Robin *yawn* Hood

[meddow]

I’ve been occasionally watching the BBC’s Robin Hood lately. My flatmate and I have decided it’s much better if you decide that Guy of Gisborne is the true hero of the show and spend the time rooting for him against everyone else. Mainly because Robin is decidedly lacking in charisma (and looks like he should still be in school).

Let’s look at this for a moment: you have Robin Hood – he’s a bloke runs around the British countryside stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. I mean, get a decent looking British actor between 20 and 40 and shove a sword in his hand and I’m generally there. The fact that he’s playing a leftie folk hero only serves to endear him even more. So it’s pretty hard to screw that up. But somehow they’ve got it wrong. I think it’s the haircut. And the fact he winks. Okay, so I can only think of one time he’s winked, bit I hate winking, despise it with a passion.

Meanwhile Richard Armitage is running around the show dressed in so much black and sneering so much you wonder if it’s an audition tape to play Severus Snape and, despite this, being so much more charismatic, adult and, well, better looking. What else am I going to do other than root for the bad guy?

Well I could change the channel and see what else is on, but that’s a bit too much effort (my TV’s one of those old wooden 70s models that don’t have a remote, you’ve got to reach all the way to the floor, pick up the broomstick and poke at it until you hit the channel you want – adjusting the volume’s the real bitch though).

Comments

[daydream-13.livejournal.com]

Reading this I got a very interesting image in my head of Snape wearing Gisbourne's black leather outfit. Snape would have been so much cooler if he had Gisbourne's fashion sense.

You're not the only one though who has problems getting behind Jonas Armstrong as the hero. I managed to root for him after a while, if mostly because it makes Gisbourne look miffed when Robin wins and Armitage looks adorable when miffed.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Snape would have been cooler in Guy's clothes. Someone needs to put Guy of Gisbourne and Snape in a room together. Now that would be entertainment.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD, IT'S NOT JUST ME THEN.

It's weird because I find myself wanting Gisborne to get the girl, and surely that's not what they intended as writers, right? Robin just... doesn't appeal to me. He's not awful, but as you said... he winks. And he is kind of predictable, and he makes being an outlaw kind of... lame. His merry men are more fun.

*lust for the Armitage*

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I really don't think it was what the writers intended. I think Guy was supposed to come off as creepy, which he really doesn't, probably not helped by the fact that Armitage is so very lustworthy. I must hunt down his previous work.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think creepy is supposed to be how it is, but Guy is too good looking, and his creepy comes across as smouldering hot, and *shiver*. The most well-known is obviously, North and South which you are probably familiar with. And in the Vicar of Dibley special where he gets to marry Dawn French. I wonder why she cast him, eh? ;)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Shockingly I'm not actually familiar with North and South but thankfully I've just discovered the library has a copy since it looks really good. Though I have seen the Vicar of Dibley Special in which he was absolutely lovely.

[snorkackcatcher]

I watched the first half a dozen or so episodes when it was on TV last year (hey, I'm from Nottingham, it was practically a duty), but gave up after that -- the storylines had rather too much in the way of nudge-nudge postmodernism and clunky plot development, and not quite enough style to make me not care. I agree Robin in this show has a tendency to be annoying, although I don't think Gisborne's anything special if you don't fancy Armitage (basically Sir Guy is just an unimaginative thug with a title). Keith Allen as the Sheriff seems to be saying "so there, Rickman! Anything you can do ..." and is entertaining, but the scripts seem to give him too much focus for the good of the plots. The actress playing Marion is undoubtedly hot, but despite that I still lost interest. :)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Oh, the nudge-nudge postmodernism stuff drives me nuts. Subtly would be nice, but they seem to be hitting the audience over the head with the War on Terror stuff which is rather insulting to everyone's intelligence. And really, Maid Marian and Her Merry Men did it much better.

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

Ditto to EVERYTHING you (and those in the comments) just said. And I'll add that Robin's a whiny prat. The few episodes I've seen I've spent watching in the hope that the bad guys will win and Robin will end up roasted on a spit or something. At one point (I believe the series finale), he was sitting by a tree and staring out over a field and it was so emo I thought maybe he'd slit his wrist with arrows and we could move ON already.

And LOL to the Alan Rickman thing. It's so true.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Oh not more emo. When will TV writers get sick of writing emo heroes? I'm much more appreciative of a character who just sucks it up and gets the job done. Or at least realise that we don't need whole scenes of emo when a good reaction shot in the hands of a capable actor can convey exactly the same message.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Emo! That's the right word! He is kind of emo, and glory-hunting, and yes. So it is only going to get worse? At least if James Norrington was angsty, he SUCKED IT UP like the good Commodore/Pirate/Admiral he was.

I love the whole unrequited love thing, which makes me go for Guy/Marion instead. Or maybe I'm just weird.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

he SUCKED IT UP like the good Commodore/Pirate/Admiral he was.


Exactly! It's why I adore him.

And: *sticks hand up* - I'm weird too.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Me too. So much love for our Norrington.

Yay, weirdness together!

[nfwbls.livejournal.com]

Plus Gisborne has that whole "hopelessly wanting Marian in a way that he cannot have, so damn the fences he'll have her the way he can" angst thing - now that has the makings of sexual tension, whereas Robin and Marianne is not much more than teenagers in love waiting for the elusive right time/right place (especially the way Jonas Armstrong plays it)

Not that I can't appreciate Armstrong as eye candy - wink and all.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Gisbourne's got that going for him too XD I'm such a sucker for a good unrequited love that turns one of them bitter story.

And Armstrong really does play it (and I think it's also written that way) like he and Marian are a pair of teenagers. You could them out of the Middle Ages and put them in The OC and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.