The Almighty Johnsons - General Discussion

[HunterHunted]

I'm hoping that every episode in season 2 has a shirtless Olaf scene. I'm deep that way. I'm glad that the show rid Mike of his interminable marriage/baby plot, but if he's going to be an ass for the rest of the season I'm not having it. I feel so badly for Ty in his terribly destructive marriage. Ty has always been my favorite character.

[Ketzel]

damnit, i missed the first episode, cos i forgot that i'd seen it aired last night...

If you have cable, check with your provider. Verizon Fios has the episodes available on-demand, usually a few days after they air.

Edited November 8, 2014 by Ketzel

[Lawgiver]

I have to admit, Anders' Norwegian room service actually sounded yummy. I have weird food taste.

[Arynm]

Why haven't we seen grandpa with no shirt? Ty wasn't half bad either. I demand to see this in every episode for now on.

[HunterHunted]

Why haven't we seen grandpa with no shirt? Ty wasn't half bad either. I demand to see this in every episode for now on.

We saw both this episode and I'm immensely grateful for it. Less grateful for Dawn being suspicious that Ty killed awful Eva. I've never liked any conflict between the two. And I loved the actress who played female Axl.

[Ketzel]

And I loved the actress who played female Axl.

She was great! But then, all of the acting on this show has been great.

[Gel]

I'm really enjoying this season. It's a refreshing combination of being light and really quite dark at the same time. I love that things happen on the show that actually manage to surprise me, which almost never happens now with series/dramas, yet are totally consistent with the storyline and manage stay in character for each of the gods. They don't have an idiot ball to pass around, hooray!

The actress playing Axl was very good.

[catray]

I am playing catch-up but have finally watched the first four (whoops, six) episodes. Random thoughts:

-Ty and Eva's relationship has to be one of the most dysfunctional, destructive ones I've seen on tv, but I'm still sad she died. Poor Ty really can't catch a break.

-Axl as a woman was great-- really enjoyed the actress and I hope we see her again.

-I don't like Dawn suspecting that Ty killed Eva, but given her own experience, it's maybe not surprising.

-Axl growing up and becoming more Odin like is great

-I love Olaf and Ingrid.

Edited November 27, 2014 by catray

[thewhiteowl]

I caught the first season on Netflix and I really liked it. I hope they show the other seasons. There are three seasons? This show is quirky and fun and has some good drama. I'm surprised it's not more popular.

[Ketzel]

According to Variety, SyFy only acquired the first two seasons. Given how fast they pushed season one out of prime time after a couple of episodes, and now are showing the second season at double speed, I don't feel optimistic that we will be seeing the third season broadcast.

[HunterHunted]

According to Variety, SyFy only acquired the first two seasons. Given how fast they pushed season one out of prime time after a couple of episodes, and now are showing the second season at double speed, I don't feel optimistic that we will be seeing the third season broadcast.

Boo! Now with the development that Gaia may be Frigg, but doesn't want to be with Axl, and Braagi and Idunn have found each other, the rest of season 2 and season 3 looks like it will be very twisty.

I can fanwank why Gaia's father didn't want to eat meat when he was raising Gaia, his natural giant body chemistry would cause him smell like pie. But why did he pretend to be gay? It's not like he and Jacob faked a relationship in order to keep Gaia safe.

[Ketzel]

Now that the plot has gotten so interestingly convoluted with the addition of the Maori pantheon, I can see the last two episodes of Season 2 couldn't possibly come close to resolving all the outstanding issues in the storyline. I understand why the New Zealand fans protested so vigorously when the series was originally cancelled after Season 2. I hope Season 3 will be made available to the US fans in some way. I hope, if SyFy doesn't spend the money to broadcast Season 3 (which seems pretty unlikely) that it will be released in Zone 1 on dvd or made available for download.

Edited December 11, 2014 by Ketzel

[catray]

With these last two episodes, I am really impatient for the last episode to air! I hope Ty can finally find some happiness now that he has lost his god powers. I love all the stuff going on right now with gods and goddesses.

I am getting the feeling that we are probably not going to see Season 3 on SyFy either, which sucks! Hopefully there's some way to see it!

[thewhiteowl]

I caught Season 1 on Netflix, I'm hopeful they will post 2 and 3 for streaming

[HunterHunted]

If SyFy hasn't picked up season 3, I'm going to be pissed. Ty isn't a god, but Dawn can't remember him and Axl and Gaia are in love, but Gaia is Idunn. Talk about star crossed. We better get a chance to see season 3.

[Ketzel]

I emailed feedback@syfy.com asking them to pick up Season 3, or at least to license it for download. And I hope one or the other happens before I forget so much of the first two seasons, I have to watch them all over again. (Actually, not too much of a hardship.) Will Gaia leave Axl for Anders? Will Mike figure out how to kill Colin? What are the Maori gods going to do now? Will Ty get Dawn back? How powerful is Michele really, now that she has Yddragsil? Too many questions!! Please, someone at SyFy or elsewhere, have mercy on us unfortunate fans! Bring us Season 3!!

Edited December 19, 2014 by Ketzel

[Arynm]

Oh my! I really hope they get the rights for the last season.What is going to happen next, I can't stand it!

Is Gaia going to hook up with Anders because she is Edun now? What about Frigg? Who is going to take down Loki, because he needs his ass whooped. I hope there is some resolution for the Maori gods, they were cool, I would like to see them get some ladies as well.

[catray]

Nooooooooo! SyFy needs to get season 3! We should probably all send emails to SyFy, though it probably won't do much if they've already decided not to spend the money. Argh!!

Was not expecting Natalie to be a god-slayer, but fuck, way to ruin everything! I am completely squicked out by Gaia now being in love with Anders because she became Idunn. Damnit!! I feel bad for Gaia and Axl; though really for Gaia because she had no choice in the whole thing.

And Ty can't catch a break, seriously! Cursed as a god and a mortal, I guess. Why didn't he just tell her?! Zeb knows about all the gods, so why can't Dawn? (I guess it was because he was snooping and they're not supposed to tell mortals, but... C'mon!)

[Gel]

I'm a little disappointed with the Gaia bait and switch, to be honest. The last few episodes felt like they were surprised by renewal and needed to come up with a plot twist to carry through to the next season. Nevertheless, I like the show--most of it is so refreshingly different. The fact that Dawn did not remember Ty-ex-Hod was certainly a surprise.

It's also fascinating how they are unrepentant about creating characters that on the face of it, are really not all that endearing, yet somehow they work. Anders is not hiding a heart of gold, and is not motivated by deep complex things, and is somehow still less annoying than pretty much everyone on Dominion. I'm rather impressed by that alone.

Edited January 9, 2015 by Gel

[Amelie06]

I loved this show! I've now watched all three seasons. It was fairly consistent and always enjoyable. I'm sad that we couldn't get a fourth season.  This is a bit long, but I'm summing up my impressions of the whole series.

 

Favorite Character - Anders. Let's be honest...Dean O'Gorman is very attractive and has a certain  charisma that can't be denied.  I loved Anders, dirtbag though he was.  The show was always better when Anders was involved.  The second season really suffered from the Hobbit-induced lack of Anders.  His relationship with Dawn was another highpoint in the show.  For all his epic douchebaggery, Anders was very protective of Dawn.

 

I also really liked Axl.  He was such a great character.  His youthful enthusiasm for everything was hilarious.  He was pretty much the king of bad ideas and had Zeb the idiot as his backup, but I loved him.

 

Random Question: What is the timeline of the events before the show started?  In one episode, Mike indicated that the Mom and Dad were both gone by the time Axl was 6.  In another episode, we see that Mom left on Mike's 21st birthday.  Are we to believe that Mike is only supposed to be about 36? Say what?

 

Season 1

They just drop you into the god stuff and the crazy family dynamic.  The show does a good job of letting you know what the stakes are early on.  I liked the ready-made rom-com storyline between Axl and Gaia. She may have given him a few too many longing looks, but I like that she found someone else.  I hate it when people in movies seem to just put themselves in storage, waiting for their unrequited love to notice them.

 

I appreciated that Mike had good reasons why he wasn't close with Anders.  He had legitimate issues with Anders's power and how it was used.

 

I never really got the goddesses and their drama.  They don't want a return to the old ways, but for at least two of them, it wasn't like their current lives were that great.  They all seemed to effectively be slaves to Agnetha's mean ass. And then they seemed to easily switch sides by the end of the season.

 

I thought the search for Frigg was always going to be ridiculous.  They had no way of knowing that she even existed yet! Axl trying to fuck his way through every blonde woman in New Zealand seemed like a terrible idea. 

 

I hated Mike's wife and their IVF story.  Mike's constant whining about using god powers was annoying.  I mean, come on Mike! Live a little. To be fair, the writers did a good job of showing how things always got screwed whenever he used his powers in public. 

 

I hated Ty.  Just hated him.  He was the dullest character on the show.  I tried to care about his romance with Dawn and could only get about half way there.

 

Season 2

I missed Anders at the beginning of the season.  There was too much attention to Ty and his terrible wife, Eva. I got over their bad romance after about 20 minutes of their inappropriate sex in public issues. 

 

Was anyone else irked by the boys snitching on their Mom? I get it, she wasn't much of a Mom, but their bs led to her getting burned up by Loki.  They didn't even seem upset. Anders was the only one who seemed mildly upset about that development. It's not like she killed someone any of them even cared about.  Eva was crazypants and was probably going to murder Ty right in the face during sex one night.  She killed Eva to protect Ty. And those mofos turned her in! I don't know, Mom snitching is just wrong.

 

I hoped Ty would just leave once he lost his godliness, but alas...

 

I didn't understand Mike's relationship with Michelle. It only seemed to exist to give her a reason to still be in the cut with the gods after the Agnetha conspiracy fell apart.

Anders's relationship with Helen was very interesting.  I liked that Anders, who usually had the upper-hand in relationships with women, was totally in over his head.  In her own hippy way, Helen was extremely controlling and very manipulative.  It was fascinating to see as she slowly maneuvered herself deeper into Anders's life while he found himself unable to stop her. I would have liked to have seen more of their relationship.  It would have been fun to see her trying to set Iodunn and Bragi as the new big gods on the block.

 

I was also a little put off by the Gaia change up.  I really fell for it! I thought for sure that Gaia was going to be Frigg.  I liked Gaia and appreciated the presence of someone with Maori descent being a major character on the show. It was a good twist to have Gaia become Iodunn, immediately going to a somewhat befuddled Bragi.

 

Season 3

I really enjoyed this season.

I loved the whole Anders/Gaia/Axl story. It was very well done. I actually felt bad for Anders and Gaia because they obviously didn't want to be hooking up, but really had an irresistible pull towards each other. I found all the visions that they were having of each other to be interesting. What they did to Axl was awful, but I actually got how they ended up doing what they did.

Axl going full Odin and killing Anders was a great scene. Anders was so Anders in that scene. Things had just calmed down with Axl's blind rage subsiding, and Anders just has to use the term "balls deep" in relation to his brother's fiancee? No one wants to hear that!

I like that Axl was allowed to be depressed by the break-up with Gaia. I hate it when shows have traumatic things happen to their characters who then shake it off in one episode. Axl was really fucked up about the what happened with Gaia for multiple episodes. But, it didn't drag or feel repetitive. He just kept finding different pockets where his depression still lived, even as he was getting better. Anders is a total dick for refusing to apologize to Axl, even after he drunkenly tried to kill himself. But I guess Anders way of apologizing was to make sure that his brother was able to graduate.

Mike's arc this entire season was weird and confusing. His sudden desire to be Odin seemed to come out of now where! He spent the first half of the season being very concerned about Axl's mental health. He then spends the next half of the season trying undermine the one thing Axl has left, being Odin. I just didn't see it coming, and I mean that in a bad way. It just seemed totally out of character for Mike to suddenly be acting like this. Axl is essentially Mike's son. It seemed weird that he would so casually treat him like that. His little "I hit it first" trick with Frigg was distasteful.

In the end, did it seem like Anders was actually starting to catch feelings for Michelle? That would have been fun to watch. The two of them are very similar and had chemistry in the first season, before she got marooned with Mike.

Overall, I think the show ended well. I liked that the oracles were wrong and they were actually just returning the gods to their rightful places, not becoming gods on earth. I hadn't considered that. I would have liked for Gaia and Axl to get back together now that she won't want to bang his brother. Other than that, I thought the series finale was great. The writers obviously knew that the show might not come back.  They left just enough for another season, but wrapped up the major stories. I really appreciate that. I would watch another New Zealand show.

 

Between this show and Peter Jackson's 13 year crusade, I think I'd actually like to visit New Zealand. It seems like a lovely country.

[Ketzel]

Good news for those of us in the US who were left hanging at the end of Season 2! The original production company, South Pacific Pictures, is announcing this on its web page:

ATTENTION USA BASED CUSTOMERS: Seasons 1-3 will be released as a box set on DVD and bluray (NTSC format) and will be availble from the 28TH OF APRIL from your local distributors.

The Almighty Johnsons is a comedy-drama series about four brothers who just happen to be descended from Norse Gods. Each of the Johnson boys has his own God-like power, it's just that their powers aren't all that powerful.In season three the boys are trying to regroup from the false Frigg chase of season two and to reclaim their lives in the 'real' world. The universe might have other ideas but right now Axl has a new quest, to lead a 'normal' life. ** 3 disc set ** DVD Region 0 ** Extras: deleted scenes & subtitles for the hearing impaired

[catray]

Woo! I just started reading a book that features the Norse gods today and that got me thinking about the show.... so I decided to check the forum to see if there was an update about the show (it seems SyFy has abandoned it). But the fact that they are releasing all three seasons on DVD is good news! I think I will go preorder mine now-- should be we do a season 3 (re)watch in May?

 

Edit: I see that Amazon (and iTunes) has season 3 as digital content... apparently I am behind.

Edited February 26, 2015 by catray

[thewhiteowl]

Yay All three seasons are up on Netflix. Off to watch...

[mjc570]

Thanks, Catray and thewhiteowl, for the Netflix heads up - I'm really glad I have an opportunity to see Season 3.  I can't believe how much I like this show - the original ads for it didn't look good (to me), and I wasn't going to watch it.  I only intended to catch the first episode because my husband's name is Johnson and I thought I could get some good lines to use on him.  I like all the actors/characters, but admit I have a super affection for New Zealand accents (thanks, Flight of the Concords).  I've just started watching (on episode 2), but appreciate the chance to see how the series plays out.

[HunterHunted]

In the last half of season 3, Mike was an epic dickbag. It's one thing for him to be a know it all scold, it's another thing for Mike to proclaim himself Odin and start thwarting the others' plans. Plus Dawn was turned into a boring whiner. Why couldn't they have had her having these conversations with Ty?

[mjc570]

I really liked how the series ended, especially Dawn and Ty.  Pretty much every loose end was tied up, in a satisfying way.  I'm going to miss them.

[giovannif7]

For anyone interested in the DVDs, Amazon currently has them on sale - 20.99 for the complete 3 season set, or 23.35 for Blu-Ray. Not sure how long the sale will last.

[MamaCat]

Thank you so very much for posting it is available!  I ordered it and expect to receive it soon.

[gryphon]

Olaf is on Season Six of Dancing with the Stars NZ!    And his foxtrot was charming.  

[zxy556575]

I recently discovered this show on Netflix and watched all 3 seasons in a week. I'm forever abandoning shows because I get bored but this one kept me intrigued and entertained right through to the end.
 

Axl as a woman was great-- really enjoyed the actress and I hope we see her again.

The actress playing Axl was very good.

And I loved the actress who played female Axl.

 

Sure, but then I disliked her A LOT when she came back as Frigg. I also agree to the max about Mike turning into Dick in the last half of Season 3. He was never my favorite character but it was laughable to me that he thought he might be Odin and even more so that young, pretty Frigg would prefer him to Axl. So .. liked the actress the first time, hated the way she jumped into bed with Mike the second time.

 

I was also a little fuzzy on Frigg's brother. Yeah yeah, protector and all, but I never picked up on the "insane" which everything else seemed to buy into.

 

I'm glad we got a definite ending. That it was enjoyable was a bonus. I can't believe Ty had to make Dawn fall in in love with him for a third time! I got a little teary when Michele was brought back to life. Her cynical and underhanded energy seemed much more suited to Anders all along. But speaking of sexcapades, those gods sure were a bed-hopping bunch. I could have done without seeing any of Loki's horny goings-on.

 

I would have liked to have seen clips of all the other gods/goddesses being lifted up to Aasgard during the finale -- Thor, Gaia, Eve, Helen, Michelle's mom, the boys' father. You think Agnetha was left in the tree? I also would have liked Axl to mention to Zeb that he knew about another girl who would make a good flatmate. Want to think that earthly Axl and Gaia got together eventually.

 

Aw, grandpa will start aging now. Wonder if he'll try to pick up again with Stacey.

 

My favorites:

Ingrid, for her hippy-dippy, kind soul and sweet nature

Olaf, for his stoner peacefulness

Anders, for his mischievous and charming chicanery

Michele, for her cunning and intelligence and beauty

 

Could do without:

Thor, because he was so pitiful and dirty

Mike, for his moralizing and when he refused to use his powers to make money but then wouldn't stop whinging about having no money

Loki, for becoming a boring caricature

 

My final thought it that TV is NZ is a lot more lenient with swearing and nudity that the US!

Edited June 15, 2015 by lordonia

[Last Time Lord]

On 4/1/2015 at 11:05 PM, thewhiteowl said:

Yay All three seasons are up on Netflix. Off to watch...

I just discovered this show on Netflix. Really enjoying it so far. 

Just finished the episode where Michelle plants Cocaine in Axl's car. 

Glad there's a section for the show here to discuss, though I am playing catch up. 

[thewhiteowl]

@Last Time Lord, it's a good show. Glad you like it. 

[Last Time Lord]

2 hours ago, thewhiteowl said:

@Last Time Lord, it's a good show. Glad you like it. 

I'm on the season one finale, right now. Everything is just going crazy! 

[Last Time Lord]

@thewhiteowl I liked season one, but season two has just blown it away, I thought.

Only two episodes left of season two, and I really like the much stronger continuity based storytelling for the end of the season with the Yggdrasil branch and Gaia, and an entire other pantheon of gods out there, as well.

[thewhiteowl]

3 minutes ago, Last Time Lord said:

@thewhiteowl I liked season one, but season two has just blown it away, I thought.

Only two episodes left of season two, and I really like the much stronger continuity based storytelling for the end of the season with the Yggdrasil branch and Gaia, and an entire other pantheon of gods out there, as well.

Season three is good, too. Differently good but still good. I wish I could watch it all for the first time, again. Lol

[Last Time Lord]

21 hours ago, thewhiteowl said:

Season three is good, too. Differently good but still good. I wish I could watch it all for the first time, again. Lol

I love getting that feeling when someone is first watching I show I like.

Maaaaaaaan the season 2 finale!

So much craziness happened here. Ty being an Ex-God means every mortal he's ever met no longer has any memory of him, which is good for drama purposes, but there's something about that that just bothers me as it being more of an issue than I think the writers intended from a logistical point of view.

The stuff with Natalie being a part of a cult that finds the existence of Gods reborn as blasphemous is a good idea, but I don't think it was developed as well as it could have been. There was some vagueness to her phone call and rubbing herself clean with a moist towelette a few episodes ago, but then nothing really mysterious about her until this episode.

And now, Gaia is Iduun. That's a twist and a half. Ingrid keeps saying there must always be an Iduun. I wonder what would happen if there wasn't.

Also: That Norse Gods Vs. Maui Gods video game is something I need in my life.

[Last Time Lord]

Season 3's fifth episode has some New Zealand-isms that I just find rather interesting as an American.

The first being that the Flat only has Zeb's name on the lease. My parents and my brothers had to sign the lease when they moved into the townhouse that they currently live at.

The other being that apparently Fancy Dress means it's a costume party. I hear Fancy Dress, and I'm thinking Tuxedos for the guys and the like.

[Last Time Lord]

@thewhiteowl Just finished the series.

I want more.

Real curious about the stone Colin dropped after the Ga. Was that supposed to lead the a season 4 that just never happened? I was hoping that Odin in Asgard could have done something to preserve the memories of at least certain people they knew. Like I said, the forgetting the Gods' vessels once they no longer become Gods was good for the Ty/Dawn drama, but it opens up a lot of questions as to what happened to other gods and goddesses that were out there once the Ga happened like Gaia, and business owners like Anders and Stacey.

I think my favorite character in this whole thing was actually Zeb. Just how he ended up being mixed in with an impossible situation and went out of his way to learn about what was going on, and genuinely being a good friend and confidant on his own. He and Ty probably had the most development over the course of the series, and it was a total blast seeing it.

And White Owl, thanks for actually listening (well, reading, but still) to these ramblings of mine as I watch this show. It was nice to have someone to sound off of as I went through the show experience.

[thewhiteowl]

@Last Time Lord, it was my pleasure.  This show didn't get the praise it deserved, here in the States and the syfy channel ran it at odd times. I think there was supposed to be at least another season, I remember being disappointed when I heard of the cancellation. It was so unique, so creative. Maybe just too far out there for us stodgy Americans. Lol. I really liked that the actors, while attractive people were not Hollywood. They looked like real people. 

Glad you enjoyed it. I wish I had something to recommend but there's just nothing like it. Maybe Lost Girl? 

[Last Time Lord]

10 hours ago, thewhiteowl said:

@Last Time Lord, it was my pleasure.  This show didn't get the praise it deserved, here in the States and the syfy channel ran it at odd times. I think there was supposed to be at least another season, I remember being disappointed when I heard of the cancellation. It was so unique, so creative. Maybe just too far out there for us stodgy Americans. Lol. I really liked that the actors, while attractive people were not Hollywood. They looked like real people. 

Glad you enjoyed it. I wish I had something to recommend but there's just nothing like it. Maybe Lost Girl? 

I didn't even know it aired on Syfy until I discovered this thread. 

I've actually seen some of Lost Girl. My mother was real big into it and would buy the DVDs from Amazon. That is a good show, too.

Some what similar themes, but executed differently. 

I do wish there was a season for dealing with Ragnarok, specifically, because that could have been fun.

[gryphon]

The White Owl and Last Time Lord:  

Hello!  So glad to see you here. I haven't looked at this thread for a while--I am so happy that there are some people discovering this wonderful series.  I purchased the dvds from NZ after I saw it.  I'm so glad it's on Netflix so other people can discover it and enjoy it. 

I rewatch episodes....I still think Man Flu and Folkmoot are my favourite episodes....I just watched the last few eps of Season 3 tonight (sniffle). 

I would also like to see what was up with the red stone Colin dropped in the forest...and what happens when they go back to "real life..."  I just want another season. 

Also watched Ben Barrington (Olaf) on Dancing with the Stars NZ...I love them all. 

Edited May 10, 2016 by gryphon
never seem to have the right words.

[Last Time Lord]

@gryphon I know the series has had a full DVD and Blu-Ray release here in the US. No idea if there's any special features, but I sure hope so. 

Those and commentary would be a blast.

[JustaPerson]

Just finished the series on Netflix

Honestly, I hoped that Axl would end up with Frigg, or at least her vessel. But they did show that the vessels didn't always fall in love even though the gods/goddesses inside were drawing them together. Too bad. I wasn't that into Gaia/Axl, though I liked it better when it seemed like she would be Frigg. I wonder who she would have been if Helen hadn't died? I do hope they found their way back to each other eventually. 

Hanna and Mike ending up together in the end was so icky to me. They just didn't have any chemistry. And I was confused after all of Anders and Michele's sexual tension in season 1, they abandoned that relationship for Mike/Michele instead. I couldn't see what Mike and Michele possibly had in common to be a couple of any kind. Maybe I just have a problem with Mike. *shrugs*

 I did like how they were able to make Axl so likable. Lead characters like him in a show like this (prophecy, chosen one) would get tiresome after a while, but I found that they managed his sweet, slightly dopey nature without overdoing it while giving just enough fire having him embracing the Odin within. 

[zxy556575]

6 hours ago, JustaPerson said:

I couldn't see what Mike and Michele possibly had in common to be a couple of any kind. Maybe I just have a problem with Mike.

The sexual relationships in the show might have been the worst part for me and I thoroughly agree about having a problem with Mike. I binged the show last year and unlike a lot of series with multiple seasons, it kept my interest throughout, but Mike became more and more of an egomaniac as time rolled on.

Edited September 1, 2016 by lordonia