The Last Kingdom II - NO MERCY [SPOlLERS Season I & II]

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

51 minutes ago, red snow said:

Looks fun - for a moment there I thought Rhys Meyers was also in this one. That would be awkward.

I think I'd rather have a pocketknife that's on target than a nuke that isn't. If both shows are covering the same period in the their new seasons then I might come back to Vikings in order to see the parody version - and there's a lot of TLK that's tongue-in-cheek to start off with!

 

Haha, yes this is how I feel. Unless Vikings does a sharp U-Turn and goes back to its initial quality (which was always a little patchy anyway) then I'd say TLK will be the place I go to for my viking hit.

[Which Tyler]

1 hour ago, red snow said:

So "this spring" could be anywhere from tomorrow to May with the BBC. Maybe the US has a firmer date. The BBC is probably waiting to throw dice that correspond with a star chart before confirming anything

But it's been confirmed for a while now. March 16; 9pm.

 

Besides, with Spring being the months of March, April and May; what's the problem with "this spring" being between March and May?

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

But it's been confirmed for a while now. March 16; 9pm.

 

Besides, with Spring being the months of March, April and May; what's the problem with "this spring" being between March and May?

Well - that's the first I've seen a date other than "this spring". Why can't they just say "starts March 16th" in the trailer given it's less than 2 weeks away? Clearly you're fine with a season's length of ambiguity whereas I tend to prefer an actual date - possibly willing to allow them a month but this close to a release why not just tell me in the advert rather than search for it myself or wait for someone on a forum to tell me?

It's a general issue I have with the BBC. Before xmas I read an article about SS:GB coming out in winter 2017 when early/late 2017 would be more informative. Compare this to netlix where they are very active in telling people when a show starts. Maybe it's more important to netflix because of the binge release system.

IT doesn't affect my enjoyment of the shows unless i somehow miss the first episode off iplayer before being aware it is on - although bigger shows tend to get highlighted on iplayer. It just strikes me as odd advertising to have a trailer and then fail to give a clear debut time. Although I guess the BBC have a general unease regarding advertising.

3 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Haha, yes this is how I feel. Unless Vikings does a sharp U-Turn and goes back to its initial quality (which was always a little patchy anyway) then I'd say TLK will be the place I go to for my viking hit.

I still feel season 2 was Vikings at its height. It took until season 4 for it to become unwatchable for me though. It reminds me a bit of SoA's run in the sense they had moments of being great but generally never managed to recapture their best season (even if they recovered from their worst moments). TLK has had far less time to start sucking but for the moment it has the edge simply because I'll be tuning in for its new season. If TLK starts to be a joke this season then I guess Vikings will be the better show overall. Let's see. Maybe Season 5 of Vikings will turn out to be its best season?

[generalzod]

SS:GB is terrible. I don't get why boring and bloodless and washed out and a lack of emotion are positive attributes in many BBC dramas, or why Anglophiles ooh and ahh about any BBC 1-4 production.  It's like they've been snake charmed by white people with accents. 

[GallowKnight]

25 minutes ago, red snow said:

I still feel season 2 was Vikings at its height. It took until season 4 for it to become unwatchable for me though. It reminds me a bit of SoA's run in the sense they had moments of being great but generally never managed to recapture their best season (even if they recovered from their worst moments). TLK has had far less time to start sucking but for the moment it has the edge simply because I'll be tuning in for its new season. If TLK starts to be a joke this season then I guess Vikings will be the better show overall. Let's see. Maybe Season 5 of Vikings will turn out to be its best season?

I'm not sure SOA ever managed to recover anything. In the last season we had the protagonists team up with a gang of Neo-Nazis in order to kill a gangs of black guys. You just can't come back from shit like that.

In related news, Kurt Sutter is developing a SOA spin-off.

[generalzod]

Speaking of Kurt Sutter...Bastard executioner was the definition of a hot mess.  It's like he ripped 10 pages from a Vikings script, 20 pages from a Game of Thrones script, and tied it all together with sheep fucking jokes, Greg Nicotero gore shots, and  some leftover footage from Xena Warrior Princess. 

I heard FOX kept throwing money at the pilot for reshoots until it hit over 12 million.   And it still looked like ass at the end of the day. 

[red snow]

1 hour ago, GallowKnight said:

I'm not sure SOA ever managed to recover anything. In the last season we had the protagonists team up with a gang of Neo-Nazis in order to kill a gangs of black guys. You just can't come back from shit like that.

In related news, Kurt Sutter is developing a SOA spin-off.

it was never quite as bad as season 3 again (but was good at reminding us of that season from time to time) but never as good as 1 and 2.

yeah the spin-off sounds too much like "they won't make anything else by you anymore".

[GallowKnight]

18 minutes ago, red snow said:

it was never quite as bad as season 3 again (but was good at reminding us of that season from time to time) but never as good as 1 and 2.

yeah the spin-off sounds too much like "they won't make anything else by you anymore".

Eh, I think the last two seasons were way worse than the Irish adventure in season 3, because at least s3 had a really strong finale.

[red snow]

4 minutes ago, GallowKnight said:

Eh, I think the last two seasons were way worse than the Irish adventure in season 3, because at least s3 had a really strong finale.

true, season 3 at least ended the season. I guess I probably became a little desensitised after season 3 making it hard to judge later seasons.

I mean, they changed the theme tune so that it was green and sounded irish. That and they had a Wil.E.Coyote broken dynamite plunger moment.

Vikings may have lost its way for me but they never went into outright parody, I think. Although I guess i did stop after overweight bear fighting, characters getting high, and French romcoms.

[GallowKnight]

37 minutes ago, red snow said:

true, season 3 at least ended the season. I guess I probably became a little desensitised after season 3 making it hard to judge later seasons.

I mean, they changed the theme tune so that it was green and sounded irish. That and they had a Wil.E.Coyote broken dynamite plunger moment.

Vikings may have lost its way for me but they never went into outright parody, I think. Although I guess i did stop after overweight bear fighting, characters getting high, and French romcoms.

Yeah I still think Vikings have a long way to go before it reaches the abyss SOA fell to.

[red snow]

17 minutes ago, GallowKnight said:

Yeah I still think Vikings have a long way to go before it reaches the abyss SOA fell to.

I think it's more that SOA has taught me to bail out on shows as I gained little from watching SoA to the end.

I think Vikings is quite brave to have kept moving ahead at the risk of losing key characters/actors. That's something that has almost tempted me back.

RE Last Kingdom - Are those familiar with the books able to shed some light on what region of time they cover? I heard season 2 will cover books 3 and 4 .

[Which Tyler]

3 hours ago, red snow said:

Well - that's the first I've seen a date other than "this spring". Why can't they just say "starts March 16th" in the trailer given it's less than 2 weeks away? Clearly you're fine with a season's length of ambiguity whereas I tend to prefer an actual date - possibly willing to allow them a month but this close to a release why not just tell me in the advert rather than search for it myself or wait for someone on a forum to tell me?

I haven't actually seen the ad posted here; I assumed it was the same one I saw for the first time on the BBC early in the week; and which did state the time and date for the first episode.

Is it remotely possible that an internet advert might have been put together to cover multiple territories, with multiple dates for the first episode?

 

 

ETA: I've just gone abck and watched it - not the same as the one I saw on the BBC; but it does specify the date and channel for you - so your complaint is even more irrelevant.

24 minutes ago, red snow said:

RE Last Kingdom - Are those familiar with the books able to shed some light on what region of time they cover? I heard season 2 will cover books 3 and 4 .

If covering both books, then 878 to somewhere around 888 So Uhtred is now in his mid 20s to early 30s

Spoiler

Aethelflaed is married by the end, so after 886/7

Uhtredaerwe born 856

 

[Zorral]

Thank you for posting the trailer!

Last Kingdom this month -- is that right?  Woo, it looks excellent!  Yay!

I won't yet be back home / in the country when it opens.  Something to look forward to though, when I get back from the Caribbean job and into the insanity that is us now . . . .

 

[Zorral]

4 hours ago, red snow said:

. If TLK starts to be a joke this season then I guess Vikings will be the better show overall. Let's see. Maybe Season 5 of Vikings will turn out to be its best season?

This is unlikely since it's adapted from a series of short novels, so everyone knows how things turn out already -- including the novels' mid-series sag -- and that the author is advising the production and writers. Different from how things are done with some other series we've recently lamented that have gone off the rails due to incompetent -- yea, verily, even preposterous! --  plotting and characterization.

[HexMachina]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Thank you for posting the trailer!

Last Kingdom this month -- is that right?  Woo, it looks excellent!  Yay!

I won't yet be back home / in the country when it opens.  Something to look forward to though, when I get back from the Caribbean job and into the insanity that is us now . . . .

 

Definitely this month (16th) for the UK, not sure if it was the same for the US, didn't think to check.

 

I keep putting off reading the remaining books in the series because...well I'm not sure. But I will be going into this season partially unspoiled - I only read up to book 3, so beyond that it's unknown territory for me. Wonder if they will cut much out

The biggest thing I could see omitted from book 3 would be Uhtred's stint as a slave. But then I thought parts of the trailer suggested that might be kept

[Zorral]

24 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Definitely this month (16th) for the UK, not sure if it was the same for the US, didn't think to check.

 

I keep putting off reading the remaining books in the series because...well I'm not sure. But I will be going into this season partially unspoiled - I only read up to book 3, so beyond that it's unknown territory for me. Wonder if they will cut much out

  Hide contents

The biggest thing I could see omitted from book 3 would be Uhtred's stint as a slave. But then I thought parts of the trailer suggested that might be kept

 

Spoiler

That's the part of the series I found most difficult to handle.  I've studied so much and reported so much on it, I can hardly handle it any longer, whether as a fiction or not, even with a character I know will escape the condition and go on to unparalleled successes -- so unlike most people who were enslaved.  Which perhaps means that Cornwell did this aspect of the story very well . . . .

 

[red snow]

3 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

I haven't actually seen the ad posted here; I assumed it was the same one I saw for the first time on the BBC early in the week; and which did state the time and date for the first episode.

Is it remotely possible that an internet advert might have been put together to cover multiple territories, with multiple dates for the first episode?

 

 

ETA: I've just gone abck and watched it - not the same as the one I saw on the BBC; but it does specify the date and channel for you - so your complaint is even more irrelevant.

If covering both books, then 878 to somewhere around 888 So Uhtred is now in his mid 20s to early 30s

  Reveal hidden contents

Aethelflaed is married by the end, so after 886/7

Uhtredaerwe born 856

 

Ok - I'll concede that the trailer posted here gives a date which is really bizarre as i didn't imagine the "spring" date, maybe I'm mixing trailers up, despite watching the trailer before complaining (unless i googled it rather than go back a page mid-reply - that could be it actually). So yes, irrelevant for that trailer in the end.

None of the ones on the BBCs website mentions a date. The homepage for the show doesn't even mention it so I'm still standing by my claim that the BBC are notoriously shy with telling people when their shows will air until a week beforehand. Google searches give me a date but largely for netflix's airdate.

Here's a list of trailers on the BBC for upcoming dramas and it's still pot luck as to whether they'll specify a time. I'm not making it up for the sake of it - I genuinely find it hard to know when the BBC have shows coming out unless Ancalagon tells me on the forum . I don't have any issues with finding out when a show is airing in the US or on Amazon/netflix. Even ITV and Channel rarely present a problem (but maybe that's because I seek outless of their programming?).

anyway,end of rant.

Thanks for the info on the pacing of the books. I'm pleased it looks like the show books travel at a slower pace than vikings does - it gives things more time to breathe and also helps with the plausibility of having a core cast that's present through a lot of changes.

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

This is unlikely since it's adapted from a series of short novels, so everyone knows how things turn out already -- including the novels' mid-series sag -- and that the author is advising the production and writers. Different from how things are done with some other series we've recently lamented that have gone off the rails due to incompetent -- yea, verily, even preposterous! --  plotting and characterization.

I wonder if the author and production team will try and fix the problems with the mid-series slump? If they know this is how people felt about the books then I guess it's reasonable to think the TV show could suffer a similar fate. Maybe they can condense events eg get all the bad stuff out of the way or even consider skipping it? I guess trying to fix the problems is ideal.

 

[Spockydog]

1 hour ago, HelenaExMachina said:

 

  Hide contents

The biggest thing I could see omitted from book 3 would be Uhtred's stint as a slave. But then I thought parts of the trailer suggested that might be kept

 

 

Spoiler

Judging by the dramatic makeover I reckon we're going to see slave Uhtred. One thing I really, really hope they don't cut is Finan.

 

 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

12 hours ago, red snow said:

Here's a list of trailers on the BBC for upcoming dramas and it's still pot luck as to whether they'll specify a time. I'm not making it up for the sake of it - I genuinely find it hard to know when the BBC have shows coming out unless Ancalagon tells me on the forum . I don't have any issues with finding out when a show is airing in the US or on Amazon/netflix. Even ITV and Channel rarely present a problem (but maybe that's because I seek outless of their programming?).

haha,you're absolutely correct mate .BBC are very weird when it comes to air dates.Most networks share air dates months/weeks in advance.With the BBC i have noticed it's usually a week/days before the show airs.I don't know why this is,maybe someone from the industry can enlighten us.

The first trailers that the BBC put's out for new/returning series almost never has an air date listed.It's always " coming soon/summer/winter" etc...It's only when the 2nd trailer is released that they mention the air date and that,as i've previously mentioned, is usually just before the show starts airing.

[red snow]

4 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

haha,you're absolutely correct mate .BBC are very weird when it comes to air dates.Most networks share air dates months/weeks in advance.With the BBC i have noticed it's usually a week/days before the show airs.I don't know why this is,maybe someone from the industry can enlighten us.

The first trailers that the BBC put's out for new/returning series almost never has an air date listed.It's always " coming soon/summer/winter" etc...It's only when the 2nd trailer is released that they mention the air date and that,as i've previously mentioned, is usually just before the show starts airing.

maybe it's a conspiracy to promote sales of "radiotimes"?

I would be interested to know why that's the approach. I guess it might be that programming schedules fluctuate a lot and they'd rather wait until they are 100% certain? Maybe in terms of the BBC2/BBC1 ranking? I know "better" shows tend to be promoted to BBC1 (I think that's happened with "The line of duty") and there's producer competition to get their show on BBC1.