Happy 66th Birthday, Robin!

Casualty “Step Right Up” Season 30, Episode 22 – February 6, 2016

Another one I’ve been waiting for to come on YouTube and now it finally has! Step right up and watch Robin start taking “grandpa” roles.

This is a super boring medical drama series with really bad acting. Robin was good in his role, though. He plays “Ron Kleinman”, 65 year old grandpa to a mentally disabled teenaged girl who loves going to the local carnival. Her mom (supposedly his daughter, although they could have gotten an actress that looks at least a tiny bit like him) is estranged from him due to his not being around a lot when she was younger and warns him he’s forbidden to get close to the girl. But he’s changed his hard-drinking ways and wants the chance to prove it to her and be the loving devoted grandpa he now wants to be. And the girl adores him (not that I can blame her ;) )

Anyway, the mom finds them at the carnival about to go on a ride and is furious. Robin tries to calm her down and is about to go get the girl off the moving ride but is thrown off, hurting his arm. The girl is also hurt. They all must be taken to the hospital where this show’s stories take place.

So, they get patched up but the girl is proving difficult and can only be calmed down by Grandpa Robin and his singing Elvis tunes to her.

Mom tries to put an end to all of this but the doctors wisk HER away because of a bloody coughing fit. She is found to have some kind of Pleurisy type ailment and is confined to a bed. Meanwhile, the girl makes her escape.

When Robin and the gang from the hospital realize she must be at the carnival, they race to find her. And of course, they find her at the top of the empty Ferris Wheel.

How did she get up there? Why would someone let JUST an obviously disabled girl on a Ferris Wheel all alone and start the ride without anyone else in any other seat? Usually they wait until a line has formed before starting up a ride and letting people on. And why would it conveniently stall right when she was at the very top? All is left for the viewer to ponder. Because of course it makes for very suspenseful drama for an anxiety-ridden, nerdy hospital worker to climb up to keep her company so she doesn’t fall out.

If only Robin was a little younger and didn’t have his arm in a sling perhaps he could have been the brave one!

Sappy ending of course with all turning out all right and mom forgiving Robin and everyone happy that all is well.

Benidorm - January 11, 2016: Season 8, Episode 1

Way back in an episode of this series from 2009, Robin had a guest role as a conman who swindled guests at a hotel in the resort town of Benidorm. I reviewed it here. It was a good role and I was happy to hear that he was going to appear again, reprising the same character. What seemed impossible was actually seeing this episode. Still I cannot view UK shows on their websites from a computer in the US. I even tried downloading the anonymous browser Tor, and it didn’t work for them. I couldn’t find it on YouTube for months. But now, I finally have found it on YouTube and it is now watched!

I have not seen any episodes of Benidorm since I watched it last time, almost six years ago. Back then, I thought it was a very clever and funny show. Now it seems tired and not as funny. Robin didn’t seem to have the energy or enthusiasm as he did the first time. I’m not even sure what the point was in having him back, honestly. He didn’t really have much to do. He arrives under a fake name, and tries to sweet-talk the owner into giving him a job at the hotel because he “really needs one”. She has to decide between him and a girl who is really qualified, but he keeps flattering her and insinuating something romantic might be possible. Some of that banter is a little amusing, but Robin just didn’t seem that into his acting like he usually is. And then, at the end, he comes right out and tells her he doesn’t really want the job, he just wants her to put him on the payroll….right after that a couple of guests come in and recognize him from his last visit and he rushes out.

So….it was nice seeing him, but the role didn’t really make sense. Why would a conman come back to the same hotel he had scammed previously? Why? Why would he be so obvious about not being qualified for the job? I don’t get it!