‘Time Bandits’ Review: Lisa Kudrow Reigns in a Pleasant Yet Routine Remake

When Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement team up, good things tend to happen. From “Flight of the Conchords” to “Wellington Paranormal,” and “What We Do in the Shadows” (the movie) to “What We Do in the Shadows” (the series), the two on- and off-camera talents have shown a knack for elevating mundane situations through fantastic creativity. “Conchords” heightens its band members’ everyday struggles for renown and romance with hysterical musical interludes. “Wellington” disrupts the humdrum duties of New Zealand cops by serving up cases with a supernatural twist. Stories in “Shadows” emerge from the perpetual boredom of vampire roommates who’ve grown tired of immortality’s tedium.

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Much of the humor in their writing relies on characters reacting to extraordinary events with little more than a shrug, so adapting “Time Bandits” into a TV series seems like a good fit. Based “in part” on Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin’s 1981 film of the same name, Apple’s big-budget YA series (co-created by Waititi, Clement, and Iain Morris) sends an excited youngster on a centuries-spanning adventure with a crew of thieves who aren’t impressed by, well, anything. If they jump through a swirling portal of sand only to suddenly find themselves face-to-beak with a peckish pterodactyl, they’ll run for their lives, sure — but without much in the way of awe or astonishment. The same goes for Viking warriors, woolly mammoths, and laser-eyed demons. Been there, survived that, where’s the loot?

Yet, even without a nostalgic predisposition for Gilliam’s cult-favorite film (seeing it today makes for a curious trip through VFX of yesteryear, but it’s otherwise a two-hour theft of your precious time), “Time Bandits” the TV series feels oddly routine. Sure, the premise comes with a bit of baked-in weirdness — not only is there constant time travel, but Waititi and Clement rule over the adventure as the Supreme Being (a god-like figure cloaked in blue and white robes, reminiscent of the sky) and Pure Evil (a magnificently gnarly Satan-ish leader adorned with sin uous horns on his head and chest) — but the exciting opportunity presented by Apple’s open checkbook and Gilliam’s anything-goes universe feels a bit too by the book. Flourishes of invention pop up from time to time, but there aren’t enough fireworks to enthrall a young, hyperactive audience (Apple categorizes the series as kids & family programming), nor is it strange or astonishing enough to wow adults. Diverting and amiable, these “Time Bandits” are just too easy to shrug off.

That being said, the family TV night crowd could do a lot worse. Kevin (Kal-El Tuck) is a young boy with all the answers and zero friends. An unabashed history nerd, Kevin knows he’s the butt of most jokes, even within his own family. His sister makes fun of him for wanting to spend his birthday at the Woodhenge monuments. His parents’ only positive encouragement comes when they think he’s put down his books and picked up some video games. Perhaps all you really need to know about Kevin is that he plays Risk by himself, and he still turns each world-conquering invasion into a history lesson. (“I attack Kamchatka from Japan — of course, Japan did invade Kamchatka, if only briefly, during the Russo-Japanese War.”)

But all that ends one night, when Kevin’s peaceful evening painting toy soldiers is interrupted by a loud noise from his dresser. Inside, there’s an opening to a beach, and on the beach, there’s a man with a sword running straight toward Kevin, arrows landing closer and closer to the wide-eyed child. Later, his parents would convince him it was all just a dream, but that theory is negated the following evening, when an entire crew of time travelers climbs out of Kevin’s wardrobe and unintentionally enlists him on their pilfering pilgrimage.

The Time Bandits consist of Judy (Charlyne Yi), a master psychologist who has trouble reading people; Alto (Tadhg Murphy), a master of disguise (credited to his love of the theater) who sticks out like a sore thumb; Widget, the master map reader who (are you sensing a pattern?) can’t read a map; Bittelig (Rune Temte), the strongman who never seems to be strong enough, and Penelope (Lisa Kudrow), the de facto leader of a group that insists they’re “egalitarian.”

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Shortly before recruiting Kevin, the Bandits snatched their first item: a map of space and time that they plan to use to steal literally endless amounts of treasure. What they don’t know is that the map is also a blueprint for the universe — the key to making or remaking everything in existence to the liking of whoever possesses it. So while they’re trying to figure out how to get where and when they want to go, the Supreme Being (from whom they took the map) and Pure Evil (who wants to use the map to turn the world even uglier) are hot on their heels — chasing our merry band through the peak of Mesoamerican civilization and the nadir of the middle ages, among many more well-realized locales.

Episodic trips for the first half of the season give way to more narrative-driven excursions later on, but “Time Bandits” never invests that much in its characters. Kudrow is a delight, as always, and the veteran comedian brings a level of specificity to her arc that her kinda lovelorn, kinda bossy, kinda matronly character never fully fleshes out. The rest of the crew is aimless, and even Kevin, the lead, gets tossed between convenient objectives without growing beyond what he obtains in the first episode. (Hint: It’s the name of Kudrow’s biggest show.) Waititi is coasting, but Clement still cooks, and its the latter’s end-of-season scripts that show the most promise. (Neanderthal communication methods and a fun twist on a flashback episode twinkle with the kind of enthusiastic imagination needed throughout.)

With a hefty budget for CGI creations like a 60-foot version of Waititi who comes swirling out of the sea like Poseidon and convincing recreations of everything from the Ice Age to the dawn of the dinosaurs, “Time Bandits” could’ve afforded to take a few more bold swings with its visuals. The muted color palette seems more in line with dark-and-gritty prestige TV shows than eye-popping children’s entertainment (despite great costumes by Bob Buck), and traveling through time and space should allow for more insightful renderings of heaven, hell, and the unknowable areas in between than the predictable aesthetics on display here.

Given what this group has cooked up before, perhaps “Time Bandits” biggest flaw is that it feels like a step backward. The 10-episode season is passable, even pleasing, for the most part. It rarely feels overly indebted to its predecessor, even if it’s also not ambitious enough in mapping out its own course. Maybe a second season is all they need to break up the routine.

Grade: C+

“Time Bandits” premieres Wednesday, July 24 with two episodes. Two new episodes will be released weekly until the finale on August 21.