Forget the Hood

Despite my better judgement I decided I would give the somewhat underwhelming new Robin Hood one more go this week, mostly because I'd heard this third episode was one of Paul Cornell's and I usually like his work. I should have stuck with my original instincts; a mere twenty minutes into this third episode and I turned off in disgust. Lazy modern phrases like 'locking down the Castle' and 'we're going to win hearts and minds' were so dreadfully out of place; sure, make the tale more palatable to a contemporary audience, but 21st century phrases in a medieval setting is as stupid as the out-of-period costumes - you contemporise by your storytelling, not by slopping in modern phrases, that's just lazy writing. And then as the pantomime Sheriff of Nottingham made a speech he added to the awful 'hearts and minds' speech by uttering a speech about dealing with Robin's 'terrorism'. I mean, come on, that was even more cack handed than previous attempts to liken Robin's experiences to the war in Iraq... Battlestar Galactica manages to be SF yet seriously address contemporary political events, but this nonsense is just laughable. Sorry, guys, but this show is dreadful: totally out of its period, sloppy writing, dire dialogue and cardboard characters, so that's it, I'm abandoning this one. Let's hope Torchwood tomorrow night is a bit better.