Busy day. The kind where I finally got around to lunch at almost 2 p.m.
Handful of meetings before that. Catching up with people, wrapping up old things, setting course for new projects and all of that.
And then there was class. Fourteen bright young minds sitting in a too-warm room hearing about what they’ve gotten themselves into for the next 13 weeks. It was fun. They’ll take field trips and write a lot and give some presentations. They’ll have to put up with me. But aside from that last part it is a good course. I’ll talk a lot about journalism, but it is an intro class, so there’s a great deal of public relations and advertising, too.
Otherwise, I’m just trying to get back into the swing of things. I love my holiday break, could use some more of it and yet am terribly, wonderfully spoiled by it. This week has not eased back into the routine, but just puts you squarely in it. Not violently. There’s been nothing brutish or shocking about it. Just work. Here it is. And here’s another thing or two. Do enjoy. And don’t forget those Emails and phone calls.
I broke my office phone today, somehow. I have an old touchtone job, one of those that immediately replaced the rotary phones. Suddenly the numbers don’t do anything. Very odd.
I began watching the BBC’s Robin Hood this evening. It has been well received and it is on Netflix, so why not. I watched one episode and realized “This is like Kevin Sorbo as Hercules, but only a third as cartoonish.”
Which was good, because it instantly became background sound, not requiring any real attention. Ascertain the plot, ignore the fight sequences. No one ever really gets hurt. Everyone always escapes captivity. Robin Hood is a terrific shot. We get it.
Here’s the opening sequence:
First of all, how did those guards and horses sneak up on the hunter? Second, the guards never have such an opportunity to share as much character or dialog as they do here. The guards turn into red shirts, willing to spar, easy to knock off. Now the Sheriff, the villian, is delightfully funny.
His heavy is the most cardboard character you’ve seen in a while, though.
The biggest things are the modern sensibilities, put I’m a fantasy character purist. Fiction should be just so. The 20th and 21st Century were deliberately shoehorned into a tale set in the 12th. Of course there is modern foreign policy symbolism for the BBC viewing audience. They are not very subtle about it, but you’ve trained yourself to excuse much of that, anyway. One character, who only appears for one episode (so far) was wearing modern camouflage. The clip you just saw shows one of the evil character demonstrating a remarkable alacrity for wigs and latex disguises. These sorts of things take me right out of it, but then Robin Hood shoots his bow and the music blares and we’re off on another easy adventure!
When they inevitably make the American version they need Paul Giamatti as Much.
