Today's Episode
We watched it. Every episode covers the latest installment(s) of a different TV show.
Today's Episode
Robin Hood (S01E01-02)
We cover Robin Hood on MGM+, the gritty new take on the legendary outlaw that trades green tights for darker realism. Set in 1186, before King Richard’s crusades, it stars Sean Bean as a morally murky Sheriff of Nottingham and newcomer Max Woolf as Rob of Loxley, whose father’s execution sparks a familiar rebellion. We talk through the first two episodes (“I See Him” and “A Heinous Devil”), from fairy lore and CGI stags to English politics, over-ripe dialogue, and the long wait Rob's journey from regular Saxon to the infamous Robin Hood. Tune in to hear our rating, comparisons, and other thoughts. Welcome to Today’s Episode!
Welcome to today's episode, the podcast, where we discuss the most recent installments of a different series every show. It is Friday, November 7th, the day that the elephant was embraced by the Republican Party as the symbol for the party in 1874. What do you think that means? Like, what do you think? It was a cartoon to start with, right? Like a political cartoon. And the same guy who made the elephant, the Republican Party status uh party symbol, was the same person, I think, who made the the donkey sort of the Democratic one.
SPEAKER_01:Wait, so they they chose both.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, within like four years, I think 1870 was the Democrat one, 1874 was the elephant. However, they were based on different things. Like I think Andrew Jackson was called a jackass at one point, fits with his name. And uh, and then the elephant one, I'm not exactly sure what caused it, but in 1874, that would have been when Grant was president. And what's funny about Grant's presidency was that he was super corrupt, right? Yeah. And uh so for them to be putting out this like really like a symbol of strength and smarts, and like they were definitely trying to sell themselves. Um, but yeah, another series dropped really recently about the next president, the one like two over, James Garfield.
SPEAKER_01:I think that was like was in the middle.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and Garfield didn't even want to run as president. Like I I'm reading the book that it's based on so that we can do the podcast later, but that'll be a fun one to do. Why I'm bringing up cartoon symbols, though, is because when we talk about Robin Hood, this new MGM show, which you watched the first two episodes of, the first two episodes' names are I See Him and also A Heinous Devil. Do you know why they're called those? Uh yeah, you you can I can come up with reasons. Okay, you'll come up with a reason with reasons. But like my way that I was introduced to Robin Hood was like most kids, the 1973 Disney film, uh, where you see a fox that's going around singing, uh having his merry crew and uh stealing from the rich. It was i I still remember moments, but like my main image in my head when I think to that movie is where Robin Hood is like setting up a contraption to steal all the gold in the palace, and he's like connected this rope that's just holding all these bags of gold as they're like going out of Prince John or whatever's uh house. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Growing up, it was it was my favorite film also as a kid when I was like four or five. I just watch it over and over and over again. I think that Prince John is a lion, little John is also a brown bear, so it's just it's all animals. And I was shocked to see that it has like a 58% on Ron Tomatoes a couple days ago.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think a lot of like even the Fox and the Hound, I don't think got great uh critical reception.
SPEAKER_01:But like I watched that all the I don't remember Robin Hood, I should say, the 1973 movie, but I will give it five out of five just because it is such a solid film as a kid. D felt nostalgic, yeah, just even thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00:Did you get that same nostalgia while watching this version of this TV show? Because you watched the live action, it's not the first time you've seen a live action Robin Hood, right? The BBC version from like 2000, it ran the same time that Merlin did.
SPEAKER_01:2006. I remember I was going to see the 2010 Robin Hood movie because I asked my dad when we were driving around when it was in theaters if we could see it. He was like, sure. And then we never did, and then I didn't want to see the 2018 Terren Egerton version. If there was ever a time that I was afraid I would lose the bet that we bought up in smoke, it was probably after that movie came out. Because of how like because of how bad it was.
SPEAKER_00:So you said that was 2016? 2018. 2018, it that and Fantastic Four. There were a lot of clunkers. Yes. In in the mid-2000s, yeah. So uh then this version, where does it fall as far as is it funny? Is it serious? Is it a mix of the two?
SPEAKER_01:It's trying to go as serious as possible, it's trying to go as gritty as possible. I think that even you both have Sean Bean, but it's trying to be Game of Thrones, even, at least from what the beginning scene shows.
SPEAKER_00:And then I have to ask, is Sean Bean dead by the end of the first episode, or do they keep him around?
SPEAKER_01:No, he's not dead by the end of the first episode or second episode. Oh, still, he's still around. Pleasant news. I think that's the longest he's ever been around in anything.
SPEAKER_00:1186 is when it starts, which is a couple years before most adaptations of Robin Hood take place, partly because they wanted to include King Henry II, who is the and also his wife, who are the parents of Richard the Lionheart and the evil Prince John or whatever. And uh and the thing that they do here though is that they kind of take history and they spin it and they change it up a little bit because Robin Hood was not a real person. Also, he existed in ballad form, and then like he went into writing, then poems and and stuff. And so he's adapted in time. There's been a lot of different adaptations of Robin Hood. Maid Marion wasn't always there. He used to be super Christian in the early works. He used to then change into being like the son of a nobleman who then went into disguise. They've they've changed his backstory so many times, and now they're changing the history around him a bit because this is after, well after the Norman conquest. It's also well after Saxons would have incorporated Christianity or been recruited into the Christianity movement that had kind of gone through England at that point. But instead, in this show, what does this show do?
SPEAKER_01:It says, Well, through text, it says that Norman rulers seized Saxon lands and outlawed their traditions.
SPEAKER_00:Again, hundred years or so in the past, Saxons and Normans actually got along by this point. We're not gonna labor too much on the historical inaccuracies because it's the point that matters. And what they're trying to tell is the story of this person who has everything against him, his land has been taken from him, or at least from his father, and he feels like everything has not gone his way. How do they present that? So it's 1186, and what's the first scene that you see? We see a mighty warrior.
SPEAKER_01:His name is Adric, and this is a story that's being told from Hugh of Loxley. He's telling it to a young Robin Hood.
SPEAKER_00:But around a campfire or something?
SPEAKER_01:No, it's at their house. But we actually see it play out in front of us. Like we see Adric. We see that uh he is he's kind of ruthless. The first scene, like within the first minute, was him shoving an axe into some guy's face, and it's like something out banshee where there's just bloodshed.
SPEAKER_00:It reminds me, of course, because I haven't seen it, but it reminds me of like the montages that start off. And what was that uh uh DC guy, Zach Snyder's uh warrior show, the the cartoon one?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, uh it was like Gods, Twilight of the God.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like something you would start off in that, or something that you would see maybe even in the Jason Mamoa show, just like a montage of violence. And so why is he telling his son about a mythological hero?
SPEAKER_01:I was I was trying to ask myself that same question because it was a weird story to tell. I kind of enjoyed it though, because it was trying to show how TVMA it was. The 2010 and 2018 films are PG-13, the 1973 film was Disney. This seemed like it was trying to go like hard-edged with it. And the story is about how Adric, this warrior, was in a cave. He had sex with a fairy named Gotha, and then so Gotta lives in the forest, right? Yeah, and she's a recurring character in this show. I I guess so. We uh I I think we only see her at the beginning of this, but she's like in complete nudity. So it seemed like the show. She's not wearing any clothes. Yeah, so it seemed like this show was really Does she have wings? No, that we don't see it. So when you say fairy, you don't mean like literal they were around this campfire inside this cave and they were like kind of dancing around. It almost reminded me of the witch that that movie, um, when A trick stumbles upon them. Okay. After they have sex, and then he becomes like a punishment or is like a reward? No, I think it's supposed to be as a reward because he becomes like this symbol of the forest and like one with the forest. Okay. It was a very strange way to start off the world.
SPEAKER_00:He becomes a patronus or whatever from Harry Potter.
SPEAKER_01:So then uh, so that was the first thing, and I was like, okay, I guess they're really going to, whenever we get action, have like this incredibly bloody series. Show never becomes as uh like edgy as those first five minutes.
SPEAKER_00:I did hear that the end of the first episode ends with quite a violent scenario. Yeah, yeah, both of them.
SPEAKER_01:But um that but I'll get there. Hugh of Loxley, he is going to uh the Sheriff of Nottingham because he wants to get his land back. I think William the Conqueror took it, and ever since William the Conqueror has taken that land, uh he that it's always been the Sheriff of Nottingham's, but a lot of the Saxon land I think is coming back to people. So Hugh of Loxley is hoping to get some of that luck, but the Sheriff of Nottingham is not budging. He is not going to get that land.
SPEAKER_00:Is there a reason because he's been called a reluctant villain in this? So he's not playing it as corny or evil as a lot of Sheriff of Nottinghams have been, as from what I understand.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, like it's it's hard to tell because I see him just clearly, and maybe it's the way I see Sean Bean as being such a good villain that usually I can only see him being villainous. But I guess there are certain times throughout the series where he's not as villainous as he could be. That being said, I don't think he's ever really nice to anyone.
SPEAKER_00:What does it mean when it says that his daughter Priscilla is her own can of worms? Like, how does she humanize him? She doesn't really, because Priscilla is evil in and of herself. I know, but maybe it's contrasting how evil he could be versus like he's actually taming his daughter, like versus what you know.
SPEAKER_01:The thing about Priscilla is that uh they do a time jump about like 15 minutes into the episode. So we see her when she's an adult, and the only thing she really does, aside from being mean to people, is have sex with someone named LaFour. But that seems to be like the most evil that she gets at that point.
SPEAKER_00:Do you see her as a contrast or foil to May Marian?
SPEAKER_01:Uh yes, she's supposed to be. Even though they have a close bond together that we see in the second episode, they're friends. Yes. Marianne is uh is definitely like kind of the good-hearted person. It's the person that Robin Hood ends up liking. We even see when Robin Hood is a kid, he went to the outside of the castle and met with Marianne who was. Did Robin Hood know Priscilla as a kid? I don't think so. Okay. I don't believe so.
SPEAKER_00:I thought it was like one of those ones where she was jealous, and then later on we're gonna get this love triangle.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I I have problems with this show, but thankfully I can say I don't think that romance is really that much of a detractor for this series. Okay, but it still exists. Yes, no, it's still definitely in the show because like even from the first scene that we see when they're kids, Robin Hood and Marianne have uh a liking towards one another. Right.
SPEAKER_00:So it's either gonna end up with Maid Marion, like you're saying it's not that big a deal, but in my mind, it's either Maid Marion, Priscilla, or this gata lady that he ends up with. Okay, so Maid Marion, he he likes her. And the funny thing about Maid Marion is that she's been presented, well, I was about to say in the comics. Um in the past, she used to actually be a maid, but like maid means maiden, as in someone who's unwed. Right. Um, so like, yeah, that that still tracks her dad, though. Isn't he worse than Sean Bean?
SPEAKER_01:He's yeah, no, I mean he probably is the biggest villain that they have. Earl of Huntington. He's very, he's very strict. He even yells at Robin Hood when he sees him outside the castle when very young. No, but I mean, like, you you really get a sense of how villainous he is when he's like hitting his daughter for being out too late.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, and he's also the guy who took Hugh's land. Yes. Who and then and then relegated him to being a gardener, like a fancy gardener. So what happened was yes.
SPEAKER_01:Uh what happened was uh Sheriff of Nottingham offered something to Hugh because he's not giving the land back. He's he can be a glorified forester and basically uh royal forester, yes. Yes, have a future for his kids, is how he kind of sells it. And so uh so it turns out that um I like how that's like a janitor back in the day.
SPEAKER_00:It's like you want to be a fancy janitor, you'll be the royal forester.
SPEAKER_01:Well, the thing is Robin Hood's mom, uh Joanne, is like really mad about it. She doesn't like how uh Hugh is kind of working for the king. So so it turns into this big fight, and that's when we get the time jump where Robin Hood, he kind of runs out uh because he's been caught kind of going to the castle and he's shooting arrows at the trees, and then suddenly the camera pans and he's older.
SPEAKER_00:He's a little Aladdin-ish, you know? He's got that little rebel mentality, and he's also learned how to shoot so well from his father. Who I mean, we should get a prequel series where it's just Hugh. I'm trying to think of because it's Rob of Loxley turns into so like Hewlin of Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, but Robin Hood, uh, when they do the time jump was shooting at the same tree. So I thought that that was a cool stylistic choice.
SPEAKER_00:Right. But his dad is still stuck doing the same thing. When does that like when does the thing bubble up? When does the tension explode?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so there's this hunt, a hunt that Robin Hood is finally going to be a part of. In fact, Joanne kind of uh convinces Hugh because eventually Robin was gonna have to join the hunt, but he wasn't sure when to join this hunt. And this hunt is going to include the Sheriff of Nottingham, Earl of Huntington. I think Priscilla and Marianne are there, guess some noblemen basically around, and they're going to be hunting for deer. And there's a scene where they're almost about to get the deer, Robin shoots at one and then ends up hitting a poacher. Now, what this was yes. Robin Hood's not supposed to be bad at shooting. Well, this is I think he thought that it was going to be a deer because they were all running and then it was it just ended up being someone. But it reminded me a lot of the beginning scene. They've nerfed Robin Hood. Well, the first scene of uh of Robin Hood, the 2006 version. Because do you remember what the first scene was? No. Okay, well, it was I do know okay, go ahead. There was it was uh there was like a ton of um people that worked for the Sheriff of Nottingham, and they caught someone stealing food, aka a poacher, and they said, Okay, well, we're going to have to take your hand in a court of law. And then that he ended up like kind of benaggling his way into it just being a finger and whatever happened there. But here it was the same thing. Uh the Sheriff of Nottingham wants to get this done with because there's two poachers, and he's like, you know what? We're gonna take it. Oh, so the poachers are like illegal poachers, they're not supposed to be there.
SPEAKER_00:So when he shoots one, he doesn't do it on purpose, but he's actually done them a favor because he's caught this guy for them. Right. And so they are about to enact some serious justice on a guy who's already gotten shot with an arrow.
SPEAKER_01:It's going to be a hand and someone that was with him, yes. Oh, so and uh, and then what happens though is that Hugh stands up for them and is like, wait, sir, Sheriff Nottingham, don't these people kind of deserve a trial? And in order to save face, because the Sheriff of Nottingham was kind of mad about that, but he's like, Yes, bring them back to my castle. But that was the sign, that was almost Sheriff of Nottingham's uh entryway into hating the hoods and wanting to get revenge for that.
SPEAKER_00:They're not called the hoods, they're they're called the Loxleys.
SPEAKER_01:I say, I say the hoods, but yeah, the Loxleys. Yes, that's what I meant. Yeah, yeah. And so by the end of the episode, um, it turns out that Earl of Huntington figures out that Hugh is keeping poachers, they bring him to prison.
SPEAKER_00:The other poachers that uh Hugh actually stood up for Are they really poachers then or are they people who they have like resisted the Empire, who've resisted the Normans? Uh Earl of Huntington calls them poachers.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Yeah. And so the poachers that actually Hugh helped, yes, uh, they are promised freedom if they're able to kill Hugh inside a prison. And uh and as this is going on, the guards come in and they accidentally stab a guard, the poachers, and then they blame it on Hugh, leading to Hugh's execution at the end of the first episode, which Robin Hood sees.
SPEAKER_00:Does Sheriff of Nottingham know any of this backstory? Sheriff of Nottingham is like he's the one that's complicit? He's the one that acts the imprisonment of Hugh. Right. But does he know that like they've actually framed him a bit? Yes. Okay. So I'm trying to find some legal room for being here, but it doesn't sound like there is a lot of uh stuff going on. His pr his his daughter is evil, he's evil.
SPEAKER_01:I think I think that he's he I from what we see, I don't think he knows 100% that Hugh uh killed the guard. Right. That's what I was led to believe.
SPEAKER_00:But he's but he's like fully ready because he hates he signs the death warrant and Hugh, I assume is it kind of like uh Arya's thing? Uh Robin just watches his dad.
SPEAKER_01:No, it's almost exactly that. And uh and then he prays Robin's dad right before he's hung uh to Adrick, the god of the forest. And that's how it tied into the end of the first episode. Then the second episode just a heinous devil. Yes, it threw in the kitchen sink. Robin Hood struggles with grief as his mother, Joanne, dies soon after his brother. Yeah, where's where's the mom and you have mentioned Joanne several times? The mom got sick and she ended up dying. There was also I should mention that Robin Hood and Mary Ann in the first episode, uh, she tracks him down and they go to a forest wedding and they end up kissing. That was kind of the sign of their romance.
SPEAKER_00:A forest wedding.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was it was a wedding in the forest, and it was very strange. I had a problem with this, where Marianne turns to Robin and is like, my dad, if I'm out too late, he's going to become suspicious. And then Robin Hood just says to her, You are 33. No, I think that like the earliest, uh, the earliest they are is like I know I know I know that. I think they're in the early 20s, though. But the problem I have is that Robin Hood then says, um, it's fine, you can stay. And she ends up staying, and then she goes back home late at night. And gets hit by her father. And then gets hit by her father. And I was like, whoa, wait, hold on. Robin Hood should know just from the hunt that Earl of Huntington is like an aggressive dude. And she should know because it's her father that she's gonna get punished for it, but for some reason she stays out late anyways. And I'm not in favor of it. Do they have like a plan to run away together? Yes. That is episode two, because he's lose he's lost every but I wouldn't think he has much to live around there for. It's it's it's a line he says it was so out of the end of the fucking world pilot where uh where Robin Hood goes to Mary. Well, no, his love interests. I I was saying more the more the scene where he's just like, we have to run away together. We can go and we can leave, and she even agrees to it. Say, but I gotta do one last thing, and then he's like, he's like kill Sean Beat. He's just he's just like, we have to get out of here. Uh-huh. But the Earl of Huntington interrupts and starts beating Robin Hood, and he barely gets away.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so it's interesting because the Earl of Huntington is played by someone who was actually in the BBC Robin Hood series who played King Richard there. So he played a good guy in that series, and then yeah. I I would not have been able to put two into the uh was the Battle of the Mohicans, or uh you know I'm talking about that that famous movie. Uh, anyways, so yeah, so this is the aftermath. His dad's dead, he runs to Sherwood Forest.
SPEAKER_01:His cousin, his cousin has ended up leaving Will, who he's had a tensionist, but also like it's kind of like some point. There's been tension between the two of them, but it's also like sibling rivalry. And then Will, he's off for a job. So he Robin Hood at this point is just kind of completely on his own, but he's told by his uncle, because he moves in with his uncle and aunt after his mom dies. Luke Skywalker style.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That uh that there is this shooting competition, archery competition. So that's when Robin Hood decides that he's going to enter. He goes to the Sherwood Forest, he got a new bow because he broke his, because he was so mad that Marianne has left for London at the behest of her father because the father doesn't want her near Robin Hood. And he goes to the forest and he's about to be on his way, and then he runs in to Norman's soldiers, one of the soldiers being the per Priscilla's boyfriend who she's sleeping with. And they end up egging him on. They come up with this bet about how he has to shoot one of their targets and he'll get 10 pennies for it. If he misses, he has to give up his like great bow that is that his aunt made for him. And uh, and they choose a deer. And he's like, I can't shoot that deer. That's the king's deer. If I shoot it, then they're going to be after me. And they're like, You're not gonna hit it anyways. So he ends up shooting it, he hits it, and then they're like, You gotta get the fuck out of here. That was the king's deer. So they were actually helping him, they didn't just immediately arrest him or anything. At very, very first it seemed like they were, but then he's like, No, I want my 10 pennies, and then they don't give it to him. As he's running away, LaFour, again, Priscilla's boyfriend, pulls out an arrow, misses him, Robin Hood shoots one back, LaFour ends up dying. You see the arrow pierce his heart, and then he runs into the forest as arrows are shooting after him. That's how the second episode ends.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. So you said Marianne was sent to London, right? The Royal Court of London. Do you see the other villain of the series, Queen Eleanor of Equitaine, who wouldn't actually be a villain back in that time because she had already like done some pretty crazy stuff and they had like put her in jail for a while and then they released her. But yeah, by then I don't think she was as well. I don't I don't think she's in the I don't remember seeing her in the first two episodes. Okay, she's because I from what I understood is like Marion's sent to kind of shadow someone, and that is her Yes, like to the Queen's Queen's Northern something.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, okay, so that makes more sense. Eleanor of Beckwith, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and uh and you would have recognized her because she was from Gladiator, like both movies and Wonder Woman. She's very used to playing a Queen Empress type. Um, but it kind of reminded me of Sirens or Hunting Wives Becoming Elizabeth, where you do have like the new naive person coming in and being under the tutelage of someone who's kind of in a way evil. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Let me ask you something. So, out of all my like comparisons I can make, what do you think I'm going to compare this to first? And I'll give you a hint, they just came out with a sequel to this movie about a month ago.
SPEAKER_00:You know I could be I just know that Spartacus is coming out pretty soon, the sequel series to that.
SPEAKER_01:And uh it's it's Tron Legacy. Okay. And the reason for the comparison is I feel the exact same way about this TV show and I do that film, where everything works in this project, I feel like does it? I think in some areas more than others, but it, you know, it's shot well. I think that this show does a good job of tricking the audience into feeling like this is a vast story, even though really the uh it's a lot of forest shots and the outside of the castle and inside the castle, like inside the castle reminded me a lot of like Winterfelt, just kind of without the snow. It's supposed to be politics at the front and center. I thought that I thought that the uh acting was good. I didn't think anyone was a standout, but I thought that I got the job done. Thought that the music was good.
SPEAKER_00:It's been called the most realistic version of Robin Hood yet. Do you agree to that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, yeah, and I think even the costumes work, but I think probably the part that I disagree with, the story. I think that the writing for Tron Legacy, but especially for Robin Hood, is really atrocious. From everything with like the dialogue, the setup, the overexpository lines, the two episodes are completely backstory. We could start where this episode, episode two, ends with him in the forest.
SPEAKER_00:Just have a guy in a green suit running through the forest being like, Oh, that's Robin Hood.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and yeah, I mean it would be uh uh interesting scene too, with like arrows coming after him. Give us a couple scenes explaining everything, and it'd be fine.
SPEAKER_00:But I bet you're just doing the beginning where it was like him having running through a forest with arrows going, and he'd be like, I bet you're wondering how I got it on the situation and doing the backflash.
SPEAKER_01:No, but like even details with secondary characters that I did not care about. Like it just there was so much problem, I feel like, with just the writing of the series when everything else I thought worked out fine. And I just I was wondering, do you know if people feel the same way?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, uh okay, so like um uh Guardian gave it three stars and said, Sean Bean gifts us with the most gloriously bad TV offering of the year. Uh it was like a hate watch for them, but also like they enjoyed how bad it got. I mean, it doesn't make a lot of sense. However, there were some good reviews. Collider Paste really liked it. It has a 67 on Metacritic, so it's it's mixed for sure.
SPEAKER_01:I think my problem is that it's so sluggish, it's so boring. And when you take into account, I know I'm bringing up a lot of like superhero things, but what do Superman, Spider-Man, I'm talking about the most recent iterations, the Batman, and Fantastic Four all have in common. They all had dark versions made of it. Well, that that is true, but I was also thinking the newest iterations 86 the backstory. Like, we don't really need a backstory or as much backstory as they give us in Robin Hood as to who he is. He's one of the most famous characters of all time.
SPEAKER_00:Right, but like I said, there's so many different versions of him. Was he a nobleman's son?
SPEAKER_01:Was he like, or but you're saying that they could tell this along the way rather than Yeah, and I mean like they could also shave off like at least 15 minutes by getting rid of some of the expository lines. I got examples from both episodes, but this is at the very beginning where Sheriff of Nottinghale is talking to Earl of Huntington, and again, this is just one of the plethora I could choose from, but he says, Nottingham is not mine, it is the king's. I send his governance only. We provide taxes and loyalty in return. We enjoy the benefits of the king's generosity, his lands are our own so prosper. And I was thinking, what about Nottingham is the king's? We serve him in exchange for his land's prosperity. I'm sorry, Nottingham is the king? What Nottingham is the place that is him is the king's because he was trying to say that like he's just kind of taking it uh for himself right now. But that's 35 words compared to 13.
SPEAKER_00:Were they speaking in like old-timey limerick English? Yes. Saying they were trying to like be all fancy.
SPEAKER_01:Every character has huge lines and they just like Shakespearean dialogue, yes, drops so much exposition. It was it was crazy to listen to. It's almost like if Luke Skywalker, imagine the new hope, right? But Luke Skywalker, when he decides that he's going to go on his journey uh as early as he does in that film, imagine they stretched out everything, including his parents' style.
SPEAKER_00:You're sounding a lot like I think Roger Ebert, which says it's hard to justify its existence. Right. Because like it they did talk about how they stretched things out, but they were talking over the course of like whatever 10 episodes it runs.
SPEAKER_01:If a new hope went with how long this does, because both are around two hours long, Luke would just be starting his journey as the credits rule.
SPEAKER_00:Like, you know, I mean they also compared it to Peaky Blinder, the show creators, co-created by John Glenn and Jonathan, not that John Glenn, but Jonathan John Glenn and Jonathan English, they compared it to Peaky Blinders. Why did they do that?
SPEAKER_01:I am wondering why. Maybe you just have no maybe. I mean, like there were like kind of forest people, the tone kind of gritty. I can actually see. You didn't actually meet the Merrimen though yet. No, I know we're not.
SPEAKER_00:So it's a TikTok star they cast.
SPEAKER_01:That's what I'm saying. It's like we it was so much stuff that we know about Robin Hood we haven't even gone to yet. I was wondering why they were so fixed on the story. One thing I will give props to the show for, though, is that I do always love that MGM logo because you get the famous line in the roar and then the cool, like immersive, weird camera pan to the golden white text at the end.
SPEAKER_00:What had they stayed with the animal thing, live action, and kept that lion being like Richard the Lionheart, you know, just like in the original '73 adaptation. He jumps out of the circle Metron Goldenmeyer. Puts on a little hat or little the crown, and yeah, he's he's running things. Uh, no damsels in distress, no menonites. That was their methodology going into it. Um, production began in 2025, but in Serbia, uh, in Belgrade, they shot most of the things, and then they used a lot of CGI, I'd assume. Um, and then also Definitely for the stag.
SPEAKER_01:The stag was again a weird story to tell, but you could tell that that was that was CGI.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And I think that they're really combating the whole like Christianity versus the pagans and their religion and how you have to respect the fairy lore. Um, so it would be I would be curious to see how much Robin channels his inner magic, his inner fairy to fight the uh the Normans and I did, I did like some things like when he's shooting arrows because you were able to missed.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, he missed one, but like by the he's definitely uh has his skill, you know, like he's supposed to be a rebel. Okay, but it's just by the end of the we're like a fifth of the way through the series right now, and he's just starting his journey. There's too many characters, there's too much happening, it feels too dense.
SPEAKER_00:On the shows, on the show side, do you have the same motives that he does when you see his father killed so unjustly? Do you feel for Robin Hood enough to be like, I'm rooting for this character to move on? Or are you just like, I want this guy to die?
SPEAKER_01:No, no, no, no. I didn't I didn't find Robin Hood like too annoying.
SPEAKER_00:This is one of his first roles, the person who plays him, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I thought, and I thought that he did fine. This is purely just everything having to do with the writing was bad. Everything else I thought was fine, though, which is why I'm going to give the series four and a half out of ten.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, that's fair uh rating. Do you have a favorite character besides Sean Bean? Hmm. Priscilla, Marion, Robin.
SPEAKER_01:I actually like Marion, come to think of it. Yeah, she's probably the one with like a gold heart. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, cool. She is mostly just from like English stuff, you know, British soap awards. She's done that. So this has been compared a little bit to a soap opera, too. So I'm not completely surprised that you're giving me a four and a half out of ten. Any other points? Oh, Frederico Hughes scored uh this series, which I found interesting because he's done like 60 films, which include The Secret in Their Eyes, which is like noted as one of the best. Not the remake, right? The the first one. I think the first one. Okay. Now that you say that, I'm scared. Uh Ridley Scott's X Disc, Gods and Kings, and a gentleman in Moscow. So he's on TV too. All right.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah, and I like I said, I thought the music was good.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh anything else? No, that's very good. All right. Well, thanks for listening. We'll see you on the next episode. Hope you enjoyed this one. Bye.
SPEAKER_01:Bye.