TV/Movies Megathread

[Syt]

Wow.

Iplayer keeps new programs up for about a month, with some foreign shows and films only lasting 7 days - for free for UK residents. They've prompted all the other terrestrial broadcasters to do the same (not sure about Channel 5). Channel 4's put most of their archives on 4OD and Youtube too.

The BBC plans to put their whole archive online at some point but that's a huge, long-term project.

The public stations had big archives, but a change in their state contract a few years ago forced them to give them up. That change came at a push from commercial media claiming that
a) public media have an unfair financial advantage because they're financed through mandatory fees
b) their task is to inform/educate the public, not be in competition with other media (to which I agree to some extent - the public stations have started chasing viewer numbers way too much IMO, pushing quality programming to late hours or their cable sub-channels)

Same with Austria - ORF (state radio/TV) used to have an extremely useful news site, until it was curbed by pressure from other media - they had to cut down their online archives, had to get rid of their fantastic IT news section, had to disable commentary function for almost all topics, etc.

[Sheilbh]

Same with Austria - ORF (state radio/TV) used to have an extremely useful news site, until it was curbed by pressure from other media - they had to cut down their online archives, had to get rid of their fantastic IT news section, had to disable commentary function for almost all topics, etc.

....So if we followed Austria's route BBC Have Your Say would have to be banned?

[Syt]

They're permitted to open threads for current news events. Like "Syria: Did the West fail?" or "What challenges await the new Pope?". It seems there's about a dozen active threads.

[Josquius]

More bitching about Vikings

- They did not fight in loose order, they fought in shield walls. This is especially silly since in the scene were they test Knut they bring up that they fight side by side. So did the saxons.

- Viking hordes do not have dead bodies or human sacrifices in them. Rich burials do.

- Sea kings got shares, land jarls didn't. The Land Jarls certainly did not get to tell the raiders where to go. How are the going to police that anyway. I stole this in Russia. But it's English. The Russians probably stole it from England.

- The whole male population didn't go raiding, a small proportion did.

Are all the men going raiding? We're only really seeing those guys, doesn't mean there aren't farmers out there surely.

The shield wall thing I can forgive for now, that was just a quick scrap for which neither side prepared, they just rushed the English, hope they will have shield walls if a proper battle pops up though.

I think this Ragnar is meant to be Norwegian despite the name being reused from a real guy and the real folk who attacked English being Danes.

Lots of errors though yeah.

[Ideologue]

I snagged Lawrence of Arabia on BD for $10.  I think Amazon was either having a sale or made a mistake.  Either way: I win.   (Zhivago, however, is still like eight billion dollars to buy. )

And my Ben-Hur/Ten Commandments comes tomorrow.  Why this wasn't put out with El Cid for the full Abrahamic Hestonic experience, I do not know, but at $15 it was a fucking steal.

Also Looney Tunes on BD, which was not a steal, especially compared to the DVD (it's a huge differential in price).  But I got the first volume, including old time megahits like all those Marvin the Martian cartoons and "One Froggy Evening" (but unfortunately no "Hair-Raising Hare," nor the racist ones with Inki [lol] and the Mendehlsson-playing mynah bird ), to see if it was worth it.

Last movie purchases for a while, I wager.  I'm about done, at least till Django's out.

[Syt]

[Viking]

More bitching about Vikings

- They did not fight in loose order, they fought in shield walls. This is especially silly since in the scene were they test Knut they bring up that they fight side by side. So did the saxons.

- Viking hordes do not have dead bodies or human sacrifices in them. Rich burials do.

- Sea kings got shares, land jarls didn't. The Land Jarls certainly did not get to tell the raiders where to go. How are the going to police that anyway. I stole this in Russia. But it's English. The Russians probably stole it from England.

- The whole male population didn't go raiding, a small proportion did.

Are all the men going raiding? We're only really seeing those guys, doesn't mean there aren't farmers out there surely.

They make a point of telling the slave athelstan that he is responsible for what happens to the kids

The shield wall thing I can forgive for now, that was just a quick scrap for which neither side prepared, they just rushed the English, hope they will have shield walls if a proper battle pops up though.

The shield wall would not only have been much cooler it would have been more natural. Nervous twitchy men facing armed men who might be hostile? The form a shield wall, or at least get in line shoulder to shoulder rather than standing in open formation.

Plus, the sherrif being such a pussy? The Angles were warriors of a warrior people. They didn't see themselves as pacifists and only started paying danegeld after the sons of lothbrok and the great heathen army ravaged the entire country.

I think this Ragnar is meant to be Norwegian despite the name being reused from a real guy and the real folk who attacked English being Danes.

sigh.. too much bullshit and deliberate and pointless errors for "artistic purposes"

Lots of errors though yeah.

[Malthus]

It started in 780-something. Why is that so difficult to believe? The first recorded raids weren't until 793 at Lindisfarne.

Because Saxons had been rading the place across the sea for centuries before the Vikings arrived (in fact, the Romans built a whole series of forts along the coast specifically to keep 'em out) and eventually settled there - hence "anglo-saxons"?

You can still visit these Roman "forts of the Saxon shore" if you want.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/norfolk-life/norfolk-history/28_forts_of_the_saxon_shore_1_214327

It is simply inconceivable and contrary to history that the Vikings had no knowledge of the very existence of England. Note also that the islands to the north of England are natural stepping-stones, inhabited by Norse types. Norse, Danes, Angles and Saxons had been rading and trading around the north sea for many centuries before the great Viking raids.

[viper37]

- They did not fight in loose order, they fought in shield walls. This is especially silly since in the scene were they test Knut they bring up that they fight side by side. So did the saxons.

Ah, but they fought that way against an ennemy that was actually fighting back.  Once they realize the monks are not fighting, there's no need to maintain a cohesive unit.

- Viking hordes do not have dead bodies or human sacrifices in them. Rich burials do.

I must have missed it, I did not recall them talking about human sacrifices.

- The whole male population didn't go raiding, a small proportion did.

Wich would make sense, seeing that an ennemy neighbour would certainly attack the village once every men was gone.  But clearly, we can see that many men stayed at home, not all of them.  And Ragnar does say he trusts his wife to keep the farm and the kids safe, otherwise he would need someone else there.

Also, if they did not have villages, how were they organized?  Simple, isolated farms with not center of commerce to exchange surplus?

Note 2: Saxons and Jutes invasion dates from 400 years earlier.  As we can see, they are not all ignorant of lands in the west, but they are skeptical, Saxons and Jutes weren't raiders like the Vikings, it was more of a migration, IIRC, so maybe most of them did not return to their original lands.  Also, if they are on the east side of Denmark, they probably traded/raided with the Baltic states rather than west.

[viper37]

They make a point of telling the slave athelstan that he is responsible for what happens to the kids

Plus, the sherrif being such a pussy? The Angles were warriors of a warrior people. They didn't see themselves as pacifists and only started paying danegeld after the sons of lothbrok and the great heathen army ravaged the entire country.

wait... what??  You've seen more episodes than I did, have you?   I've only watched the first two that aired on TV...  I can't remember any battles other than Lindisfarm (if we call that a battle), no Sheriff, no Angles...

[garbon]

Note 2: Saxons and Jutes invasion dates from 400 years earlier.  As we can see, they are not all ignorant of lands in the west, but they are skeptical, Saxons and Jutes weren't raiders like the Vikings, it was more of a migration, IIRC, so maybe most of them did not return to their original lands.  Also, if they are on the east side of Denmark, they probably traded/raided with the Baltic states rather than west.

The Saxons did indeed raid the coast of Britain.

[Malthus]

Note 2: Saxons and Jutes invasion dates from 400 years earlier.  As we can see, they are not all ignorant of lands in the west, but they are skeptical, Saxons and Jutes weren't raiders like the Vikings, it was more of a migration, IIRC, so maybe most of them did not return to their original lands.  Also, if they are on the east side of Denmark, they probably traded/raided with the Baltic states rather than west.

The Saxons did indeed raid the coast of Britain.

Yup.

The Saxon attacks on Britain were pretty similar to the later Viking attacks. Started with big raids, moved on to invasion when the raids showed local weakness, making alliances of convenience with local lords, occupation and displacement or absorbtion of the existing locals. In the case of the Saxons, they were more successful, confining the remnants of the original inhabitants to Wales and Cornwall; in the case of the "Vikings", they settled the Danelaw but were ultimately re-conquored by Wessex Saxons.

[Viking]

- They did not fight in loose order, they fought in shield walls. This is especially silly since in the scene were they test Knut they bring up that they fight side by side. So did the saxons.

Ah, but they fought that way against an ennemy that was actually fighting back.  Once they realize the monks are not fighting, there's no need to maintain a cohesive unit.

I was referring to the sheriff they meet ep 3. He had armed men with him in equal numbers to Ragnar and his men.

- Viking hordes do not have dead bodies or human sacrifices in them. Rich burials do.

I must have missed it, I did not recall them talking about human sacrifices.

When Earl Haraldson buried the treasure Ragnar had yeilded up to him.

- The whole male population didn't go raiding, a small proportion did.

Wich would make sense, seeing that an ennemy neighbour would certainly attack the village once every men was gone.  But clearly, we can see that many men stayed at home, not all of them.  And Ragnar does say he trusts his wife to keep the farm and the kids safe, otherwise he would need someone else there.

Also, if they did not have villages, how were they organized?  Simple, isolated farms with not center of commerce to exchange surplus?

Precisely. The commerce happened at the Thing and was a seasonal trade fair once or twice per year in a region. The explosion in raiding during the 9th century forced permanent trading posts to be established. Gold, silver and bolts of cloth are not perishable, but slaves are. The closest thing norway has to a village or a town is Tunsberg founded around 870. Denmark har a few trading posts which are up to 100 years older due to proximity to europe and the danish monarchy.

Note 2: Saxons and Jutes invasion dates from 400 years earlier.  As we can see, they are not all ignorant of lands in the west, but they are skeptical, Saxons and Jutes weren't raiders like the Vikings, it was more of a migration, IIRC, so maybe most of them did not return to their original lands.  Also, if they are on the east side of Denmark, they probably traded/raided with the Baltic states rather than west.

The saxon conquest is completed in the 7th century. About 200 years before the arrival of the danes. Trade had existed for some time before the raiding started. If anything the raiding was an exception to the rule for decades.

[crazy canuck]

Finished the 5th episode of House of Cards.

This is really good stuff.  Hope it is deemed commercially successful so Netflix continues to turn out independant programming.

There was a piece on, I think, CBS Sunday Morning a week or two back that had an interview with a guy from Netflix.  The question was asked if they were pleased with the increase in subscribers from their Superbowl promos for HoC.  He wouldn't give numbers, but said they were very pleased.

Other than House of Cards, how's the content on Canadian Netflix?

There is a free trial period (or at least there was).  If you are not happy with the Canadian feed I believe most people use VPNs to get the American content.

[Ed Anger]

Watched episode 3 of the Vikings. Still liking it.