So you stumble into a room and find one bloke dead while another bloke's standing over him with a broadsword and despite the fact that the dead bloke seems to show no signs of injury consistent with assault by broadsword you accuse the bloke with the broadsword of murder. Meanwhile the bloke with the broadsword having previously stumbled on the dead bloke with a monstrous creature standing over him assumes that the creature dunnit despite the fact that the dead bloke seems to show no signs of injury consistent with assault by creature. Soon after, the bloke with the broadsword is convicted of murder without any evidence being presented at all, escapes, chases after the creature, cuts its hand off (despite which it is perfectly capable of climbing 30ft of convenient scaffolding to escape) then returns with the hand as proof of his innocence. How this proves anything at all is by no means clear but apparently its good enough to get the charges dropped and then, only then, somebody thinks it might be an idea to actually examine the dead bloke's body (well, wash it, at least) whereupon it emerges that it was neither the bloke with the broadsword nor the monstrous creature but some unknown assailant with a dagger wot dunnit.
You might forgive this kind of inane plotting if it weren't for the fact that the entire cast acts like the job is community service on a wet weekend in Grimsby, devoid of passion of any kind. The only character you can raise any amount of sympathy for is the feisty healer, well at least until it transpires that she's the lover of the wet, spoilt, idiot son of the thane, at which point you give up all hope! The female blacksmith is apparently permanently peeved for no obvious reason, her mother irrationally drawn to the decidedly less than dashing companion of Beowulf, the idiot son of the thane does nothing but shout incoherently, and everybody else shuffles about looking for something to do in order to avoid the whole sorry mess.
By midway through the episode I was already rooting for the monstrous creature which, incidentally, is clearly going to turn out to be something other than the evil beast it appears to be as the clues were laid on by the spadeful. It can rip the whole sorry lot of them to pieces for all I care!
You might forgive this kind of inane plotting if it weren't for the fact that the entire cast acts like the job is community service on a wet weekend in Grimsby, devoid of passion of any kind. The only character you can raise any amount of sympathy for is the feisty healer, well at least until it transpires that she's the lover of the wet, spoilt, idiot son of the thane, at which point you give up all hope! The female blacksmith is apparently permanently peeved for no obvious reason, her mother irrationally drawn to the decidedly less than dashing companion of Beowulf, the idiot son of the thane does nothing but shout incoherently, and everybody else shuffles about looking for something to do in order to avoid the whole sorry mess.
By midway through the episode I was already rooting for the monstrous creature which, incidentally, is clearly going to turn out to be something other than the evil beast it appears to be as the clues were laid on by the spadeful. It can rip the whole sorry lot of them to pieces for all I care!