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In the vein of hokey
adventure fare like "Hercules" and "Xena," I vaguely
recall "The New Adventures of Robin Hood" playing a long
time ago on cable and syndicated network television
viewing its highlights on a cheesy commercial anxious to
convince us that this is not your daddy's Robin Hood. It
was "hip" and "edgy." Every five years there's a new
incarnation that promises to re-invent a pretty stale
character. Taking in "The New Adventures of Robin Hood,"
you'd have to watch it with the realization that it's
meant to be B grade hokum. The acting is pretty bland,
the props and settings are anachronistic most times, the
editing and special effects are piss poor, all of the
extras are well groomed, clean, and made-up, and the
archetypes here are that of which you've seen a dozen
times before. Robin Hood is the rebellious leader with
the American accent, he has a spiritual guide Tuck, an
out of place independent female warrior Marion for
sexual tension, and a strong man Little John who is
there to knock heads and little else. Being a fan of old
time serials from the thirties and of the Hanna Barbera
action cartoons, I found the series to be a nice bit of
escapism, one that doesn't mind being absurd because
it's aware that it's there to just entertain
impressionable viewers and move on with its purpose. |
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How else do you take the
opening scene of the pilot where Marion pulls a Bugs
Bunny by luring the evil Mongols with her feminine
wiles only to have one horny gent conked out by
Little John waiting behind the trees? And do I even
have to bother criticizing the implementing of the
old stepping on the rake gag? You just roll your
eyes and try to have fun. Matthew Porreta reminds me
more of Hawkeye from the Avengers than a Robin Hood
of any kind. Chiseled, good looking, and racially
ambiguous, he garners a slew of arrow oriented
gadgets and kills off his foes with a smirk and a
whisk of his long black hair.
He rarely ever kills his
enemies, and when he has to it's played off for fun
with Robin smirking with triumph as his foes fall
without a drop of blood. In episode one Robin and
his merry men struggle with evil English speaking
Mongols (led by Genghis Khan's black sheep
brother--no seriously!) who pillage a local village
every season for food. Angry and desperate the merry
men take it upon themselves to teach the villagers
how to fight back a la "Seven Samurai." And the
remaining episodes are the same structure with the
heroes being re-introduced, a villain being formed,
the heroes snapping in to action and riding off in
to the sunset to fight again. For people who can
manage to sit through campy adventure fantasy that
doesn't take itself seriously at all and is just
there to keep us giggling and entertained, then I
highly suggest it because I was fully prepared to
slam it in to the ground but I couldn't help but
smile and watch these heroes stop the bad guys on
every episode. This is the type of child-like
non-violent whimsy I enjoyed as a child, and I
admired it just the same now. It's not "Lord of the
Rings," but it sure does the trick as disposable
genre fodder. |
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