What have you been watching...

[Michael Rolls]

I am binge watching 'Vikings – Valhalla' and enjoying it. Some understandable liberties have been taken – for instance, the warships depicted are far too small to represent genuine Viking longships – the smallest warships used at the time of the series were the snekkja with a minimum of 20 oars – 10 per side and the drakkar had a minimum of 30.  Some were a good bit bigger, and a double oared drakkar might easily have 60+ warriors aboard her. Still, to try for genuine reproductions would surely have been ruinously expensive.
I am intrigued by one historical anomaly. Sven Forkbeard is depicted as still being around – in fact, he died in 1014. In 1013 he had deposed Aethelred   (don't know how to type a diphthong)  who fled abroad only to return and reclaim the throne on Sven's death, only to die himself in 1016, to be succeeded, briefly, by Edmund who died later the same year. Edmund's death is a mystery – apparently various chroniclers, all writing long after the event, variously claim him to have been assassinated, died of wounds received in battle, or from some unspecified disease.
I was fascinated by Stuart's comment when it was pointed out that there was no evidence that some of the characters he had meeting had ever done so. He replied that there was no evidence that they hadn't, and that they could have done. I like it!
Some fascinating characters – Lief Erikson, for instance, according to the sagas landed in North America – Vinland – 500 years before Columbus. I don't believe that there is any evidence that he ever had a sister – but to borrow from Stuart – no evidence that he didn't!

[klondike]

I watched the first episode and couldn't get overly excited but I will try some more.

The far too small boats is a carry through from the original Vikings seasons and obviously done for cost reasons as they are real hand built boats. I noticed that in the episode I watched there were some CGI generated longships and thought they may have upped their game until the small ones made an appearance again.

I am not familiar with the history so errors in that don't bother me at all.

For many years now I have set my 5GHz WiFi to Valhalla and the 2.4GHz is Asgard. I probably picked them when I started watching the original Vikings which I thoroughly enjoyed for the first few seasons.

[klondike]

I've started rewatching the first season of Happy Valley as a preparation for when season 3 completes next month. Luckily senility has ensured that it is all fresh to me.

[Alex]

A new series of the IDF drama  ' Fauda' starts tonight on Netflix, so that's me sorted 

[klondike]

4 seasons. High IMDB rating. Tempting but I do have a big backlog of stuff already thanks to senility only reminding me that I liked stuff first time around without detail spoiling a second outing.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4565380/

Finiswd off Happy Valley season 1 as a binge watch. Excellent. Season 2 next.

[Raven]

I watched "Riptide" over the last couple of nights, had it recorded and really enjoyed it. The guy from Outlander was in it and he was the murderer. Very different part from playing Lord John Grey.

[klondike]

I've watched all of season 2 of Happy Valley too now. Really looking forward to season 3 but won't start until I have them all. I hate the involuntary waits between episodes watching as things get broadcast entail. 

[Alex]

A new series of the IDF drama  ' Fauda' starts tonight on Netflix, so that's me sorted 

Finished series 4, I became obsessed with it, my only complaint would be it's dubbed into English and the voices don't always match the character - if that makes sense

[klondike]

I saw a mention of that. It suggested the subtitles may be better but I can't stand those. I decided to give it a miss as I have so much stuff outstanding already.

[Alex]

I was round at my lad's today babysitting my Grand-dogs, SO I watched Happy Valley - it's good isn't it ? 

[klondike]

Season 1 and 2 were. I haven't started to watch season 3 yet. I can't figure out why they left it so long after 2. It was good enough for several seasons although they would have needed a different villain eventually so maybe that was the reason.

[Raven]

That's another series I never got into. 

[klondike]

BBC so probably all on iPlayer 

[Alex]

That's another series I never got into. 

Great acting in this, all of them.  The villain is James Norton who was the vicar in Grantchester, he plays a baddy so well, he's scary    Sarah Lancashire is good in whatever she does.

[Scrumpy]

It must be just me then.. 
I find it so depressing.. no-one ever smiles.. 
The first series was brilliant.. 
I have watched series 2.. and have last episode of series 3 to watch.. At least I've tried..