The new Apple TV+ series is not just a remake, but a reinterpretation of Terry Gilliam’s beloved 1981 film. Time Bandit The series charts its own clever path through history.
Written by Gilliam and fellow Monty Python Michael Palin, and starring Palin and John Cleese in supporting roles, the original film offered a quirky, heartbreakingly satirical take on myth and the modern age.
Having stolen God’s map of the universe, the titular thieves decide to use their versatile tool to travel through time and plunder the riches of Napoleon, Robin Hood, King Agamemnon, and more.
Along the way, the bandits, played by six talented little guys, burst through a time portal into the present-day bedroom of 11-year-old history buff Kevin, whisking him off on the adventure of his life.
Gilliam’s film was not only a vibrant escapist fantasy for children, but also a visual marvel that boldly delved into a dark world of greed, consumerism, loss and abandonment. The film’s infamously dark ending boldly subverts the common fairy tale that everything will be rainbows and sunshine if the protagonist’s child protagonist can return home safely from the Land of Oz.
The 10-episode series dabbles in such darkness, but series creators Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi don’t let the show stop there.
this Time Bandit While it follows the same premise of traversing history in search of loot and treasure, it relies heavily on humor, which is where it really shines. With epic adventure, action and fictionalized takes on famous historical figures and events, this show is hilarious.
While Gilliam’s baroque style and filmmaking prowess are impossible to replicate, Waititi, who directed two of the series’ 10 episodes, including the first, is no less accomplished in that department.
And when it comes to blending escapist fantasy with sharply aimed absurdity, Clement has amply proven himself adept at it over the course of his season of the hit comedy. What we do in the shadowsThe work is based on the film which he co-wrote and co-directed with Waititi.
They’ve done something fantastic here, starring Lisa Kudrow as Penelope, the ostensible leader of the Time Bandits, minions of the former Supreme Being who have stolen the map to the Supreme Being and are traveling through time and space in search of riches.
Bandit is, of course, a mess as a marauder, but he’s fun to hang out with, and Kudrow in particular is endearing as the insecure but determined leader who keeps his team together.
And she blends her unique comedic rhythms with the other actors, including Tad Murphy as the aspiring actor Alto, Rune Temte as the sensitive strongman Bitterig, Charlene Lee as the bumbling thief Judy, and Roger Jean Nsengyumba as Widget, a cartographer who’s not so great at reading maps.
But as Penelope points out, this is less a map than a “celestial map showing anomalies and portals to an intimately intertwined complexity” of time and space and all the dimensions of “one, two, three, four.”
This is a long-winded and fancy way of saying that they usually have a 50/50 chance of landing at their intended destination – most of the time they’re haphazard, stumbling across Stonehenge in its half-construction state, or arriving outside the Trojan Horse being rolled up at the gates of Troy.
Luckily, the bandits first break into the bedroom of Kevin, a bookish British boy played by the fantastic young actor Kal-El Tuck. Eager for an adventure, Kevin joins the group, whether Penelope likes it or not.
But he proves his worth: his knowledge of history and literature allows him to determine, more often than not, exactly where they are, when they are, and who they are facing. Armed with that knowledge, he is able to strategize how best to deal with a situation, based on known facts and legends.
But despite his sharp judgment, young Kevin is completely unaware of the danger the bandits face from their old boss, the Supreme Being, who, in a nod to the film, pursues them through time in the form of a giant head and demands, “Give me back my map!”
They’re also being pursued by evil — not the evil played so memorably in the film by David Warner, but in this case the evil that rules over a fortress of darkness, played with great comic seriousness by Clement.
Longness believes the Bandits must be “masters of genius” for stealing a map from the Supreme Being, and throws all manner of evil in their path, including the demon Fianna (Rachel House), who pursues the Bandits from Kevin’s bedroom in Bingley, England, to the ends of the earth and across thousands of years.
As the Bandits steal time, the value of knowing history to chart a path forward is repeatedly made clear. While Kevin’s cantankerous sister Saffron (Kiera Thompson, also excellent) and goofy Mum and Dad (Felicity Ward and James Dryden, always funny) poke fun at his “boring” hobbies, the show repeatedly emphasizes that nothing good comes from discarding history, facts and knowledge.
The irony is that it takes an 11 year old to constantly point this out to us because, as we know, adults are sadly prone to forgetting.
Time Bandits (★★★★☆) Episodes 1 and 2 available It’s available to stream now, with new episodes available every Wednesday on Apple TV+. www.apple.com/apple-tv-plus.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
