It’s usually right-wing European ideologies that hark back to their historic, home-grown paganism in order to foment nationalism. Greece’s Golden Dawn used to be fervent proponents of worshipping the gods of Olympus, while you only have to look at Der Pass to see how Woden and Krampus are being used in Austria and Germany for similarly unpleasant ends.
Which makes Ragnarok‘s new youth-oriented Norwegian original an interesting exception to the rule, being a left-wing call for the youth of Norway to channel the viking gods and protect the environment from capitalists.
Very Thor
The show sees David Stakston playing Magne, a young dyslexic, not especially bright man who moves with his mum back to their home town, Edda, in the remote wilds of West Norway. The last place to be Christianised in Norway, it’s now the home of Jutul industry and its super-rich family of Jutuls, who also run the school and most of the companies in Edda.
However, there are concerns about pollution, with the glaciers defrosting and the drinking water more than a bit suspect. Yet nothing happens, because the Jutuls own everything, including the police.
But when Magne shows kindness to an old, one-eyed man, he suddenly finds himself a changed man. He no longer needs glasses, he can run faster than the world’s best athletes, he can smell different kinds of blood, he’s nearly indestructible – and boy, can he throw a hammer.
How will Magne use his new abilities? And are the Jutuls quite what they seem?
A few years ago, when I last appeared on Radio 5’s Saturday Edition, there was a challenge to the listeners to name the then best US TV show. Somewhat out of left field, one listener threw me It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and host Chris Warburton challenged me to explain it to him, as he’d never heard of it.
“A bunch of friends including Danny DeVito play tricks on each other in a bar,” was the best I could come up with, since I’d caught about five minutes of it once on FX.
That recommendation piqued my curiosity, but I never actually got round to watching it. I can’t imagine it’s the best US TV show ever, but on the strength of Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet it’s probably both funny and sadly overlooked.
Okay. Maybe not.
But Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet is at least now my favourite Apple TV+ show. Although, to be fair, there’s not that much competition on that score. But it is good.
Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet
Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet is very much a “from the people who brought you It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia“, given that not only does it have a similarly long and unwieldy title, it’s created by that show’s star/writer Rob McElhenney, fellow writer Megan Ganz (Community, Modern Family) and co-star Charlie Day, while also featuring co-star David Hornsby in a lead role.
McElhenney plays the creator of one of the world’s biggest online video games, Mythic Quest, and he’s just about to roll out the first big extension to it: Raven’s Banquet. But he has a very particular vision, something that frustrates lead coder Charlotte Nicdao (Get Krack!n) who would simply like just one thing in the game that she can point out and call hers. Even if that is just boring thing like a spade.
Meanwhile, noted sci-fi author F Murray Abraham (Amadeus, The Name of the Rose) is doing his best to flesh out the storyline with a decent narrative, even if he doesn’t quite get games; sociopathic monetisation guy Danny Pudi (Community) is working out how to extract cash from anything that moves in it; testers Ashly Burch and Imani Hakim (Everyone Hates Chris) are doing their best to squeeze out all the bugs from it, even if Burch’s developing crush on Hakim is impairing her work performance; and boss Hornsby is doing all he can (ineffectively) to keep everyone happy, particularly his bosses in Montreal and his slightly scary, right-wing, McElhenney-besotted assistant Jessie Ennis (Better Call Saul).
Even if all their hard work and late nights pay off, the success of their game could rest in the hands of one person: 13-year-old YouTube reviewer ‘Pootie Shoe’ and his b-hole rating system.
It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week
Netflix’s The Stranger
This week’s reviews
Netflix decided to unleash a slew of new shows on us last week. Elsewhere, you’ll have seen TMINE’s verdict on The Stranger, thanks to Boxset Monday. Onisciente managed to keep me interested for one episode at least, and you can read about that after the jump.
But I’m still working my way through Ragnarok, which is going to be next week’s Boxset Monday or Boxset Tuesday, and I didn’t get a chance to look at Luna Nera (Black Moon) – I’m not convinced about its chances, given what’s coming over the next week.
Meanwhile, in the film world, Orange Thursday covered The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020) and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019).
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
What’s coming next
It’s Part II of Spring 2020 in the US. Over the next week, we’ll be getting more than a few new shows, including Briarpatch, Indebted, Interrogation, Katy Keene, For Life, and Tommy.
Meanwhile, from Friday, we’ve got Locke & Key on Netflix and Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet starting on Apple TV+.
I doubt I’ll be able to give everything my undivided attention, but I hope to give at everything a first glance at least – hopefully more.
Meanwhile in movies, tomorrow’s Orange Thursday will be reviewing A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2020) and… something else. I knew my Christmas viewing would run out some time.
The regulars list, which is already pretty small, is going to start getting even smaller soon, since this week, I’ll be covering the season finales of both Evil and Stumptown. However, that still leaves 9-1-1: Lone Star, Avenue 5, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector, The Outsider and Star Trek: Picard, the latest episodes of which I’ll also be covering.
I wonder if I’ll be dropping any of them, too, making the list even smaller. Let’s find out… in just a moment.
Of all the crime authors who seem to be doing very well out of the globalisation of TV, Harlan Coben has to be at the forefront. We’ve had The Five on Skyin the UK and Juste un regard (Just One Look)on TF1 in France; meanwhile, on Netflix we’ve had the UK-based Safe, with a Spanish version of The Innocent and a Polish version of The Woods on their way. And right now, we have another UK Coben production – The Stranger.
Which is odd, really, since most of his books are set in the US and no US network has so far chosen to adapt any of his books. I wonder why?
Safe, of course, despite being set in Manchester, starred a couple of global TV megastars – America’s Michael C Hall (Six Feet Under, Dexter) and France’s Audrey Fleurot (Engrenages, Les témoins). However, The Stranger is almost exclusive populated with home-grown talent, albeit UK and Irish actors who have also done very well out of TV and film globalisation themselves.
Richard Armitage in The Stranger
No Stranger
The star of The Stranger is none other than TMINE’s very own Dick Head (retired), Richard Armitage (Robin Hood, Strike Back, Berlin Station, Hannibal, Captain America: The First Avenger). Armitage is a regular lawyer and family man living in an unnamed town that looks suspiciously like various parts of Greater Manchester. He seems happy, despite the fact his mate/client Stephen Rea’s house is about to be knocked down by a firm owned by his very own father (Buffy‘s Anthony Head). He also seems to love his wife (Dervla Kirwan) very much.
Then a complete stranger confronts him one day: Hannah John-Kamen (Killjoys, The Tunnel, Ant-Man and the Wasp). She tells him a secret about Kirwan that turns Armitage’s world upside down. But Armitage isn’t the only one who has secrets, and soon everyone’s having to deal with their private lives being revealed.
It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week
Star Trek: Picard
This week’s reviews
Week four of Spring 2020 was a little quieter than the previous one, but we had three new shows launch. You can read the TMINE reviews of Outmatched(US: Fox) and Star Trek: Picard (US: CBS All Access; UK: Amazon) elsewhere, but we can talk about Awkwafina is Nora from Queens (US: Comedy Central) after the jump.
Meanwhile, in the film world, Orange Thursday took in Knives Out (2019) and Angel Has Fallen (2019).
Ragnarok
What’s coming next
Starting in the next week are Onisciente (Omniscient) (Netflix), The Stranger (Netflix), Luna Nera (Black Moon) (Netflix) and Ragnarok (Netflix). Yep, while others sleep, Netflix triumphs. I’ll pick one of those to watch over the next week and hopefully, it’ll be your Boxset Monday, but more likely your Boxset Tuesday.
Tomorrow’s Orange Thursday will be reviewing The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020) and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019). One of those is significantly better than the other.
Daredevil
The regulars
The regulars list is smaller even than normal this week, since both Evil and Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector took a break and Lovely Wife has decided she’d quite like to watch Avenue 5, so we’ll be watching episode 2 tonight.
Anyway, that just leaves 9-1-1: Lone Star, Stumptown and The Outsider. Still, it isWhat have you been watching? so now’s your chance to recommend some shows. Even Doctor Who. I hear there was a surprise guest ((spoiler alert) Captain Jack) and a massive development ((spoiler alert) another Doctor Who/alternative Doctor Who). Still not bothering with it.
In case you’ve been wondering what TMINE has been doing with itself, given such a lack of viewing options, the answer is simple: I’ve been rewatching the entire first season of Marvel’sDaredevil. It’s been an interesting experience, since clearly I was in a grumpy mood when I reviewed the first few episodes and still quite grumpy when I didn’t include it in my Top 9 (would have been 10 with Daredevil) shows of 2015.
Because it’s brilliant. Really sublime stuff – possibly my favourite season of all the Marvel shows, even more so than the first season of Iron Fist. It verges on the out and out sadistic at times, sure – you can tell showrunner Steven S DeKnight had just come off Spartacus – but despite having already watched it, I zoomed through all 13 episodes in about three days flat. Even the underwhelming costume reveal at the end was fine and Stick and the Hand didn’t irk me so much this time round.
The scripts explorations of the characters are almost lyrical at times, plus I really enjoyed some of its side-themes more, such as its study of the (diminishing) importance of journalism. There’s some real detective work/journalism going on in the investigation. And even when you know what’s coming, there are still some genuinely surprising choices by the writers, such as Melvyn’s reaction to losing a fight. Of which there are many, all so beautifully choreographed and directed – even Wu Assassinscouldn’t quite match it.
Plus there’s the general tone of the whole season, with some actually thought-provoking discussions of good and evil, morality, vigilantism, killing, rich and poor, Catholicism and more. Properly adult stuff it is.
Lastly, having watched all the other seasons and Netflix Marvel shows since, it’s really surprising to see how much everything fits together and was set up from the beginning. Yep, all that building-buying for the Japanese had a point and Madame Gao really did have to travel further than China to go back to her homeland.
So, if you’ve already watched Daredevil, give it another go, as it might surprise you. If you’ve not, you should definitely try it – provided you’ve got a strong stomach.
