fifty frenchmen can't be wrong (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
some_stars) wrote2013-03-11 11:36 am
some_stars) wrote2013-03-11 11:36 am
(no subject)
So I've been watching this new History Channel show Vikings, because the dude is in it who played Grantaire in Les Miserables and I've formed an attachment to his face, and also his character type in this show (monk at Lindisfarne kidnapped by Vikings) totally hits my buttons. Let me say up front: it is not a good show. There are way too many dudes and the writing is mediocre at best and when I'm watching on Hulu I switch to a different window for entire scenes at a time because they're so dull. But that stupid monk really does it for me. (I just wish I'd known that he wasn't in the first episode at all.) ANYWAY all of which is to say, here is another thing I posted on Tumblr that meets my length/coherence standards for crossposting, it is a short review of episode 3.
I remain totally uninterested in the Ragnar-Arl power struggle, or in fact in the Arl at all. Or in any non-Ragnar Vikings, really. Athelstan’s scenes are awesome, though. The threesome thing does in fact happen--I mean, it doesn’t happen, he says no (and then has major angst), but wow do they try their best to convince him. And if you want Ragnar/Athelstan, especially if you want it all tangled and angsty and complicated, this is definitely your episode. Sadly Lagertha gets sidelined and there continue to be way too many dudes.
Also, the rest of the Vikings just seem...pretty dumb. Like, the scene at the end when they go on a second trip west and encounter the...Northumbrians? IDK what to call the English at this point in time. But the English soldiers are just so exaggeratedly nonthreatening that it makes all the non-Ragnar Vikings seem like violent idiots to attack them on the beach. Wait to attack them until they’ve taken you to the king! They’re obviously not capable of giving you any trouble!
The culture clash thing works better on an individual level--the tension between Ragnar and Athelstan is interesting, with a lot of potential. Basically Ragnar is much better than one could hope for from this show, and so is Athelstan, and I will keep watching to see what happens there. But it’s still not exactly HBO, and the rest sucks. Luckily, the Ragnar-Athelstan stuff took up most of this episode.
Warnings and stuff: no rape this episode, thank god; a gross bloody moment when Athelstan is trying to angst-shave his head with a knife; a child gets murdered (onscreen but behind a rock).
I remain totally uninterested in the Ragnar-Arl power struggle, or in fact in the Arl at all. Or in any non-Ragnar Vikings, really. Athelstan’s scenes are awesome, though. The threesome thing does in fact happen--I mean, it doesn’t happen, he says no (and then has major angst), but wow do they try their best to convince him. And if you want Ragnar/Athelstan, especially if you want it all tangled and angsty and complicated, this is definitely your episode. Sadly Lagertha gets sidelined and there continue to be way too many dudes.
Also, the rest of the Vikings just seem...pretty dumb. Like, the scene at the end when they go on a second trip west and encounter the...Northumbrians? IDK what to call the English at this point in time. But the English soldiers are just so exaggeratedly nonthreatening that it makes all the non-Ragnar Vikings seem like violent idiots to attack them on the beach. Wait to attack them until they’ve taken you to the king! They’re obviously not capable of giving you any trouble!
The culture clash thing works better on an individual level--the tension between Ragnar and Athelstan is interesting, with a lot of potential. Basically Ragnar is much better than one could hope for from this show, and so is Athelstan, and I will keep watching to see what happens there. But it’s still not exactly HBO, and the rest sucks. Luckily, the Ragnar-Athelstan stuff took up most of this episode.
Warnings and stuff: no rape this episode, thank god; a gross bloody moment when Athelstan is trying to angst-shave his head with a knife; a child gets murdered (onscreen but behind a rock).