Time Bandits

Gilliam was not involved in the production, but he will surely be pleased to see his legacy so beautifully preserved, in all its daftness and with all its wit.

A worthy tribute to both Gilliam’s baroque, fantastical style and the blustery humor of his script, co-authored by fellow Python member Michael Palin.

In the season’s latter half, the fantasy plot supersedes our character-focused frolicking and the frothy misadventure vibes of Time Bandits take a slight knock, but the show confidently regains its footing for a conclusion that sets up a prospective next season of adventure and inter-dimensional intrigue that, no matter how skeptical you initially felt, you’ll want to see where—or when—we end up next.

I like the writing in pretty much every episode I watched (about half the series), and the performances are never less than adequate, even if the supporting cast is so overrun with Aussie soap stars as to underwhelm in many a promising historical part.

Waititi and Clement’s lack of breaking stereotypes surrounding the little people first seen in the film could have been considered, instead of pushing them to the background. While the season finale sets up a bigger story for them, it should have been equally emphasized. This lack of depth in the ensemble cast diminishes Time Bandits' overall impact, as it fails to stand out as a series worthy of the cult classic.

It’s a lesser piece of work from its creators, having the rough comic shape of their more famous material, but not being distinctive, funny, or emotionally resonant enough to stick.

"Bandits" is all muddy and messy and not entirely coherent, and that has nothing to do with the whole sci-fi time travel part.

Lots of fun. Good update to the story with lots of lighthearted adventures.

Sure, I loved the original movie, but who wouldn't, it was directed by Terry Gilliam. But this is a neat reboot of it as a series. Oddly, I really like the kid the most. He's perfect for the role and really carries the whole thing. What was that bs about Mayans not.lracticing human sacrifice? I was waiting for the other shoe to drop on that, but they really tried some postmodern bullsh$t.

The potential for a great series was utterly wasted through lackluster directing by Taika Waititi, limp writing in every episode, and terrible casting (especially Lisa Kudrow). So sad.

Ever try so hard to be "funny" it comes off cringe? Not ironic cringe, it's try-hard cringe. That is Time Bandits (TV Series) in a nutshell. Normally "silly comedy" style tv shows are OK for me. But there is "silly" and there is down right annoying. Unfortunately this show falls in the annoying category. The entire cast of "Bandits" are all sub-intelligent, not in ironic ways but annoying ways. Apart from Kevin (The main boy the Bandits pick up), the rest of the characters are deliberately trying to be "silly funny", and it fails. The last time I saw this level of sub-intelligent characters on screen is in the 2006 movie "Idiocracy". But don't be mistaken by that gem of a movie. The bandits might be that level of silly, but it's the script's fault with terrible dialect. Honestly that is what brings this show down. After two episodes I really didn't want to watch the rest, but I did anyway and I wish I didn't. I wanted to give it a chance, hoped it would get better, it just never did. If you can't stand to watch the first episode or two, do yourself a favor and don't bother with the rest.

"Time Bandits" (Aug 2024, 10 eps, 30-45min, Paramount for AppleTV) Lisa Kudrow headlines a cast of mostly unknowns, though you might recognize Charlyne Yi from the old "House" cranky medical doctor series. There's also Taika Watiti playing the Supreme Being as well as exec producing and directing it, as well as his good friend Jemaine Clement who also exec produces, directs, and plays opposite Taika as "Evil". Having said all that, this should measure up to be an outstanding series! What could go wrong?! Well, enough did that it got cancelled, immediately. We didn't have to wait months or a year, the studio made a quick and clear decision - no more of that. Here's what did go wrong. Lisa barely made an effort in this show, and she looks tired at 60+, so bad casting choice. Kal Tuck as "Kevin" turned in the best performance of the supporting cast, but the others were lackluster and boring. In fact, the episodes themselves were boring. I'm here to tell you that to waste less of your time you should watch the first two eps which set up the long-story, then just skip to the final episode because all the others are just fillers leading nowhere. And jeez, they refer to themselves as the time bandits incessantly! The originals never did that, and these guys are just annoying about it! That and so much else of this falls on Taika and Jemaine as the creative forces behind this. For whatever reason they only gave this series a half effort which resulted in immediate cancellation no matter how others want to optimistically spin it. Production values and special effects are the only reasons this gets 3 stars from me.