Time Bandits

It's disappointing to see so many snobbish adults unfairly judge a children's show based on nostalgia and misplaced standards. Worse, they seem to have lost their imagination and humor, becoming bitter with age.

If you're an adult who remembers what it was like to be young and can still enjoy the simple things in life, this show will charm you. Yes, the humor is silly - because that's the point.

There's no harm in some light-hearted entertainment now and then. This show deserves to be seen for what it is: fun, adventurous, and perfect for both kids and adults (who still know how to enjoy life).

Time Bandits is light silly fun, with time travel, Jemaine Clement at his campiest, and Taika Waititi in a wig. What more could you ask for? If you're looking for something comforting and silly, this is the show for you. Do all the jokes land? No. But most of them do. Come for the jokes and stay for the rag tag found family of bandits.

Combine that with incredible effects (many of them practical effects) and lots of care put into the sets, costumes, puppetry, and extras. It's clear there was a lot of thought and work put into putting this show together. You might even learn a few things about history while you're watching!

I am so glad I ignored the negative reviews. It's cute and funny and I ended up liking it enough to binge it. I never got bored as it's non stop action through all the historical periods and famous people. The scenery, sets, and costumes are also very enjoyable and well done. I found myself enjoying and chuckling at much of the sly, witty quips that constantly pop up. The actor who plays young Kevin was adorable, BTW. With each espusode you like each of the bandits more and more, even Lisa Kudrow's character despite her less than stellar acting. If you have a sense of humor and fun you will enjoy it.

The nostalgia police are out in full force to bash this show but it's actually brilliant. The people who rate it poorly will almost never be satisfied with a remake because their memories of the classics are all viewed through rose colored lenses. People were right about the Willow series, which actually was an unwatchable disaster, but the harsh critics are wrong about this. I have great respect for the integrity of IMDB ratings. I use them to filter out all of the garbage, so if people are going to gang up to distort the quality of a show I'm going to defend it!

Taika Waititi was the best possible choice (other than Terry Gilliam himself, who's now 83) to make this adaptation. His humor is dry and witty but still appropriate for kids 10+. This is not one of his second-rate shows where you can tell he was a passive force in production. It's obvious he's a fan of the original and that he put effort into making this not just entertaining, but also insightful and even a bit educational in that it reveals the all-too-beautifully-flawed humanity of our predecessors throughout history.

The whole family will be laughing out loud at the same jokes, which is not easy to achieve. It requires a bit of wit, whereas so much humor these days takes the easy route of shock or vulgarity for adults or overuse of clichés and/or slapstick for kids. Some parts might be a little scary for younger kids (which is true to the original) but our 12 year old is thoroughly enjoying it.

Kevin was cast well. He'll be relatable to kids who don't fit the popularity mold and prefer reading and utilizing their imagination to climbing the middle school social ladder. Jemaine Clement is amazing in the roll of Wrongness... absolutely hilarious! Waititi is also fantastic in the role of the Supreme Being. The bandits may be of different proportions from those featured in the 80s but that has absolutely no bearing on the quality of their chemistry, and I think Lisa Kudrow does a fine job as well and is funny in her own right.

Our family struggles with a lack of family shows that are entertaining for both kids and adults. We usually end up in some kind of compromise where one or the other party is enjoying the show while the other one sort of loses interest and ends up looking at their phone. This show is one of the rare gems that will have the whole family sharing laughs and wanting more.

I understand people not liking this. It's light and breezy, it doesn't really need to exist and it mostly destroys the charm of the practical effects which helped make the original so great. But the original was simple-minded in its ending, and this one adds more complexity to the dynamics involving the parents (using the word complexity liberally). And, like the original, it's very funny. The Prohibition episode in particular I found to be very enjoyable. This won't be for everyone, and I would get a hardcore Gilliam fan's anger against it, but sometimes, you just need to turn off your brain and enjoy yourself, and this show is a perfect way to do that. I spend all my time watching movies or reading about them on LetterBoxd, so the fact that I am not only watching a show, but looking forward to it and enjoying it enough to write a review certainly says something.