Must Watch reviews: What’s the Monarchy For? Robin Hood, And Landman

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Ali Plumb and Hayley Campbell review ‘What’s the Monarchy For?’ ‘Robin Hood’, and ‘Landman’.

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of them all?

What is The Monarchy For? - BBC iPlayer:

The series looks at the role of the monarchy in modern society.

Dimblebey interviews various politicians, political commentators and historians to uncover the true role of the monarchy.

Ali: “I'm gonna say it's not a must-watch for me, but that isn't without compliments to the process and the programme and how it was made.

"It's more that I don't personally care for this sort of thing… I know people for whom this will be a big exciting thing to watch.

"I love the sheer professionalism of David Dimbleby… you're just watching someone who is exemplary in their field taking their time to absolutely measure everything.”

Hayley: “I think David Dimbleby has done something interesting here, which is that he is objectively — or as objectively as he can — looking at the point the monarchy serves and whether or not that's good or bad or democratically fair.

“He's hosted election night coverage for nearly 40 years, as well as all the royal funerals.

"And if you're a broadcaster for that long on both sides of everything, you will have a personal interest in how one influences the other…he’s really good at standing back and looking at what is happening.

"And as you say, he's not afraid to ask questions that are awkward.

"Unfortunately, he's interviewing a bunch of immovable people.

“I think it's a really well done documentary.

"It asks important questions and it's interesting from a journalistic point of view because so much of this is about how the royals are presented, which is a job done by the media, and when you're in it, you can't help but be interested in that kind of thing."

Hayley and Ali both didn’t think this was a Must Watch.

Episode one of ‘What’s the Monarchy For?’ is available to stream on the BBC iPlayer or will be on BBC One on Tuesdays at 9pm.

ROBIN HOOD - MGM + (via Amazon Prime Video):

‘Robin Hood’ is a new series on MGM+ via Amazon’s Prime Video.

It retells the story of ‘Robin Hood’ and follows the life of Robert of Locksley in Medieval England and how he turns into a rebellious figure.

Hayley: “You can see why it's hidden away on one of the obscure streaming add-ons on Amazon Prime that not even I have.

"Casting-wise they're trying to land somewhere between Game of Thrones and Gladiator.

“It's kind of a Mills and Boone romance novel of a Robin Hood retelling.

“All the women in it, whether they're actual mystical goddesses or just some lady, they all have a sort of various degrees of glowiness around their faces whenever they're on the screen.

“Every cliche is here.

Like when people say cheers and then slam their mugs of beer or mead or whatever it is together and it all has to slosh over the sides… It's just a bit by-the-numbers for me, and I don't want to encourage that sort of behaviour, so it's a no from me."

Ali: “Robin Hood deserves a bit more because as a tale, it's beloved.

“It's not only obviously a Panto staple, but it's been in twenty one - I've counted them on Wikipedia - twenty one different big screen adaptations.

“There is something about this character, there's something about the Saxons fighting the Normans, there's something about dealing with the man and taking a bow and arrow into your hands and just speaking out with a group of ragtag people and just surviving by your wits and living in the woods that obviously appeals to people.

“I got three episodes into this show and just stopped for time, not because I loathed it, I knew it wasn't great.

“Just the very first shot you go, those trees are wrong.

"You know? I know those trees are wrong… I saw the trees and went, those aren't British trees and I double checked immediately, Serbia.

"That's where they shot this… And I and I thought, okay, well this bodes very poorly that if in the first millisecond I'm double checking the foliage

“Certain newcomers just don't have the acting chops, and there are chemistry problems throughout the show… And no one has even the hintiest hint of a Nottinghamshire accent at all.

“It's very ‘Aldi Game of Thrones’, isn't it? No offence to Aldi.”

Both Hayley and Ali didn’t think this was a Must Watch.

The first six episodes of ‘Robin Hood’ are available to stream on MGM+ subscribers on Amazon Prime Video.

LANDMAN - Paramount+

'Landman' season 2 on Paramount + is a new series that looks at the rise of the 21st century oil industry in Texas.

Starring Billy Bob Thornton, the series is inspired by the podcast series Boomtown.

Ali: “I could not stop watching this show… Billy Bob Thornton, charm personified.

"Do you like people in ten gallon hats saying incredibly pithy, zingy one-liners at each other.

"Thinking and saying all the stuff you wish you could say as you walked out the door? They do it in the moment, bang on bullseye every time.

“The show does not tackle weighty themes like ‘what are the ecological implications and ramifications to pulling oil out of the ground in West Texas?’

“It is sort of an executive soap, but it is so well refined, pun intended, you do not really care.

“I could pick it apart and say it's disrespectful to a lot of people that it talks about, and it could be described as quite cartoonish in the way it approaches a lot of the weightier themes that are obviously baked into oil and gas and all this.

“I was mainlining it one after the other… I know I shouldn't be so enthusiastic about it, but here we are.

“This show fully is a fantasy.

"I want to say that I never watch it thinking I'm gonna learn anything truly about the nature of this industry… I have decided to watch it with a sort of gauze over it, where I go, this is being ironic, right? This is sort of knowingly tongue-in-cheek, a sort of pastiche.”

Hayley: “It's not a must-watch for me. Sorry.

"It's annoying because on the one hand, you have this great cast. I love them all.

"There's Billy Bob Thornton, there's Demi Moore, John Hamm in the first series, and Sam Elliott in the second. I love Sam Elliott.

“You have lovable stuff here, and Billy Bob gets some one-liners that you can tell he's having huge fun with, but it's then ruined every time there's a woman on screen because she's written so badly.

"The exception to this is Demi Moore's character.

“My biggest issue with this show is it's written by someone who so confidently believes he understands women, but he really doesn't.

“Because they're so stupid — they're written stupid.

"Every waitress, wife, girlfriend, daughter, minor female character, they're all stupid, they're all a cliche, they're all a drag on some guy's life in some way.

"But you have to shrug it off because it is a kind of cartoonish show."

Hayley didn’t think this was a Must Watch.

Ali did think this was a Must Watch.

First three episodes of ‘Landman’ are available to stream on Paramount+.

Listen to the full reviews of all three programmes on BBC Sounds.

But before all that, why not contact Scott and Hayley with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or both on mustwatch@bbc.co.uk.

AI was used to transcribe and summarise our Must Watch feature.

This article was then written and reviewed by a BBC journalist.

More on how the BBC uses AI.