fcarraldo Reviews

Sword of Vengeance (2015)

Like it for what it is

[8/10 · 21 August 2015]

The Vikings TV series seems to be spinning off a sub genre of 1000 AD action shows. At least that is how I see this one. Cross Ragnar with the High Plains Drifter. Distilled Man with No Name with a Ragnar L. haircut. Wish they had explained how a Norman boy transformed into a Viking bad-ass. Love the berserkers by the way. I like the style, the weird electronic score. It is more like a dream world than realistic.

The colors are black and white.

The landscape science fiction. Not even true to history.There were no stone castles three years after 1066!

No originality to the plot. Really it is the classic a stranger comes to town.

But that's OK I was entertained. I like it for what it is.

Rome (2005–2007)

Awesome series

[9/10 · 29 July 2013]

I took one point off because I find so much explicit sex and nudity to be unnecessary. I recently finally finished watching it on DVD.

In any series like this there will be creative license. As long as they get the important historical stuff mostly right that's the main thing. There are little accuracies too, like painting the town red for a Triumph. Lots of backstabbing and double-dealing - so true.

I like the acting, the plot, the look. Most of all I like the way it tries to give a feel for everyday life in Rome. Not cleaned up. There's humor too, like when the newsreader (love that guy) does ads for merchants in between announcing the big political news.

Some viewers object to the British accents and expressions. Well, it is a translation, and the Romans had expressions, vernacular and curse words - what would actually be really weird and inaccurate would be to purge all of that and have them speak in some ludicrous "How art thou Lucius Septimus" baloney Latin-speak. The reason British actors are used in these is because they are Europeans and in a weird way dramas based on European history sound more authentic with European accents.

Apocalypto (2006)

A perfect action film

[9/10 · 5 June 2013]

This is first and foremost an action film. Any messages or history lessons are incidental. It's not especially bloody by contemporary standards. It mixes Maya and Aztec and different historical episodes but that's artistic license. It is disgustingly hypocritical of Hollywood types who love movies celebrating sadism and cruelty to claim moral outrage when the violence here is motivated by the plot and based on actual events. In fact the worst violence is in the viewers heads they don't actually see as much as they think. It's just incredibly ambitious to risk making a movie that doesn't have bankable stars, isn't in English, about an alien civilization. Love it or hate it it is not a formula film.

Vikings (2013–2020)

Like it

[10/10 · 25 March 2013]

Updating the review here. Getting near the end of the season.. Still very entertaining.

The story moves along. We are not stuck on any subplot too long. The story moves along. Sons of Anarchy analogy very apt. My Danish friend once told me that he thought of vikings as the bike gangs of their age.

To the historically picky consider what a strictly accurate series would be like. People farming 99% of the time. Half the main characters dying of some disease before they did anything interesting.

If it helps think of this as a kind of alternate earth/universe where there is a lot of overlap with our earth history but important things are different.

Older part of the review.

This series is like The Tudors. Lots of liberties taken with the historical details. The geography doesn't match properly, characters are rearranged, invented, etc etc. An expert in Viking history could write a book on all the mistakes, I'm sure. BUT this is not a documentary. It's not a university class in the history and culture of Vikings. It's fiction. Since most Americans have about a 5% level of knowledge of the Vikings even if it is 50% accurate that's about a 10 times improvement. I like the story of Ragnar being an explorer, adventurer, and strategist. I like that the show has Christianity competing with Norse Gods, that a monk is a lead character, that the Saxons are caught off guard by the Viking's tactics and ferocity, that the Vikings are a mix of good and bad... I especially like that it deals with a time in Britain's history when a new wave of invaders is coming and what gives the Vikings the edge is a technological advantage in seafaring.

Also I think it works dramatically very well, the acting is excellent, the plot is getting more interesting. I even like the credits.

Compare this show with the stale old police/detective shows and their stale old plots and stereotypical characters.

I give it a 10.

Elementary (2012–2019)

It is getting better

[9/10 · 25 January 2013]

It is getting better as it progresses. They are moving beyond a simple police procedural. The crimes are getting more interesting. I like it. I don't compare it to the BBC Sherlock. For one thing, the latter isn't tied to the one hour episode with ads format.

I like the Holmes/Watson interaction, it's a challenge for them to keep the relationship on the right side (ie zero side)of romantic.

Holmes is the classic Aspergers dude. In true Simon Baron-Cohen mode here he's paired with a social radar. So I think the woman partner is, in fact, in keeping with the original SH spirit.

I hope a cable channel buys the rights for the next season so the series can advance in length and complexity of stories.