Robin Hood

So Robin Hood. I watched 3 more episodes, Saturday just gone, and I do believe it's getting worse.

The first one was "Let the Games Begin", which featured the return of Guy of Guisburne. I have to assume that Richard Armitage has given up all hope of escape, given the ludicrous levels of evil leering he did in it. But having Guy about the place tends to spice things up. There was also stuff for Little John to do (which is good) as him, we like. Oh, yeah, if the fabulous Stu reads this, I recognised Bertha from Queer as Folk.

Of course, this was only setting up for the introduction of the big bad in "Do You Love Me", Prince John has arrived, and he's played by Toby Stephens -

Yeah. I'll get round to hating him once my body has finished being in a full-body toe curl. I have no explanation for it but Toby Stephens has, for as long as I can remember, induced a state of deep seated umf (to steal Wyndi's phrase).

So yeah, you get Guy (who looks like this ) [Further photos behind ( this cut )

on his knees in front of Prince John, who is demanding to be told that Guy loves him.

Despite the fanservice (and really, Guy is the go-to guy for fanservice in this show) it still terrible. Although, the number of women who have suddenly revealed a thing for leather when it's on Guy borders on the disturbing.

So yes this continues ( on to the actual plot of both 'Do You Love Me' and the episode that follows it 'Too Hot to Handle' )

Now my complaints (anachronisms caught = 3, 1) Kate is carrying a katana or something of a similar design, 2) Tuck's blow dart and 3) Alan joking about 'a slice and ice'.) will centre on the writing, and it's complete lack of cohesion.

Now, I'm used to them ignoring what has gone before, but normally they keep the characters the same, and by the end of the last series, they'd at least achieved a cohesive tone.

So far this season, they've straightened out Much so he isn't continually fussing over Robin, which is really odd, and they seem to have totally forgotten Marian. Not that she existed, but how she made Guy and Robin. I mean, at the end of the last series, it's was an even money bet as to whether Guy was going to show his true 'evil' colours, or whether he was going to go off the deep end. Neither happened. Robin hasn't gone on the epic revenge that he promised either, and about the only thing that Marian is used for is as something they can insult each other with. There's very little organic growth to the random call backs to Marian either, especially in comparison to the times when they have shown it (i.e. Little John at the end of last season, he'd not mentioned his family, but when he did speak of them it was entirely fitting, and he got a couple of scenes like that this year too.)

It's really strange, and I don't know how much of this is to do with them killing Marian off at the end of the last series, it seems to have unbalanced everything. Especially the female characters, I mean, Marian and Djaq at least had their own characters, and while Isabella does, Kate really doesn't (mooning around over Robin and being the 'girl power' girl don't count as character). I do wonder how much notice Lucy Griffiths gave of her intention to leave, because large chunks of Kate's character could have been written with her in mind and the whole thing smacks of hasty re-write, especially as it's not like they've got new writers (I looked it up), and I refuse to believe they lost what little talent they had overnight.

And because of having three new characters to write in, the old regulars have had very little to do. I mean, Tuck has Djaq's misc. alchemy/medical/general chem knowledge, and Kate has taken up Marian's 'girl in peril' position. (There's been no one to replace Will, but they've upgraded Much and Allan's fighting abilities instead). Tuck's been getting a lot of Little John's 'this is a bad idea' lines, and I'm not sure Allan has had anything to do except mock Much.

Isabella seems to be very much a dark! Marian, whose forced/arranged marriage actually took place, and she has character, mostly an inverse of her brother's but ... well, with this, I'll take what I can get, and if Marian had stayed, I think her character would still have worked.

It'll be interesting to see how it develops.

Writer's Block: Get It to Go

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Around ours, we're blessed with some really good takeaways. There's a very good Chinese takeaway, an exceptional Turkish one and a Caribbean one that I really need to visit more often. What I order depends on how I'm feeling and how bothered I can be to walk, the Caribbean one is about a 20 minute walk away, but the food is more than worth it, while the Turkish one is a five minute walk and the Chinese is at the top of our road.

My figure occasionally betrays this closeness of said establishments, but I do try and limit myself to one a fortnight.