*headdesk*
Jan. 16th, 2008 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gnimaerdI’m sorry you were disappointed by Marian’s death in the final episode of Robin Hood. Our aim was simply to tell the best story we could imagine and create a story that felt engaging and surprising for the audience. We felt that Robin Hood mattered most to our audience, and what mattered most to Robin was Marian...and therein lay the most compelling and dramatic climax to the end of Series 2.
Rest assured that Sir Guy of Gisborne has not got away with killing Marian and evil certainly hasn't prevailed over good. This is something that Sir Guy of Gisborne will have to live with forever and Series 3 will see him struggle with the consequences of Marian's death.
Robin Hood is a returning drama series that we hope will be entertaining families for years to come. In order to achieve this we need to make difficult decisions to ensure the series survives, and that there's room to introduce new characters and new storylines.
The show is made with such passion by everyone involved in the production, so we really hope you will give Series 3 a chance.”
Yours sincerely
Sarah Brandist
Commissioning Editor, Drama
My letter to them, re the RH series finale, is here, for anyone who didn't read it.
Look, I appreciate what they're trying to say. I appreciate that they probably got a LOT of letters like mine and that this may well be a standard responce.
But OH MY GOD they are MISSING THE POINT.
My complaint was not about the story telling. It was not about evil triumphing over good.
It was about the fact that they murdered Marian when it was completely unnecissary to do so, and then exited Djaq in a way that utterly degraded the character. It was the fact that they forced Marian completely out of character in ORDER to kill her. They BUTCHERED her in every sence of the word. It was the fact that they BETRAYED thousands of female viewers by reverting right back to steriotypes that women have been fighting to be free of for CENTURIES. It was the fact that the final was rushed, that the writers went back to default mode and thus reinforced ancient steriotypes that women have been trying to vercome for CENTURIES, in writing, in cinema, in television - I mean MY GOD was Jane Austen WASTING HER TIME?
Believe me, I'll be writing back to them.
For God's sake - I'm a writer by vocation and hopefully by profession in the very near future. I know about writing, about making 'tough' decisions for a good plot. And I know good story telling.
The RH series final WASN'T it and NO FORCE ON EARTH will EVER convince me otherwise.
Suck it, Auntie Beeb - I'm not coming anywhere NEAR the third series of Robin Hood is THAT'S your attitude.
Edit: Yup - as I thought. This is a standard responce. One of my other f-listies has recieved exactly the same letter. I am not at all surprised, but I am bitterly disappointed.
This isn't good enough. I'm writing back to them. They have to know - this isn't good enough.
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-17 01:19 am (UTC)Tut tut
Date: 2008-01-17 08:12 pm (UTC)I'm not saying I agree with the ending; a lady with such veracity as Marian should've gone down fighting if she was going to go down at all. It was unnecessary, but I think it was in Guy's nature to have such a passionate response to that. It wasn't romantic, (and I have to say if we are going to be personal about nations here, that the US splurges out lots of romantic/adventure films where it is glamourised, but yes, i am aware that Austen glamourises it too) and perhaps it was wrong for the BBC to put in a scene in an essentially 'family show'.
The fact that Djaq was brushed aside like a used doormat bothers me also. And I think that she deserved a better ending. If she (the actress) did want to leave, in fact for both of them, they should've been afforded a little more dignity. They basically turned into sub-humans: if they wanted submissive women in their show, then the writers ought to have made them submissive from the start and not given them a sudden change of heart.
I guess Marian did stand up to a man wielding a sword (not the cleverest of things) which shows how courageous she could be. But it seemed Robin couldn't even shed a tear for her-which I thought was against his (spineless) character.
And then we come to Little John. He was a back handed character change if ever I saw one. Yes we all know he is torn up about his wife....But in no way, NO WAY, should he have 'wanted to die'. It was against his character. Yes, 'its a good day to die' is a nice little phrase which rolls of the tongue, perhaps even stirs some camaraderee but good grief, Little John was never made to be like that. He was never set up to be a character like that. The same way Djaq wasn't meant to be all weak and submissive. The same way that Marian was supposed to be strong and feisty.
They really mucked about with the characters at the end. It didn't and doesn't correspond to how the writers set them up. I was disappointed with the ending, but not shocked (if that's what the BBC wanted) as I knew Guy of Gisbourne was a murderer-and really Marian had played with fire. Even if the episode before made them seem like they were beginning to be friends.....
BBC, hang your head in shame.
M x