'Hood' winks No men in tights, but plenty of ringing swordplay in BBC America's new 'Robin Hood'.(Time Out!)

0 Comments | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), March, 2007 | by Cox, Ted

Byline: Ted Cox Daily Herald TV/Radio Columnist BBC America updates a timeless tale with its new version of "Robin Hood," but in doing so it only brings it about halfway into the present day. True, Robin glowers from beneath his hood like a white rapper, orating on capitalist theory even as the story delights in the natural parallels with the current Holy War going on in Iraq, and Maid Marian gets a feminist makeover.

Yet, for all that, with its old-fashioned musical fanfare and its ringing swordplay, this "Robin Hood" remains fairly traditional. As a revisionist retelling of an old legend, it's closer to "Xena" than to "Buffy," but if that means it's less than great, more arch than hip, it's also nothing to be ashamed of. Debuting at 8 p.m. Saturday,...