to decide if the writers had watched too much "Star Wars" (Robin and Isabella giving off a weird Luke and Leia Arkansas romance vibe) or read too many X-Men comics. Robin, his father, Gisborne and half-brother Archer (Clive Standen) compare very well to the Summers clan: Cyclops, Corsair, Havok and Vulcan respectively.

Friar Tuck kept pulling me out of the story. David Harewood reminded me a great deal of American actor Dennis Haysbert. He's tall, solid and black, as opposed to every other version of Tuck I've ever seen. I applaud the creators for at least trying something different, but I would have preferred experimenting with Will or Much or Allan. Robin, Marian and Tuck should, in my opinion, conform to expectations. Rather than be a hefty, jolly Franciscan friar, Harewood fights like a shaolin monk. His voice, while tinged with an English accent, always seemed moments away from asking "Are you in good hands?" If Allstate Insurance was available in the United Kingdom, Harewood very likely would be the spokesman. But the biggest issue I have with this casting isn't that he's black -- indeed, I have no problem with so-called "color blind" casting. I simply struggled to believe that there ever were black Christian brothers of Christ in England circa 1250-1300. I'm no expert, certainly, but I would have expected most people of African heritage in England at that time to be either Moors or slaves. It just seemed to be too much of a stretch.

Robin Hood Series Three and the show itself came to an end with the death of Robin Hood. Of course, he didn't go out quietly, having put an end to The Sheriff and his accomplice Isabella along with much of Nottingham Town. Lucy Griffiths made a cameo to greet Robin at death's door, telling him that his greatest adventure was yet to come. By the end of the series, the Merry Men consisted of Much, John, Kate and Archer, with Guy (who joined the heroic side to find his brother), Robin and Allen dead and Djaq and Will still presumably in the Holy Land. The danger of being daring with well known source material is that it's hard to replace dead legends. In the 80s, the excellent Robin of Sherwood encountered a similar issue when Michael Praed (Robin) left the show to try his hand on Broadway and the Dynasty TV drama. He was replaced by Jason Connery as a different man picking up the Robin Hood mantle. The post Praed version of the show lasted one season. Efforts to extend Robin Hood to a fourth series did not get far, and I'm not surprised. Even if Archer became the new Robin Hood, as I suspect they had planned, I think they had cut out too much of the heart of the myth. There are tales of various Robin Hoods in antiquity, but there was only ever one Marian, one Allen, one Will. And without Gisborne and the Sheriff, they would have had to create new villains. Toby Stephens is a high demand actor and would be difficult to pin down for a regular role as Prince John. Ultimately the series was not renewed.

On the whole, Robin Hood is a good romp. And like the last BBC attempt, the first two years of each show far out-shined the third. There are a number of special features included in the DVD package, but they mostly consist of short segments about costuming and set design and largely feel tacked on. There notable special features are the longer "Inside Look" that features interviews with the cast and crew, and the two video diaries that feature Lara "Isabella" Pulver and Clive "Archer" Standen walking around their Hungary set and occasionally talking with their cast mates. The earlier series collections featured in depth looks at various characters through interviews with the actors, so the lack of those felt like they had exhausted their ideas for special features.