[S30.E06: Odd Woman Out]

Also, do most people in Florida consider themselves "East Coast"? To me, "East Coast" is North of the Mason Dixon line. Anything Maryland and below is "the South".

 

 

OT:  Apples and oranges.  To me any state north of Mason-Dixon is north, any state south is south except Maryland since it stayed in the Union due to Lincoln's outside the law move ... but good for him on doing it. 

 

Separately, any state along the east coast or fairly near it like Pennsylvania is the east coast which includes everything from Maine to Florida.  I've lived In New England, Mid-Atlantic states and Florida at various times.  Always considered I lived on the east coast.  So did everyone around me.  Including Florida.   In fact most people in coastal Florida don't even consider Florida as part of the traditional south since the majority of people in coastal areas either have come from or have roots in the northeast or midwest.

 

I don't see how Mike isn't liked by viewers in general like some people have said here.  He had the major workaholic melt down as his one, big negative moment but seems to have stopped with that.  If he gets into uber worker mode again, then yes.  Otherwise he has been shown to be a pretty nice guy and now shows some game.  Certainly loyalty to his "sub-alliance of two" partner.  Of course it will be funny when he finds out she wasn't in any real danger on her new, temp tribe.  But no way he could have known that at the challenge.  I think among the men he and Joe are getting the most positive edits though that doesn't mean they will win to me.  Well maybe Joe since he has been forced down my throat from day one as golden boy.

 

If Shirin (sp?) finds some duck tape for her mouth she should last long.  Wow can she yak and yak and yak on forever.  I'd have voted her out for having to have sat through her performance of the national anthem last episode alone. 

 

But now is the time where the focus changes to getting out the "strong males" like Mike and golden boy.  Rodney is such a perfect goat (and as dumb as one) I don't know if they will target him but then his annoyance factor may outweigh his goat factor.  Tyler is in a good place not looking quite as strong as Mike and Joe.  Will is in a good place with his alliance and lack of athleticism.  Dan?   He will probably live long enough to grovel for awhile yet.

 

The women?  Mean girl Jenn is in the catbird seat right now with her old no collar mates and new converts in tow plus her idol.  Hali is her cohort.  Carolyn has her idol as an ace in the hole.  Kelly hides in the background but if they find out about her and Mike she could get perceived as part of a "power couple" though Mike would be the one targeted most likely.  Sierra is a wild card that can be either the savior or the monkey wrench in people's plans.

 

I like the three tribe format.  It seems to lead to a more interesting merge when it is used.  Everything seems more fluid.

[Bates Motel Polls]

D. A Red Shirt from the latest subplot that involves either hookers/call girls or "Weed!" (the endless subplot who can't be decriminalized away for some unknown reason).  Too early for a major contract actor to go away.

[S03.E03: Persuasion]

...   I wonder if Dylan is ever going to find out that Emma knows Caleb is his uncle-dad (and that Norman was the one who told her). That scene between them was super awkward (but in a good way. It was like "Oh, you know Gunner?" Emma's face: yes, in the biblical sense. OMG that's the uncle-dad I heard so much about!  ...

 

I hope Emma keeps a giant flowchart in her room at home marked out with who told her what and who she can and cannot share certain information with.  Cause I can't see how she keeps all these secrets, semi-secrets, rumors and factoids all straight as to who should know or not know what at any given moment.

 

At least the hunt club plot doesn't involve "the weed business" directly.  But we still have Dylan out in some spin-off series that could be called The Endless Weed Subplot Blues show.  Caleb is not only bad but a total one note bore.  Dylan deserves his fate because he is the stupidest Bates alive (which is saying something) to hang out with all the seemingly endless parade of losers throughout the series.  Caleb, and maybe Chick now, are just the icing on Dylan's "I'm Really Dumb in Choosing Who I Hang With" cake.

 

Little Norman is growing up right in front of our eyes.  Anthony Perkins would have been proud of what Freddie Highmore has done in this re-imagined prequel.

 

Norma and Norman are the heart of the show.  Like the Sheriff bits, they work for me within the structure of the show.  But the endless Dylan stuff -- especially with "weed wars" and/or Caleb in the mix -- bogs the show down.  I don't care if it all ties back into the main plot eventually.  Not worth any future tie-in for me.  It ruins the pace and focus of the show and I'd be fine if both Dylan and Caleb met their demise sooner than later at this point.

[S03.E05: The Usurper]

EETA:  I have no problem with tricksters -- they are fascinating and quixotic.  It's when they get one-note I get bored.  That, probably, is a performance problem.  Also, I don't quite see the Gollum comparison.  Gollum was a normal hobbit named Smeagol of the Stoor tribe until he found the Ring and wore it.  Then he was a pawn of the Ring and the dark forces of Mordor, who destroyed him -- forces with single-minded, evil intent.  I don't see Floki as ever being "a normal guy named Sven ruined by Evil." 

 

I didn't mean the character of Gollum.  I meant that the Floki actor (Gustaf) reminds me of how Gollum moves in the Lord of the Rings films.  Physical moments.  The way be glides and jumps around and sometimes looks sideways and such.  His physical posture.  Even his smaller stature helps in that illusion for me.

 

I like More (Man for All Seasons is one of my favorite movie for ever) but he was an absolutist and hard line conservative who resisted the Reformation.  I understand the position, especially given the time and the real potential for civil war.

 

His views on education were progressive (there are parts of the world where they still are) but he burned people at the stake for heresey and burned books.

 

I don't see him as a hard line conservative and his own son-in-law (Will Roper) lived under his roof for several years while following Luther.  And he was one of the leading reformers long before Luther came along.  Opposed the wealth, the indulgences, the corruption always.  But he was a reformer and not a revolutionary like the latter and wanted to preserve one universal and hopefully reformed church.  That was where they parted ways.  He did become somewhat more conservative as he sensed the danger of civil war increasing.  At one time he didn't even accept that the Pope was necessarily the head of the church.  The radicals started to drive him into a more conservative position than he normally would have taken without what he saw as their threat to the stability of society I think.

 

Nor did he actually burn "heretics" at the stake.  There was a law regards smuggling in unauthorized translations of the Bible that was presented by Henry VIII years before and passed by Parliament long before he became Lord Chancellor.  There were a number of bad translations that basically were being used almost as smokescreens for separatist agendas.  So that was the capital offense.  "Heresy" never ever was.  More had no problem with people following their own beliefs or even keeping a banned translation as long at they didn't go around waving it in public, just not recruiting communities of dissents against the state.  And the law was against large scale smuggling from Europe into England, not in possessing a book I should add.  It was smugglers only who broke the law.

 

A Lord Chancellor had a duty under the law to turn over any evidence of such crimes to a church court who then tried and sentenced people.  More actually saved countless lives by releasing men accused of this for "lack of evidence" as he wrote on their dossiers and tried his best to look the other way unless they got too carried away.  If they gave him their word they would stop he would let them off with a warning.  Only three men had their dossiers handed over to the church court during his time in office, one of which he had let off two earlier times.  Wolsey before him and the man who took over after him sent countless people to the church court.  By contrast More managed to save almost all he had to deal with.

 

Guess I went off topic again so maybe I should stop here and we could discuss stuff in private messages if you want.  Cause whatever you want to say about More, we can both agree he wasn't a Viking or a Saxon noble.  :-)  (I appreciate we can post without the feeling of a straight jacket here though, thanks to Previously TV for their liberal policies).

[S03.E05: The Usurper]

Totally. I would love for Rollo to say "Sure, Mom and Lagertha loved you more, but 1066, baby." 

 

And Floki is fascinating because he is a zealot. And I'll love him forever for the forehead kiss/head butt move he did last year. He's a loose canon and Skarsgård plays the heck out of him. 

 

And me for his response to Siggy when she asked him if he could keep a secret last season.  The subtle physical acting coupled with the half-giggled but matter-of-fact "no" were perfectly acted and I still laugh remembering that little scene.

 

Also agree about Ragnar being a Viking king.  The whole point of telling the story according to Hirst was to tell about this era of history -- which is traditionally termed The Age of the Vikings -- for the first time from the Norse point of view.  But their pov doesn't mean it turns them suddenly saintly.  They weren't. 

 

But they weren't one-dimensional devils either.  They grew up in a culture where they inherited the ethos that their gods held the calling of the warrior as the highest way of conduct.  And that probably arose originally from the harsh conditions of their land and what it took to survive their.  They lived in areas with short growing seasons and thin soil and the population reached the point finally where it needed more land to survive.  For awhile raiding filled the gap for them but Ragnar is shown in the show to represent the Vikings who began to realize that more and richer farmland was the only real solution for their people.  Happens endlessly in history that peoples migrate or conquer because of that.  Coupled with the warrior ethos and that all the lands they could reach were already occupied, and by people who had a different culture and god, the Vikings clash with that world was most often bloody and could get very ugly.

 

Sure they were wrong to rape and pillage and burn and loot.  The Saxons had never attacked them and were the innocent party.  Again, the show never hides that fact.  But now in this episode we can see the Saxons can be just as bloody and slaughter innocents just as much as any Viking could.  It was a far different age back then and you can't understand any age in history without the context of that era.  Set and setting is the basis of any time in history.  Doesn't excuse the horrible slaughter.  But history sometimes seems like an endless chronicle of slaughters.  Remember that the Saxons themselves had originally mass slaughtered the native Celts several generations back to take over England.

 

The Vikings weren't the first nor were they the last people to war upon their neighbors driven in part by their warrior culture but also in part by their need to survive themselves.  And they were a complex people and not cartoon villains.  They didn't have a group mind.  The differences between Ragnar and Floki in their visions of how the people should live are showing that quite well I think. 

 

I think Hirst said that was part of the reason he wanted to do the series.  To show that the Vikings weren't just one dimensional villains but to give a people who had no writing at that time a voice finally to kind of tell their side of the story.  Not a glorified, scrubbed-up version.  Just their version from their pov and let the audience be rightly appalled at times but also develop a feeling for a real people with real problems and real love for their families and their culture in their way too.

 

Also in showing that free women had somewhat better opportunities in their society as in the respect a shield maiden garnered, the right a free woman had not to be beaten by her husband at will (Athelstan's lesson to Ecbert early on) and the right of people to speak up during The Thing and question to at least some degree what is going on with their leaders were positives in their culture.  So it wasn't a totally negative society either.

[S03.E05: The Usurper]

History is full of people like Floki...he an's exremeist hothead who was the heart or id of the group (think Patrick Henry or Thomas More)...they are necessary but probably exhausting on a day to day basis.

 

OT:  I would think Thomas More was anything but an extremist hothead.  He was trying to stop a bloody religious civil war starting in England like it did in the Germanic states (Peasants' War) which was started by a real extremist hothead playing the religion card. 

 

Thomas More was a reformer, never a revolutionary, and a man of conscience and the leader of the early renaissance in England.  And More would never have been exhausting in life.  He was known for his humor and wit and his house was most always filled with England's and, in some cases, Europe's intelligentsia of the day.  I would have loved to hang out there back in the day.

 

And he wrote a damn fine book in "Utopia" which was a imaginary land of pagans who were far more rational and morally "Christian" in their life then his real life contemporary Christians.  Which, of course, was the main point of the book.

 

Sorry but had to defend More.  I've read about 20 books on him and he is my favorite character in history.  And the diametric opposite of Floki given his curiosity about almost anything and everything in life and his great love of learning.  (Hope that wasn't too off topic but there are only 2 pages on this thread so figured it was okay in a smaller-posted thread).

 

Babalooie, thanks for typing the right spelling for Gollum.  Back to correct my old post.  And I must say it is weird to be addressing this to a descendent of Ragnar (whoever he really was) and Aslaug through Ivar the Boneless.  Bet you can't wait for The Great Heathen Army's turn in the series to arrive.

 

Don't know a link on Gustaf but was it you or someone else mentioned he is in a relationship with Creator/Writer Michael Hirst's daughter now.  Maybe she has a blog or something.  But I kind of like that he doesn't have a page.  I like when actors kind of stay hidden behind their characters.

[S03.E05: The Usurper]

While I don't find Floki amusing in the least -- I find the character as written and performed to be one-note and, amazingly, a mix of annoying and boring as shit.

 

Different strokes.  I love Floki as a character and find him really interesting.  A Viking shaman who foresees the twilight of the gods coming while no one else seems to care or believe him.  I also think the actor portraying him has been nothing short of brilliant.  Love his body movements and how they remind me of Gollum (spelling corrected finally) at times.

 

Are the Vikings butchers at times?  Of course.  Now the Saxons are too.  That's history for you.  Very few good guys in any land every.

 

 

I know what women could be executed for in those days, so I'm surprised she would be so blatant. 

 

Judith should not be in danger.  She's the daughter of King Aella and is the seal on the alliance pack with Northumbria.  Now if Ecbert wants to start a war with Northumbria, fine.  But he doesn't.  Well, not yet.  (Ecbert's Bucket List:  #23 - Backstab King Aella and take over his lands). 

 

Also nobility of both genders were always messing around throughout history.  And Aethelwulf is obviously pissed but he does what daddy wants and is more likely to have it in for a former monk then his political wife.

 

I failed to mention upthread that I also was completely fooled by Ecbert's moves this episode.  Brilliant!  Well if you don't believe in karma, ethics and morality.  Which most leaders and rulers in all times don't.  Doesn't say karma isn't gonna bite him sooner than later though.

[Show Vision vs Actual History: Accuracy, Inaccuracy, and Conversation]

Historicaly Athelwulf did have a son named Athelstan who never came to the throne.  It's been my personal theory this could be the child of Judith/Athelstan.

 

Yeah historically that would seem more correct.  But dramatically it wouldn't seem to make as much sense because that historic Athelstan did nothing.  I think this Athelstan's "trist" with Judith should mean something to the storyline since otherwise they wasted a lot screen time on a boring subplot if it doesn't.  Also it has been an awkward, almost forced subplot so there should be something kind of big behind it I think.  Or I hope at least.

 

Especially since Michael Hirst likes to "use" history as opposed to following it 100%.  All people creating historical fiction do to different degrees of course.  He isn't unique that way.  So maybe he may have come across the name Athelstan when plotting out the general drift of his vision for the show and decided, "Hey, I can use the name for that guy I'm going to base on those real monks that got captured by vikings and then later I can have him turn out to be the real father of Alfred the Great.  Then we can have the tragic irony of Athelstan's son and Ragnar's sons battling each other out in Vikings:The Next Generation."

 

Or I could be totally wrong about Alfred of course.  But Alfred the Great is too big an historical figure (the biggest as in most well-known of them all of this era) to hide even dramatically and Hirst seems to have all his characters tied into each other somehow.  It just ups the dramatic ante if Aethelwulf really isn't his father and Athelstan is.

 

As much as I love the history you have to have drama first to hook the viewers so it usually wins over accuracy and you can but hope that the final product is worth it as a result.  In this case I think this show is well worth it and the best show on TV right now and I would be fine with Athelstan fathering Alfred.  If not, well I have my pipe dream here now.

 

Kind of a PS:  Since Alfred became a bit of a great scholar as well and since Aethelwulf doesn't even read at least not Latin and thinks learning is for sissys according to comments he made last season, another indication Alfred may have been sired by someone like Athelstan instead.

[Show Vision vs Actual History: Accuracy, Inaccuracy, and Conversation]

Breaking the posts up a little.  The "bear marrying a princess" I could see either Bjorn or Rollo.  But probably Bjorn cause like said above that is what his name means and he did marry a princess eventually. 

 

But Rollo should "dance naked on the beach" ... if that is how Vikings celebrate becoming famous that is.  And he sure wants the fame all Vikings crave.  He starts a little kingdom of Northmen in the north of France.  After a couple of centuries the Northmen name has been truncated into the Normans.  And yes, like mentioned above, William the Conqueror is of his bloodline. 

 

Meanwhile in Wessex, a soon-to-be member of the royal lineage by the name Alfred the Great unites England and the throne of England stays with them until King Harold loses it to William at Hastings.  Circle of life, European history style.

 

Ironic too that the line that exterminates the first large Viking settlement in England loses England to a king come from Viking ancestors.

 

Also ironic for poor Floki had he known this future because Team Viking wins but by that time Team Viking has become totally Team Christian as well.

 

Finally, I wonder if Michael Hirst will diddle with history a little to make Athelstan's child by Judith to be that same Alfred.  (The only king in English history to ever get "the Great" added to his name btw).

[S03.E05: The Usurper]

I would have loved to see Lagertha and Ragnar immediately team up to take the smarmy Kalf as much as anyone, but I could see why he didn't.  Ragnar's always thinking bigger picture and long game.  They had just come back from Wessex with not a lot concrete to show for it aside from the doomed settlement amid what appeared to be a fair amount of grumbling about going off to fight and die for the Christians and the first thing he's going to do is march them off to get into a fight for his ex-wife?  Ragnar's already got his sights set on raiding Paris next and getting into a civil war RIGHT NOW is going to only weaken the forces he's going to need to do that.

 

I don't think it means that he's not planning to take care of it eventually if Lagertha doesn't figure out a way to on her own first.  "That is between you and my ex-wife.  Good luck with that."  Hee.  He knows exactly how capable she is and that she took it the first time without his help.  And if not, he's already made Kalf the offer he can't refuse to go on the Paris raid or have all his resources go without him.  One way or another it's going to get handled.

 

I concur completely.  The worst thing possible for the fate of the Norse would be to have a bloody civil war.  I could see Ragnar thinking that it is best for the future of the Norse people to have the numbers and war on the Franks.  And in battles people get slain.  Even usurpers who might not get slain by an enemy soldier necessarily.  His followers would have a Valhalla-ending for their leader without needing to find out the truth and Lagertha could re-unite the kingdom with no ill will.  Always better to look for a win-win solution then fly off the handle into a silly revenge game.

 

I loved the scene btw where Bjorn was upset when Lagertha was going to ride off.  "But Mom, remember, the family was always gonna go to Paris together!"

 

He said "I see a harvest celebrated in blood, I see a trickster whose weapon cleaves you, I see a city made of marble and a burning broiling ocean"

 

The harvest could be the cow Lagertha sacrificed to bless the new farm land, Ecbert getting the nobles to massacre the farmers makes him a trickster or maybe Earl Pretty is the trickster (I'm hoping it's a metaphorical weapon that cleaves her not an actual one). Paris is probably the marble city but I'm drawing a blank about the ocean.   

 

I agree with that.  And I think the "a burning broiling ocean" is a good sign that Lagertha will live long and prosper (cough). 

 

Remember Season 1 where the seer mentions Bjorn and an inland sea?  Historically that inland sea is the Mediterranean and Bjorn's last great battle before he retires to rule in peace in Scandinavia is one where his giant fleet is ambushed by an equally big Moorish one.  The Moors used "Greek fire" against the Viking ships causing the very sea to seem to be on fire.  This was after a lot of other Bjorn adventures leading up to that so if Lagertha is tied in with this battle in Michael Hirst's "melded" timeline, she could last a long time.

[S03.E02: The Arcanum Club]

Norma vs The Bypass Sign was right up there with Wil vs The Ice Globe.  (The Amazing Race fans know what I mean).

[S03.E03: Warrior's Fate]

^  And after the time jump in Season 2 the first look we get of Athelstan in the long house was with a woman around each arm and joking about his way with women basically.  You get the idea that he particularly liked this aspect of his new Norse faith the most.

[S30.E03: Crazy Is As Crazy Does]

^  If that is the case maybe that is part of the reason they decided to piggy back these two particular episodes cause the first is a real snooze fest for sure if it is the one with the boring medical emergency stuff.  (Also explains the whole Will edit so far too).

[S30.E03: Crazy Is As Crazy Does]

Since this is the best season ever according to Probst would that mean it will be the best episode ever?  Cool.

 

Since Probst always tells whoppers to promote the show and this is just the typical marketing ploy-speak, it will probably be a snooze of an episode.

[S26.E04: The Great Amazing Nasty Race (Bangkok)]

meep.meep, you bring up an interesting point. All of the people are young. Just once, could we have a 40+ race? I think it would be interesting to see how an older generation would handle the stress of these challenges we've watched thus far. Not just physical stress, but mental stress and the inevitable fatigue.

 

 

Yeah if they have to have a gimmick (and plase do NOT ever again have another gimmick Race) then The Amazing Race: The Seniors Edition would be far better than this train wreck.  Even just mid-30's and up brings a far more interesting dynamic to me.  So many 20-somethings are just a blank slate on this show with nothing interesting to share on national TV.  A few do but most don't.  And the Generic Herd in this season particularly doesn't.

 

I'm with one poster up thread who sorted out the Black/Asian team, the Bearded guy/tattooed Lady one, the remaining gay team and the team that yells or is passive aggressive a lot (though they can only be picked out with audio clues ... too many audio clues). 

 

The rest is just the Generic Blob and I have no interest in them at all.  Nor in the other teams I can tell apart for that matter.  The Lawyers lost some points this episode and the Beard/Tatoo team gained some.  One gay guy wants to Race while he is afraid the other is about ready to quit (foreshadowing?) which means only half that team gets a positive from me.  Yeller/Passive Aggressive is just another Generic Blob team on audio steroids so no to them too.

[S26.E04: The Great Amazing Nasty Race (Bangkok)]

I'm more convinced by this now than I was last week. It was clear last week that TPTB wanted everybody bunched in Narita to seek flights when the desk opened, then bunched overnight in Phuket. It was clear this week that everybody was intended to be on that first flight to Bangkok. Stuff happens. It's annoying, but that's what comes from TAR taking place in the real world and not a controlled space on an island: occasionally good legs get spoiled by the starting conditions, sometimes bad ones turn out well in spite of themselves.

 

Yeah I agree totally.  One of the things I love about this show is that it is the real world and the producers can't control the whole thing.  It isn't some fake reality show secretly having all the strings pulled by production. 

 

And yeah you can never predict when some team screws up so badly that they lose their passport or a team gets a bad flight out (which happens pretty often, this missed flight isn't some horrible anomaly or travesty of justice).  It's the price you pay for not ruling the entire planet earth and I'll take that price any day as opposed to some controlled environment of boredom.

 

But the reverse can happen too like mentioned above. Like when some simple and seemingly uninteresting roadblock suddenly turns into one of the funniest visual segments in TAR history (Wil vs The Ice Globe, TAR2 as well as Colin vs The Broken Ox, TAR5).  That's the beauty of TAR, the surprise that both the world itself and the teams bring to the show.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

In other news, CATS!!!  You can never go wrong with cats in an episode.  We would happily welcome our furry overlords to each and every episode.

[S03.E04: Scarred]

Fundamentalist Pagans sounds like a garage band.

 

You nailed it.  Floki and The Fundamentalist Pagans, a heavy metal goth garage band. 

 

Did Siggy save the children?  The whole thing was a directorial muddle for me.  Oh well.  Also?  I was never wedded to Siggy or the actress so -- okay, sorry she's dead but I'm not sure why her death deserved such a production or so much airtime.

 

Click on the link in the Media thread that I also transferred over here for the full details.  The actor had to leave the show for personal reasons and Michael Hirst gave her a great write-out where she has to choose between saving herself or saving the children instead thereby joining her daughter and family in death.  She chose the self-sacrifice and ended her life nobly as the former wife of an earl should.

 

I loved the brief scene before all this when she tells Aslaug (who is flying out the door to meet the Wanderer when people are lined up waiting to see her)  that she, Siggy, would never neglect the duties an earl's wife should perform and even sits down one last time in her old chair slowly stroking the arm of the other chair in remembrance.  Great exit for her in all ways.

[S03.E04: Scarred]

 I appreciate the presence of a fundamentalist pagan

 

Nice post but I got to really single this out.  Got a ring to it.  It sounds kind of like a lyric out of a Gilbert & Sullivan opera.

[S26.E04: The Great Amazing Nasty Race (Bangkok)]

Now we hae to wait three(!) weeks until the next episode. Seriously there was nowhere else where they could move whatever is coming on for the next two Fridays?

 

Like others have said, you can't move the biggest college tournament going to other nights to accommodate CBS.  Nor would CBS want it moved.  It's March Madness.  They paid a fortune for the rights.  It's their biggest ratings bonanza of the year.

 

I was on a call for most of the show so I missed most of it though I did catch the last 15 minutes or so. Man, once things started not going their way Jenni sure unraveled didn't she? That said, I sort of understood where they were both coming from. She's right, it is a race and you do what you need to get ahead. She didn't actively sabotage the other team, just found a way to put some distance between her team and them. That said, I understood what Jelani was saying that there may come a time in another leg where they will need Matt and Natalie (? can never really remember her name) and they will not be inclined to help. 

 

I found it ironic that she was the one who loudly lectured her partner on NOT debating which of two teams had rights to that first cab at the airport.  That it didn't matter, that it only cost them a few minutes to find another yadda yadda.  The result was they got another taxi that apparently sucked since they seemed to disappear into a vortex only to be shown again having lost a lot of time.  It put them way WAY behind that other couple that grabbed that taxi at the airport.  They (one of the generic ones, have no clue) shot into the lead until they couldn't find the Metal Castle.  Then she was the one screaming to get a cab FAST and leave them in the dust. 

 

At least I think it was the other couple claiming that first cab at the airport as well.  Like I say, it was one of the endless generic ones.

 

I have come to realize one of these generic couples is so under shown.  The Olympic team.  They have been hidden in amongst the blur of Generics.  Getting the same slow build-up edit like last season's winners maybe?  (I'm not spoiled, just commenting on how invisible they have been so far.  That usually means a team will go far in the race at the very least).

[Show Vision vs Actual History: Accuracy, Inaccuracy, and Conversation]

^ And I actually have the opposite reaction.  Who is to say Odin wasn't real?  Who is to say our current pov is the only reality?  I'm sure some years down the road people will be laughing at what we believed -- or disbelieved -- was reality.  If we are immersing in Viking and old English cultures on this show then I want to totally  accept their realities.  I think one of the main points of this show is to have us do just that.  To be able to think outside our little current (and passing too) box of reality and know what another reality is like.

[S03.E04: Scarred]

Okay about the non-Siggy stuff.

 

Best feast scene I've ever watched.  And I don't say "best whatever" lightly.  Just perfect in every way.  Ever character was awesome in it.  The scenes with Lagertha/Ecbert/Athelstan and Ragnar watching as he always does and on and on.  Loved loved loved Ragnar and Ecbert's little talk especially.  The parallel storylines actually shown up close and in person.  And finally the "Yo, my name is Queen now!" Kwenthrith ending was hilarious with all the actors tone perfect with the wine tossing. 

 

It's a scene like that that gives the viewers a great payoff for watching the heavy and sad scenes.  You know things will all fall apart.  They always do in history.  But we will always have this fantastic feast to remember.

 

And Rollo remains transformed from Rollo the Jerk (see first two seasons) to Rollo the Voice of Reason ... minus a brief regression due to magic mushroom munching.  What happened to the guy?  He's the only one who behaves diplomatically towards Aethelwulf what with Floki stabbing the prince mentally with his crazed eyes and even Ragnar not bothering to play his cards close to the vest and telling the dude he could never be part of Ragnar's Cool Kids Vikings Only Club.

 

Then he hears out both Floki and Ragnar and chooses Ragnar's "we have to be realistic and move forward" pov.  What is up with this former drunken, jealous of his brother dude who has morphed into Mr Rational.  Wonder since Lagertha will be needing a new right hand man to take Kalf's place soon if Rollo might be interested.  No Siggy left and he did have a thing for Lagertha in the past.

 

I knew King Horik's kid Erlander would show up sooner than later so assumed he was the guy when Kalf mentioned someone was coming.  But I didn't see him marrying the second wife of Jarl Borg though.  At least he didn't marry Borg's first wife ... the skull Borg used to carry around with him.  Interesting the look Erlander gave Kalf when Kalf made a big deal of Baby Borg being Jarl Borg's biological son.  Like maybe those two may not become the bestest of friends ever.  Just a feeling ... I'm not spoiled about anything here.

 

Back to Aethelwulf.  First time he was shown trying to be a bit tolerant.  Glad they didn't stay with the one-dimensional, intolerant religious bigot he was shown to be up until this point.  But, except for Rollo, he got slapped down for it.  Then he sees Judith and Athelstan together at the end.  Guy now has some real anti-Viking motivation going forward it seems.

 

And meanwhile, poor Floki.  His whole world and the whole meaning of his life is falling apart before his eyes.   Looks like he is about ready to pack-up for an Iceland or Bust voyage sooner than later.  

 

Looks like next week stuff falls apart quickly.  But this week, great payoff scene with that feast.  And wonderful sendoff scene for Siggy.  This is an episode I will be happy to re-watch anytime.

[S03.E04: Scarred]

Nooooooo!  Not Siggy!!!!  Although the sequence was beautifully filmed, and I knew the ice was going to crack under those boys, I still gasped when it did. 

...

I hope we're not done with the Wanderer, because my husband and I both agreed that has been the most interesting part of the show so far.

 

 

maraleia posted a link in the media thread here to an interview with the actor who plays Siggy.  It was her choice to leave the show because of family reasons.  Otherwise there were no plans originally to kill her off in Season 3.  See a partial quote below to wet your appetite and go to the media thread for the whole article which was really interesting.

 

"How did you find out Siggy was being killed off?

 

In truth, I told them. I had some personal things in my life that only I could be there for, some family things, which everybody has sometimes. So I approached [Vikings creator] Michael Hirst and said that living over in Ireland at that point in my life was impossible for me. It's time that I have to move on. He was incredible about it. It was really sad and difficult and an incredibly hard decision, as you can imagine. I told him at the end of season two and he said he really wanted to take Siggy out, to give her proper closure. Of course I wanted to do the same and so he came up with this storyline to end Siggy."

 

She also said in the interview that Siggy wasn't going to be forgotten amongst the Vikings and that the Wanderer's storyline isn't through.  Not spoiler stuff.  Just a kind of "stay tuned" there is more stuff a-coming" type of comment.

 

Also a lot of details about how the scene was filmed, what was going on in the scene etc.  In other words it wasn't some fluff interview.  I usually don't bother with interviews but this one is totally worth it.  I'd recommend it as a read to everyone here and would like to thank maraleia for the link here.  All credit to her.

 

http://www.hollywood...n-gilsig-780235

 

Without that interview I would be trying to think of why they killed off Siggy when, like often on a TV series, it was real life that caused a change in the storyline.  And yes, Michael Hirst gave Siggy one hell of a great write-out.

[Vikings Sightings In The Media]

Ron Moore (show runner for Battlestar Galactica and Outlander on STARZ) just gave Vikings a nice shout-out at PaleyFest where he was doing a panel discussion about Outlander.  He was asked what other show he'd like to work on for a day and he picked Vikings because of the unique culture it presents -- one that is so completely different from modern day.  The audience roared it's approval.

 

Lagertha & Starbuck .. I want to see them on The Amazing Race asap!

[S30.E03: Crazy Is As Crazy Does]

I am trying to figure out why Jeff Probst is so high on this season because I am not seeing it yet. Most of the people are in the dislike to strongly dislike category, the strategic play has been missing, and there is no real surprise in who is going home.

 

Probst is always high on whatever season is being shown.  It's just the usual marketing and promotion they do every single season.  I mean what else is he going to say?  "Well this season was a kind of boring, well below average one.  Be sure to tune in and watch!"

 

I don't see that. I think he's getting a basic nice guy edit but he was called out immediately after they lost the challenge, by Probst, as essentially being responsible for the decision to make Nina go ahead.  And he owned up to it when they got back to camp and apologized. I thought he displayed amazing patience and calm when Vince was coming at him with that bullshit about him not showing him (Vince) respect or whatever he babbled on about.

 

And he did lose his patience when he snapped at Vince about the shelter building that he thought was wrong. Personally with all those loud, aggressive male personalities on Blue Collar and obnoxious Jaoquin on White Collar, I'll take Joe who genuinely seems to be there just to play the game and have fun doing it. I just think right now more than anything he seems to have a good social game and that might serve him well when the inevitable three to two tribes merge happens. 

 

This was in response to my saying Joe was getting the "golden boy-god" edit.  And it is saying exactly what I was saying in a way.  The edit makes the audience see him always as Joe the Wonderful, Joe the Humble, Joe the Kind, Joe the Great Builder, Joe the Awesome, Joe the Handsome, Joe the Athletic, Joe the Noble etc. 

 

Joe can do no wrong even when he does wrong because he is shown to be devastated by his failings as well.  In short, he is being shoved down our throats as a saint from week one.  I don't like "edit-shovings" so I don't much like him as a result. 

 

Maybe he is a budding saint in real life.  Good for him.  The world could use more saints.  But not on Survivor.  It's too over the top and I'm not buying it because we are being almost made to like him because ... what?  He goes far? Wins?  (I'm not spoiled).  It just is too too much over the top with the edit and so it has totally turned me off Joe.  TPTB, if he really is that good show it in a more subtle, rounded way and don't throw it in my face week in and week out.

[S30.E03: Crazy Is As Crazy Does]

"We're No Collar! We do our own things the way we want because we are independent and individualists!" "Nina you need to start acting like a No Collar!" Hypocrites.

 

Yeah all this stuff about adapting to other people and they just treated Nina like crap.  That challenge exclusion for no reason other than deafness was horrible.

 

I was late turning on the show, so I got there after the comment but while Rodney was throwing his fit.  Can someone please enlighten me on just what was said?

 

The postman called Rodney's mother a whore.  He was probably trying to make a joke but his delivery of the line sucked and you never ever call anyone's mother that even while joking.  Especially among males.  Men traditionally tend to feel very protective of their mothers and so consider that the biggest no-no you can say.

 

So far I can't stand Joe.  He is getting the "wonderful, golden boy-god walking amongst mere mortals" edit.  If he wins it will be a horrible season with him being shoved down my throat each week.  I'd rather watch Vince be bat-shit crazy any day.  He was about the only person remotely interesting on this season so far.