![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A doubtfully welcome return for the series with perhaps the strongest sense of period ever - that is, if you think all historical periods run concurrently and everyone was dipping into the same dressing-up box. This must be the first twelfth-century drama in which henchmen walk around wearing what look like berets that might be worn by some continental national guard. While Robin and his men's attire is a little less Marks and Spencer than last year, Guy of Gisborne is still desperately seeking his motorbike. Davina, the Sheriff's sister, seems to be a pioneer in cosmetics, in latex, and in whatever combination of fibres her Queen of Sin outfit was made from (a tribute, I suppose, to the Saturday nights of the 1960s and Diana Rigg's encounter with the Hellfire Club in The Avengers); Mark Wright at The Stage blog applauds her sexiness, but I found her performance and its presentation largely stale and, like her make-up, overdone. I made allowances, as I thought she was going to be developed in future episodes, but I was proved wrong.
Jonas Armstrong shows a bit more spirit as Robin - and the fact that he bites his fingers at times of stress, like me, makes him sympathetic - but remains notedly uncharismatic. Lucy Griffiths is improved as Marian. Pre-publicity emphasised that both had put on bulk; this isn't noticeable with Armstrong, but Lucy Griffiths is more curvaceous and this helps her look older and gives her more physical strength to support Marian when she needs to be forceful. Unfortunately it makes it more difficult to disguise that she is female when garbed as the Night Watchman; during one fight scene I was expecting the Sheriff or Gisborne to exclaim that the Watchman was, in fact, a Watchwoman.
Armstrong's best scene was the one which potentially laid the scene for his elimination from the ongoing series, when he led the outlaws in proclaiming that they were all Robin Hood. There is evidently a little more attempt at character development this time; the Sheriff's leadership of the Black Knights and their ambitions for England provide a bit more focus to Robin's fight, and the treason of one of the 'merry men' will at least help differentiate them a bit. The new title sequence is an improvement, and the greenwood looks a bit greener this time, though the landscape remains mostly unEnglish. The new signature graphic of Robin's brilliant green iris indicates what the production is trying to get at; but Robin Hood's new camp, hidden by mounds of brown autumn leaves, is definitely at the poorer end of Camp Nonsense, and to survive the series concept needs a good deal more coherence and substance.
Jonas Armstrong shows a bit more spirit as Robin - and the fact that he bites his fingers at times of stress, like me, makes him sympathetic - but remains notedly uncharismatic. Lucy Griffiths is improved as Marian. Pre-publicity emphasised that both had put on bulk; this isn't noticeable with Armstrong, but Lucy Griffiths is more curvaceous and this helps her look older and gives her more physical strength to support Marian when she needs to be forceful. Unfortunately it makes it more difficult to disguise that she is female when garbed as the Night Watchman; during one fight scene I was expecting the Sheriff or Gisborne to exclaim that the Watchman was, in fact, a Watchwoman.
Armstrong's best scene was the one which potentially laid the scene for his elimination from the ongoing series, when he led the outlaws in proclaiming that they were all Robin Hood. There is evidently a little more attempt at character development this time; the Sheriff's leadership of the Black Knights and their ambitions for England provide a bit more focus to Robin's fight, and the treason of one of the 'merry men' will at least help differentiate them a bit. The new title sequence is an improvement, and the greenwood looks a bit greener this time, though the landscape remains mostly unEnglish. The new signature graphic of Robin's brilliant green iris indicates what the production is trying to get at; but Robin Hood's new camp, hidden by mounds of brown autumn leaves, is definitely at the poorer end of Camp Nonsense, and to survive the series concept needs a good deal more coherence and substance.
Tags: