Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Time Bandits’ On Apple TV+, Taika Waititi’s Remake Of The ‘80s Film About A Kid With A Gang Of Time-Traveling Thieves

There was a fair bit of controversy when casting for the new version of Time Bandits was announced, mainly revolving around the fact that the bandits in the new series were not going to be cast with actors who were little people, as the film had done. Also, one of the stars of the series, Charlyne Yi, leveled a lot of accusations about being assaulted and otherwise mistreated during the series shoot after dropping out midway through the season. It’s a lot for a kids’ series whose level of difficulty — trying to remake a beloved film helmed by two members of Monty Python — was pretty high to begin with.

TIME BANDITS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see statuettes, paint supplies and star lights in a kid’s room.

The Gist: Kevin Haddock (Kal-El Tuck) is celebrating his 11th birthday the only way he knows how: By taking his parents (James Dryden, Felicity Ward) and his sister Saffron (Kiera Thompson) to Woodhenge, the Neolithic predecessor to Stonehenge. There are concrete markers where the wood used to stand. And all three of the other members of Kevin’s family have no idea why they’re there.

Kevin is a massive history buff, but is also pretty precocious, which is a code word for “no friends.” He keeps hearing rumblings in his room, and one day, after a massive jolt, he opens his wardrobe to find that it’s a portal to a beach, where a warrior is being chased. His parents hear the noise but are pretty clueless about it, telling him he’s dreaming.

The next night, a group of explorers come through the wardrobe, carrying a map: The leader, Penelope (Lise Kudrow); Judy (Charlyne Yi) the mindreader; Alto (Tadhg Murphy), master of disguise; Widgit (Roger Jean Nsengiyumva), map reader; and Bittelig (Rune Temte), who has the strength of “seven average men,” says Penelope.

They’re trying to find the next time portal, and they are also running from the Supreme Being (Taika Waititi), from whom they stole the map. They are also thieves, and they’re in Kevin’s room is a time egress, they use it to figure out where to go to steal a horse. As the Supreme Being, sort of a big, multifaced head, comes for them, the bandits and Kevin escape through his bedroom wall.

This takes them to a Chinese ship in 1810, which is under attack; Kevin advises the infamous Madame Chung (Katlyn Wong) where to hide out, based on his knowledge of history. Then they land right next to where Stonehenge is being built, when Kevin finds out that it was built to be a venue with a gift shop, just like his dad said. They then end up outside of Troy; yes, the horse the bandits want to steal is the Trojan Horse. While all this is going on, Wrongness (Jemaine Clement), the Supreme Being’s mortal enemy, is hatching a plot to find the bandits and steal the map.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Time Bandits is a reimagining of the 1981 movie of the same name, directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam and Michael Palin. This version was created by Waititi, Clement and Iain Morris.

Our Take: If there was any group that could have taken on all the controversy surrounding the series, and continued the tone set by the original Time Bandits, it was Waititi, Clement and Morris, all of whom worked together on What We Do In The Shadows. And, for the most part, they succeed, though the pacing could have been a bit better in the first episode.

The pacing was actually pretty strange, given that Kevin and the bandits rocket from time period to time period, but at times the episode felt slow because nothing in particular happens in certain time periods. Yes, the first episode was there to establish who the bandits were, what is at stake and just how Kevin ends up travelling with them. But something about the first episode felt rushed at times and slow at others.

We did enjoy Tuck as the wise-beyond-his-years Kevin, a guy who seems to be an even older soul than his clueless parents, who text each other when they’re sitting on the same couch. And the bandits themselves, led by Kudrow’s near-improvisational performance as Penelope, make for a funny group whose camaraderie is evident from the first moments they’re on screen together.

The creators are experts at pulling funny moments out of history, like how the Trojan guards decide to set fire to the horse full of Greek soldiers, despite admiring its craftsmanship, or worker’s hands being stuck under a stone at the Stonehenge construction site. Those moments are damn-near Python-esque in their absurdity, and they generated some pretty decent laughs.

We do wonder how this story plays out over ten episodes. Will the absurdity wear the viewers down after awhile? Will the idea that Kevin is going to save the world, predicted by Cassandra (Zoë Ventoura) — yes, that Cassandra — carry the action? Hard to say. But the pacing certainly needs to be tightened up for the show to succeed in this form.

What Age Group Is This For?: There’s lots of moments in the first episode that might scare younger kids, so we’re going to say that this show is good for kids 8 and up.

Parting Shot: Wrongness sets his plan in motion, with the help of a warrior named Fianna (Rachel House), who will chase Kevin and the bandits through time.

Sleeper Star: Yes, it’s odd to give this to the best-known actor on the entire show, but Kudrow brings her usual muttery, gives-less-than-a-fig performance to Penelope, and singlehandedly makes scenes funny and palatable for the adults watching.

Most Pilot-y Line: Wrongness can’t say the Supreme Being’s name without getting nauseous. It’s a joke that wears thin by the end of the first episode and just reminds us of the moldy-old Happy Days gag where Fonzie could never utter the word “Sorry.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. There are enough funny elements, and good performances, in Time Bandits to keep watching beyond the first episode. But we’re not sure there is enough there to sustain audience interest — whether it’s kids or adults — for ten episodes.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.