Jonas Armstrong's Hood is possibly the smuggest character I've ever seen on TV drama. Makes me want to root for the sheriff except he's an equally tedious pantomine villain. Richard Armitage who plays Gisborne would have made a far better Hood, both physically and charisma wise. This show also takes a cue from the mediocre Herecules the Legendary Journeys with lukewarm comedy provided by boring buffoon like sidekicks. The biggest difference between this and the mid eighties series Robin of Sherwood is the twenty odd year time gap between them, because Britain has changed enormously in that time. I'm talking about the story lines not the lavishness/ special effects. In 1984 it was still OK to celebrate the indigenous British Saxon/ Celtc culture so you had episodes about the Swords of Weiland( the Mythical Saxon smith) and Herne the Hunter ( from Celtic myth) to the background of a heavily Celtic mystical soundtrack. It was gritty and serious. Fast forward twenty years and you've got Robin quoting the Koran, the English/ Welsh longbow takes a backseat to the 'Saracen' bow and multicultural Britain appears to be up and running in the twelfth century.Also the crusades being snidely linked by the script to the Iraq war. The crusades were a bad thing according to this show which English kids will watch. There's no show telling them that 400 years ago ships from the North African caliphate were raiding British coastal towns for slaves. No shows about the Muslim crusades in Spain and South west Europe. This is brainwashing. If they wanted a happy clappy series which all cultures in Britain can relate to, why not set it in a fantasy world instead of rewriting history.
Review of Robin Hood
