My wife found it and we have been watching it with our kids. It is fun - kind of a Hercules/Xena type of show with a bit more sharpness to the dialogue - and with Keith Allen as the Sheriff, you have someone who can chew some quality scenery Richard Armitage seems like a good actor (my wife found RH after seeing Armitage in North and South, which was a fine BBC mini-series) and Lucy Griffiths was an attractive Marian with a bit of spunk…the actor playing Robin seemed fine but not quite up to shouldering this level of re-telling…
So - did it do well? Was it held up as quality genre-work or merely meh?
Not brilliantly, although I caught a few episodes the first two series and it was perfectly watchable. I hear the third and last series was dire, though.
Well, that was thoughtfully dismissive; thank you for taking the time. :rolleyes:
I am not looking for anyone to tell me it was the UK Sopranos, fercrissakes - I am just trying to understand if it was roundly panned, super-popular in a cross-over sort of way, or if it attained some culty/fan-boyish status but not much more. I have no idea if a show lasting 3 years is average, poor or pretty good for this type of show in the UK…
I think you are reading too much into Candyman74’s quite reasonable observation.
The show is pretty successful, and has attracted a certain amount of comment. But it’s not a runaway hit, nor a show that you can necessarily expect that everybody has seen or anything like that. It’s a popular older kids’ show that many adults also enjoy. No more or less.
Ah - that clarification helps; thank you and sorry **Candyman **if that is where you were going. Yes, the over-the-top Saved the Day sequences with triumphal music can be a bit kid-friendly, but it seems to be a bit more than Saturday-morning kids’ fare, if you will…
My wife watched it fairly religiously for the first two seasons; I watched it largely by osmosis.
It wasn’t awful, but it did come across as a kids’ show in places – the absolutely incompetent sheriff’s men, the scenery-chewing Sheriff, lots of fight scenes which seemed to consist mainly of shoving the bad guys into each other, then running away.
I never saw or heard a lot of buzz about it among sci-fi or fantasy fans, which suggests that it didn’t catch on strongly here (but, I may well be mistaken).
Yep - I guess that’s the genesis of my question. I see all the problems you and others have mentioned, but wasn’t sure if folks looked past those and fanboyed out anyway.
My wife is pretty linked into the fangirl / fan-fic scene, and I don’t recall her ever mentioning much about that series (and she was pretty seriously into the series for its first two seasons here in the States). Doesn’t mean it’s not out there, but, if so, I suspect it’s not big.
It might help if you had a bit more context for it’s place here on UK TV.
It was the BBC’s second attempt at bringing back popular family drama to early Saturday evenings, after the huge success of reviving Doctor Who. The idea being that Robin Hood would fill the same slot in part of the year when Doctor Who was off the air, and appeal to largely the same audience. Merlin is the third show they’ve produced for that slot.
While it was never the runaway hit that Doctor Who is, Robin Hood, did more than well enough in the ratings, at least to begin with. It’s generally thought of more-or-less the way you seem to see it – an enjoyable slice of fun that you don’t want to take too seriously. It seems to have fallen apart in the third series, unfortunately, and they called it a day – which I suppose is better than trying to flog a dead horse.
Very helpful - thank you for that context. And yeah, a UK woman who is friends with my wife recommended Merlin based on her (my wife’s) enjoyment of RH. Is Merlin similar in tone and execution?
Pretty much, I think. It’s more effects-heavy, with ogres, dragons and so on, and perhaps a little more obviously targeted at a younger audience, but with enough humour that adults can generally watch without embarrassment, I’d say.
I don’t know if it helps to know that over here these aren’t cult shows for a minority genre audience, as I take it they would be in the US. They’re very mainstream, but on the “lighter” end – maybe a little like The A Team or The Dukes of Hazzard used to be.
I heard that them there series with the surgeon…or was he just a normal doctor? did pretty well with the old people, being a kids show and all that jazz…
I’m American, and watched it on BBC America, and yes, the sheriff was an over-the-top bad guy. He did everything but rub his mustache and tie Maid Marian to the train tracks.
Richard Armitage seems like a good actor (my wife found RH after seeing Armitage in North and South, which was a fine BBC mini-series) and Lucy Griffiths was an attractive Marian with a bit of spunk…the actor playing Robin seemed fine but not quite up to shouldering this level of re-telling…
