Robin Hood: Season Three

DVD Reviews | Jan 25th, 2010

Starring: Jonas Armstrong, Richard Armitage, Keith Allen, Gordon Kennedy, Sam Troughton, Joe Armstrong, David Harewood, Toby Stephens, Lara Pulver, Joanne Froggatt, Clive Standen
Created By: Dominic Minghella
Studio: BBC
Buy On Amazon.com

The third and final season of Robin Hood is now available on DVD and it’s a somewhat satisfying conclusion to the series. The season isn’t as good as the previous seasons, but it’s still an entertaining one!

When we last saw Robin Hood and his gang, they were in the Holy Land. Maid Marion was murdered by Guy of Gisborne and now Robin is back in England wanting revenge. The two meet up and an epic battle ensues. Meanwhile, Brother Tuck (David Harewood) has arrived in England to search for Robin. He thinks he’s the only man that can unite the people of England and rebel against Prince John, The Sheriff and Gisborne. After the end of the episode, Tuck joins Robin’s band of outlaws. Eventually, another girl Kate joins the outlaws as well, and wants vengeance of the death of her Brother. Each episode is the same pretty much. In that something happens in the beginning, someone gets caught, someone gets rescued by Robin Hood and then a battle/sword fight ensues. Somewhere in there, Guy’s evil but hot sister Isabella (Lara Pulver) comes into the picture and takes command of being Sheriff of Nottingham for a little bit. You’ll have to see what happens to Sheriff when you watch the episode. Surprisingly, Gisborne becomes an outlaw himself after his evil sister takes command of everything and joins Robin’s gang. They decide to end things once and for all and take down Prince John, The Sheriff and Isabella before things get really out of hand.

It took awhile for the season to get going for me. By the time I got into the season, it was over and it made me want more. I liked that they introduced new characters like Tuck, Kate, and Isabella. It was nice to see Prince John as well, played wonderfully by Toby Stephens. I almost wished they had Tuck on the series from the beginning. His character is known to be with Robin Hood from the beginning after all. Kate’s character is okay, but it seems Robin moves on pretty quickly after Marion dies. Isabella was both likable and evil at the same time. It was nice to have some new villains besides The Sheriff of Nottingham. His shtick was funny in the beginning, but his character worn out his welcome and got tiresome.

The problem with adding new characters is the old ones lose screen time and that’s what happens in this final season. Little John, Much and Alan don’t really have much to do in this season, or well not as much as they did in the previous seasons. I’m going to discuss spoilers from this point on so don’t read if you don’t want to know! The ending was both exciting and disappointing because of the way things end up. The battle scenes were a lot of fun to watch; the entire season had lots of great fights but the ending was probably the best of the series. A lot of the characters end up getting killed; both Alan and Robin die like bitches. At least Gisborne had a good death that redeemed himself (sort of). The castle blowing up was very nice and satisfying. While it sucked seeing Robin die, this season isn’t continuing anyway so I’m fine with the way things ended up. He could have died better instead of the way he went. But I guess, he did end up getting payback on Isabella and The Sheriff. If they were to continue the series, I could see them doing a spin-off called Archer that features some of the remaining cast members. Clive Standen seems like an excellent replacement for Robin but I don’t think that’s happening now anyway. Still, a spin-off would be cool.

The last disc of the DVD is dedicated to the special features. A Legend Reborn featurette is a little bit over a half hour and features behind the scenes footage, interviews and other stuff. A New Look is a quick look at the clothing of the series, and the Creating chaos featurette is about the battles and explosions. I liked the character profiles on the new characters and the video diaries were cool to see too.

Robin Hood was a satisfying and entertaining series about the folklore hero. I don’t think it was necessarily the best TV series (Robin of Sherwood is still the best in my mind) but the show entertained me for 3 seasons. I’d love for the same creator and crew to make some more BBC shows that involve historic or folk legends. Maybe they could do a King Arthur series next? Robin Hood tends to get cheesy and over the top at times, but I think it’s fun for the whole family. Some people might not like this but I’ve been a fan of it since Day 1. Give the series a shot, you might like it!

Features:
A Legend Reborn
A New Look
Trebuchet: Creating Chaos
Character Profiles
Video Diaries

Video:
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles:
English

Bottom Line: Not as good as the previous seasons but still an entertaining one that comes to a close.
Running Time: 572 mins
Rating: NR
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:

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