Princess of Thieves, on ABC
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I know I was aware of this when it first aired in 2001, and I wanted to watch it, but I didn't get a chance. So I finally watched it on DVD in 2022. The title is evocative of the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but I'm pretty sure this isn't meant to be a sequel to that movie, or anything. (I don't know of any other time Robin Hood has been referred to as the "prince of thieves", but whatever.) The movie stars Keira Knightley, which at the time it aired would have meant nothing to me. And by the time it did mean something to me, I probably would have forgotten it was her in this movie. So it's nice to be able to watch it knowing she was going to become a star. And I want to say, this felt to me like it could have been a theatrical movie rather than a TV movie.

So, Knightley plays a young woman named Gwyn, who is the daughter of Robin Hood. She has rarely seen her father, because he's always away on Crusades, and she resents that. Plus, her mother, Marian, had died years ago. So she's under the care of Friar Tuck, and her best friend is a young clergyman in training named Froderick... who is in love with her, but she just thinks of him more like a brother. Fairly early in the movie, Robin Hood and Will Scarlett return to England, after a Crusade in Jerusalem. Gwyn is eager to spend time with her father, but he's soon called upon to escort Prince Philip (Stephen Moyer) safely to London, to replace his dying father Richard as king. Prince John intends to become king himself, so he wants Philip to be killed. One of the people who's supposed to see to that is the Sheriff of Nottingham (Malcolm McDowell). Anyway, Gwyn wants to go with her father and Will on their mission, but Robin refuses. So she just cuts her hair and borrows some men's clothes from Froderick, to pass herself off as a man. (I always find this trope hard to believe, because of course she still looks like a woman. Luckily, when she eventually meets Philip, he recognizes her as such almost immediately. I would have been disappointed if he didn't.) So, Gwyn rides off to find her father, but... soon after she does, Robin and Will are captured and sent to the Tower of London to be tortured.

There's a guy whose name I never caught, who works for Prince John, and went to kill Philip while pretending to be Robin Hood. He ends up killing Philip's valet, Conrad, by mistake. After that, Philip escapes and assumes Conrad's identity in the hopes of returning safely to France, having no interest in ruling England. But Gwyn meets him and shows him what life is like for the people of England under Prince John's rule. So, Philip (as Conrad) agrees to help her and Robin's Merry Men defeat Prince John and rescue Robin and Will. And of course his true identity is eventually revealed. And lots of other stuff happens throughout the movie, which I don't need to go into. Though we do get to see that Gwyn is quite skilled at archery.

I don't really know what else to tell you. It's funny, though: the movie I watched the night before this, I gave the same rating as I gave this, but with that one I was mildly disappointed and with this one I was pleasantly surprised. I just had higher expectations for the other movie. So it goes to show, ratings don't tell the whole story. Anyway, I definitely enjoyed this movie, and thought the acting was quite good. And it's always nice to see some feminism in entertainment.