grolss Reviews

The Worst Person in the World (2021)

Drama: Yes. Comedy: No.

[2/10 · 18 August 2023]

I feel somewhat betrayed by the labelling of this film as a drama comedy and also by the ridiculously high rating.

Ordinary people's lives are rarely interesting enough to make a good film. That's why they are called ordinary. Nothing wrong with that. Most of us live ordinary and happy lives. But as I'm sure many of you have already noticed, the scriptwriters aren't queuing outside your doorstep, asking for your permission to write a screenplay about your life.

There's plenty of everyday drama in this film, but where's the comedy? There's plenty more scenes made for tears than for a smile.

Sorry, being a Scandinavian myself, I usually tend to like Scandinavian films. But not this one.

Sisi (2021– )

Fiction inspired by historical events

[7/10 · 13 May 2023]

This is historical fiction that touches upon true history on occasion. Giving Sisi a far more important role in the politics of the time than she actually had.

With that said, this is a nice and really enjoyable series. Nice costumes, nice locations and good acting. Both the mrs and myself enjoyed it.

If you enjoy historical stories , but feel the need to have them told accurately, you probably shouldn't watch drama series, but instead turn your attention to the many excellent documentaries you can find.

Compared to the Netflix take on the same story, called "The Empress", this feels like the version for adults, while Netflix as usual has teenagers as their main target audience.

Vikings: Valhalla (2022– )

Why neglect history?

[3/10 · 23 January 2023]

When history is exciting enough.

I don't mind historical fiction, as long as it's about making twists of actual history. Adding a character or a part of the story that maybe didn't exist, but adds some entertainment value and doesn't change the course of history.

Here they massacre both history and geography. There's is no place called Kattegat and never has been. It's a part of the sea between Sweden and Denmark, probably named by Dutch sailors in the 1600s. If there would've been a place called Kattegat it would've been on the Swedish west coast. At least 500 km from Uppsala. A journey of approximately 3 weeks, which they ride back and forth as if it was just around the corner.

In another episode Hålogland in Norway is said to be 300 km north of Kattegat, so suddenly Kattegat has moved to the Trondheim area. 700 km north of where Kattegat could've been. Only, it wasn't.

The real problem for me, however, was when two of the main characters suddenly starts feeling bad about a slave trader. Give me a break! It's just so silly to adapt moral values of the 21st century to the 11th century. Not that there's anything wrong with moral values of today, but vikings were slave traders themselves. In fact, it was probably their main trade (according to historical accounts) and reason for raiding Europe. They might have killed the slave trader, but only to get the slaves. To sell! Aren't the audience intelligent enough to accept that moral standards have changed? Or does Netflix just underestimate their subscribers?

The entertainment value isn't that bad, but I just wish that they hadn't robbed history of famous names, instead of just making up a completely fictional setting and set of characters for this story.

Oh, by the way, there were no female "gydjas" back in the days. Nor were there any large numbers of shield maidens. Sure, the odd exception probably existed, but they really were exceptions. There certainly were no female jarls of African origin called a Norwegian man's name ;-)

The Power of the Dog (2021)

Slow

[3/10 · 21 April 2022]

An interesting plot, but delivered almost in slow motion. Would've benefited from being cut down to a one hour TV drama. Cumberbatch is, as always, excellent, but even that can't save this film.

Atlantic Crossing (2020)

This is well written fiction!

[8/10 · 10 June 2021]

This is not a documentary. This is fiction, inspired by true events.

If you keep that in mind, you can really enjoy this series. It's well scripted, well casted and exceptionally well acted.

I really enjoyed it. Well done NRK!

If you're stuck on the absolute true historical events, read a non fictional book about it. There's plenty of them.

Fargo (2014–2024)

Huge differences between series!

[8/10 · 13 March 2021]

Series 1: Rating 10. One of the best series I've ever seen. Series 2: Rating 9. Still holds top quality. Series 3: Rating 7. Not bad as a stand-alone series, but can't meet the huge expectations after series 1 and 2. Series 4: Rating 6. Can't really connect to the characters. It's ok, but you won't lie sleepless if you miss it.

The Rain (2018– )

And it all went downhill.

[4/10 · 25 August 2020]

As several others have already said: 1st series was quite good - 7. 2nd series had its problems - 4. 3rd series is filled with rubbish that only prolongs the pain - 2. Could've been great if they'd put all the effort into 1 good season.

The King (I) (2019)

Boring

[2/10 · 5 December 2019]

I had really high expectations as I like historical fiction. Yes - fiction. I don't mind historical inaccuracies as long as it's entertaining. This movie wasn't. It was just boring.

Endeavour (2012–2023)

What more can you ask for?

[10/10 · 21 April 2018]

I've just finished watching series 5. This is as good as it gets. I'm a great fan of the original Inspector Morse series and a true lover of the Lewis series. Morse, Lewis and Hathaway, they all made their way in to my heart. But this series (all seasons)... The casting is so extraordinary! Shaun Evans is cut out for being the young Morse and he's not by far the best casting of them all. Sean Rigby as Strange, now that's a world class casting! Roger Allam as DI Thursday, I just love him and Anton Lesser as the stiff, but good-hearted, CSI Bright, what a treat. James Bradshaw as Dr DeBryn and Dakota Blue Richards as WPC Trewlove. Even minor characters as DC Fancy, Joan Thursday and the reporter Frazil are spot on. They even manage to combine intelligent crime puzzles with actual life. The plot is not driven by police acting like morons or breaking all the rules. No, it's carried by intelligence. And on the same time there are subtle, but important, underlying story lines of families and love interests. But they are subtle! Never taking over, just tickling your interest and making you want to see more. For me, born in the 60's and growing up in the 70's this is so good. A walk down memory lane to the times when a phone was what you had at hand. If people didn't answer, they were out. I just wish younger people could watch this and realise that the world works perfectly fine, without them being online. As someone once said to me: "The graveyard is full of indispensable people" and these days we seem to be even more convinced the world will fall apart if we don't... update... For series 6 I actually can't decide what I'm most excited about. Them finding the killer or the potential love story?

The Musketeers (2014–2016)

One episode was enough!

[1/10 · 18 April 2018]

Seriously? The BBC has always meant quality to me. Obviously, I have to reconsider that. Me and my better half (and she isn't the picky one, I am!) watched the first episode. She looks at me and says: "That was quite enough, wasn't it?" I couldn't agree more. This is not a murder of an old classic. It's a murder of entertainment of all sorts. Unless you like spending your time on action-packed very soft erotic no-engagement-or-brain-capacity-required ...things? Oh, I almost forgot, I think they tried to put a bit of comedy in there as well, though I couldn't find myself smiling. I almost feel bad for being so harsh, but it was truly awful. How this series could reach an IMDB-rating of 7 point something is a great mystery to me. Or perhaps, I'm just the stupid one? ;-)