Last Friday I came home from work to the very-much-appreciated surprise of a DVD box set delivered right to my very door. Imagine that. Previously having to pick up jobs as I could get them made my husband and I a cash-only couple. I'm not used to ordering anything off the Internet with a credit card.
But with the help of a fabulous friend of mine, two orders were placed to Amazon.ca when I called her in the midst of a full blown Richard Armitage emergency. Luckily, she's both a writer and a woman who can appreciate a Richard Armitage emergency.
I'd been watching as much of BBC's Robin Hood on YouTube as I could. It all got to be too much, however, and when another friend of mine mentioned that BBC was having a sale on their DVD box sets, well...
Season 1 of BBC's Robin Hood arrived just in time for me to take it to my writers' retreat in July. I used clips from episode 7 to have a look at the character of Sir Guy of Gisborne. It was part of the writing craft workshop I gave on The Gray Character, one who exhibits equal measures of light and dark characteristics. Someone who by nature is unpredictable, because he follows neither the hero's nor the villain's path precisely.
The release of the second season coincides with the conclusion of Season 2 on BBC America.
And this box set came just in time for my ongoing Richard Armitage emergency. If you're not familiar with what that could be, I'm currently writing a fictional character who resembles Richard Armitage, and watching him obsessively in Robin Hood helps me with my own scenes.
The series follows Robin of Locksley who returns from the Holy Land, having served in King Richard's private guard. Robin is played by Irish newcomer Jonas Armstrong.
Dredging up some show of enthusiasm at Robin's return, Sir Guy of Gisborne had been enjoying Robin's estate in his crusading absence. He's also been wooing Robin's former betrothed, Lady Marian. Gisborne can hardly contain his glee when Robin finds himself on the wrong side of the law, as carved out by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Gisborne is played by English actor Richard Armitage, shown here at right.
Lady Marian is still enamoured of Robin, but chooses to stay in Nottingham with her father, the former sheriff. She keeps watch for Robin while protecting the villagers and her father from the wrath of the new sheriff. Marian is played by English newcomer Lucy Griffiths.
Gisborne, meanwhile, pursues Marian with the zeal of a man determined to keep his enemy from reclaiming the woman he once left behind. Robin, Marian and Guy form an intense love triangle which - for me - is one of two engines that drive this series.
The other relationship that I cannot resist is the skewed father/son dynamic between the Sheriff of Nottingham and Gisborne. Played with an equal measure of scene-chewing fun and spine-chilling scariness by Welsh-born English actor Keith Allen, the sheriff delights in nastiness for its own sake.
The sheriff uses Gisborne as his enforcer, but he doesn't shy away from getting his own hands dirty. He's just as likely to put Gisborne through the wringer as anyone else.
The sheriff is in his element when he can stage a grand spectacle of terror for the citizens of Nottingham.
Because he so loves to be in the thick of things, a hands-on man and all that, the sheriff can find himself at the mercy of Robin and his battle-trained gang. This series excells in fight scenes, sword play and archery that hold up well in this new era of martial arts film combat.
You can check out a sequence from Season 2 that gives a good sense of the Robin/Marian/Guy love triangle:
Click here to watch a clip featuring the Sheriff of Nottingham, Sir Guy of Gisborne, Lady Marian and Allen a Dale.
Season 3 is currently shooting over in Hungary. Huzzah to that!
