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'Britannia': upcoming 'sword-and-sandal' historical epic tv show


AncalagonTheBlack

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“If you can be arsed ...” is a strange way to describe doing your job on a multi million pound tv project. But in any case, nobody mentioned authenticity or anachronisms.  I said it has deliberately modern dialogue, which is a fact and indicates only the choice of tone they decided to go with for the show and nothing at all about the difficulty of devising era-appropriate dialogue. It’s a tongue in cheek show that blends the silliness of Spartacus with the grittiness of Game of Thrones.  That said, the Druids do speak partly with subtitles.

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4 hours ago, john said:

 It’s a tongue in cheek show that blends the silliness of Spartacus with the grittiness of Game of Thrones. 

I think you got those two mixed up.

Anyway, authenticity has been memtioned. I think I know what "deliberately modern dialogue" means; but the alternative to that would probably be something like "Uh, just make it sound all old..I dunno, like a Shakespeare's tragedy, or King James Bible. You know, throw in some thous and thees and all that, to make it sound all ancient and stuff."

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I’m not sure you do know what it means. You seem to think it’s a complaint, for one thing. So again, deliberately modern dialogue was a comment on the tone of the show, not the lack of historical accuracy.

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41 minutes ago, john said:

I’m not sure you do know what it means. You seem to think it’s a complaint, for one thing. So again, deliberately modern dialogue was a comment on the tone of the show, not the lack of historical accuracy.

I'm pretty sure that red snow did mean it as a complaint, and did mention accuracy.

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6 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

Tbh I'm doing my MA in Celtic Studies and I honestly don' care if this isn't at all historically accurate - it looks well fun 

I don't know enough about the period to really judge the historical accuracy. When I said it was bonkers and pretty stupid, I was more describing the actions of the characters and the plot that arises from some of these baffling choices. A lot of possible Darwin award winners in there, I can tell you that.

Also, a bit spoilery since I'm now on episode 7

Spoiler

Magic seems to be a real thing now, very disappointed in that. When will we ever get a show that smartly plays around with the supernatural without actually giving anyone any magic? That would be so much more interesting. 

 

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On 1/25/2018 at 9:48 AM, Myrddin said:

 I may have missed it up thread, but I noticed that Britannia is "coming soon" on Amazon Prime (US). Added to my watchlist.

It's available, and by the looks of it, I think they release episodes more or less at the same time with Sky. There are 9 episodes available so far. I've watched the first 2. Like Veltigar said, it is silly in some ways, but it has a certain allure. I don't care for their choice of theme song. 

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On 1/28/2018 at 2:39 PM, Corvinus said:

It's available, and by the looks of it, I think they release episodes more or less at the same time with Sky. There are 9 episodes available so far. I've watched the first 2. Like Veltigar said, it is silly in some ways, but it has a certain allure. I don't care for their choice of theme song. 

Not a fan of the song either....for some reason it just gets under my skin.  

When I first heard it, I thought, "oh, this is some Beatles/Hendrix fusion rip off shit"......pretty obviously, right?  I looked it up, and apparently the guy that wrote it spent some time in India either with the Beatles, or just did the same kind of trip.   And get this........He intended for Hendrix to record the song.

I bet he pitched it to Jimi, and got stonewalled because the song sucks balls.  

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17 minutes ago, Wolf of the Steppes said:

Not a fan of the song either....for some reason it just gets under my skin.  

When I first heard it, I thought, "oh, this is some Beatles/Hendrix fusion rip off shit"......pretty obviously, right?  I looked it up, and apparently the guy that wrote it spent some time in India either with the Beatles, or just did the same kind of trip.   And get this........He intended for Hendrix to record the song.

And by the guy you wrote it, you mean Donovan. What are they teaching kids in school these days when he's just some random dude nobody's heard of before? I think the song's alright, if an exceedingly odd choice for a theme song for such a show. I mean, it's no Season of the Witch or Sunshine Superman, but it's alright.

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I don't have an opinion on the song on its own, but I don't think it's a good choice for the opening theme of the show. Granted, I don't know the lyrics, so I don't know if there is a message there. Personally, I would have preferred a Celtic folk song.

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10 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

I don't have an opinion on the song on its own, but I don't think it's a good choice for the opening theme of the show. Granted, I don't know the lyrics, so I don't know if there is a message there. Personally, I would have preferred a Celtic folk song.

Yeah, this was my feeling as well.  So, I did a little checking and that led me to believe they used the song due to it's feel/message/theme (i.e. chaos, weird shit happening, being visited in dreams, etc.)  Eh, maybe that's just my take on it?  It wouldn't have been my choice in any case.  I would have gone with some Celtic music as well:dunno:

I did find it interesting that George Harrison actually wrote a verse for it that was not included in the single.

As far as Britannia goes, Mrs. PotN and I found it entertaining enough to watch more.

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I enjoyed Britannia... but I was expecting something else... I *thought* it was going to be a well-done piece of historical fiction, where the show creators might take some creative license with the source material, but for the most part "keep it real"... Kind of like The Last Kingdom

Instead we got Marco Polo... a show that oscillated back and forth between a period piece, and fantasy... throwing "magic-a-la-carte" into the plot where the writers ran out of ideas as to how to move the plot forward... it was almost as if they *wanted* to make a historical show, and realized that they didn't have the knowledge... so they changed their M.O. halfway through and added mysticism...

As great as Kelly Reilly was --and she was-- Zoe Wanamaker took me out of so much of this... She's supposed to be this bad-ass matriarch... and instead she looks like she has a flask of Gin hidden in her coat... like Gilda Radner making that "extra chromosome face"... 

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2 hours ago, Martini Sigil said:

I enjoyed Britannia... but I was expecting something else... I *thought* it was going to be a well-done piece of historical fiction, where the show creators might take some creative license with the source material, but for the most part "keep it real"... Kind of like The Last Kingdom

Instead we got Marco Polo... a show that oscillated back and forth between a period piece, and fantasy... throwing "magic-a-la-carte" into the plot where the writers ran out of ideas as to how to move the plot forward... it was almost as if they *wanted* to make a historical show, and realized that they didn't have the knowledge... so they changed their M.O. halfway through and added mysticism...

As great as Kelly Reilly was --and she was-- Zoe Wanamaker took me out of so much of this... She's supposed to be this bad-ass matriarch... and instead she looks like she has a flask of Gin hidden in her coat... like Gilda Radner making that "extra chromosome face"... 

I was totally underwhelmed. A very pedestrian telling of that story. Also off putting was that about 2/3 of that cast was not really very good or were they just uninspired? Watched parts of ROME recently , such an extraordinarily well done series. Britannia did not get very far towards that bar.

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On 1/28/2018 at 2:39 PM, Corvinus said:

It's available, and by the looks of it, I think they release episodes more or less at the same time with Sky. There are 9 episodes available so far. I've watched the first 2. Like Veltigar said, it is silly in some ways, but it has a certain allure. I don't care for their choice of theme song. 

That score reminded me of the total mindless crapout of a score with  Ladyhawke ! People who have not seen that film still complain about the godawful mismatch of music.... when they see it.

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  • 1 month later...

Sky Atlantic Renews ‘Britannia’ For Second Season

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Sky Atlantic has renewed their Roman Empire drama series Britannia for a second season, Production on the show’s second season gets underway this spring for a 2019 premiere.

Per the satcaster, Britannia broke records to become Sky Atlantic’s biggest original series launch since the first season of Fortitude. The series premiere attracted a cumulative audience of 1.88 million.

 

 

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