Recently I have been watching two shows featuring a certain Norse god that are quite different. The gods of various legends are the original superheroes and villains with there amazing powers and their habit of using mere humans are their playthings.
There may be some slight spoilers below, so do not read too far if you still plan to watch either show.
Ragnarok is a Netflix production from Norway set in a small town where certain ancient forces still persist. A family of giants, in human form, control the local industry regardless of the cost on the local populace. A woman and her two teenage boys returns there after her husband died. Big clumsy Magne is picked out for greatness and takes on the powers of Thor which he struggles to master. From the start it is pretty obvious that his edgy younger brother Laurits is destined to take on the role of Loki and this comes about in the recently release second half of the series. Having read Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology I had some idea of the various characters and their roles. Laurits plays with his sexuality and seeks out the darker sides of life. When he is diagnosed with a tapeworm I knew what was coming.
I watched the show with subtitles as I still want to hear the actual voices of the actors. It is a bit of a 'young adult' thing as it centres around the teenagers, but there is much to enjoy for adults too. They do not go for over the top special effects as there was probably not the budget, but the performances are great.
Meanwhile on Disney+ we have Loki with Tom Hiddleston resuming his portrayal of the Lord of Mischief as created in Marvel comics, which I must say I have not read. He does do it well to my eyes. In the last Avengers movie there was some time travelling and Loki from the past manages to diverge from his original fate. He gets picked up by the Time Variance Authority for spoiling the timeline they are trying to preserve.
This show obviously has a movie-level budget so can have all the effects required to create alien worlds and amazing events. It is due to be part of a new sequence of Marvel movies set around the 'multiverse'. We meet several 'variants' of Loki who are all played by Brits, including one female version. Actually a lot of the inhabitants of Asgard have been played by Brits or Australians. Is that to make them seem at least somewhat foreign to a US audience? I wonder what the Scandinavians think of this.
I did enjoy Loki, but it has little to do with the Norse myths. I assume Marvel have just picked the bits that are convenient for them, but there is plenty of weird shit in there. The ending of the series sets up for whatever is coming next with a new super-villain who has to do a lot of exposition due to not having been mentioned at all before the final episode. Right at the end it teases that there will be a second series.
I am not worrying too much about what movie comes next, but I am likely to see them anyway. Black Widow is out now, but that is jumping back in time a bit. My son and I may pay the extra to see it on Disney+ this weekend.
Marvel have been so prolific that there are a few shows I have not really watched. I may catch up on some of those, but there is so much I could be watching on the various services we have. I did just watch M.O.D.O.K. on Disney+, which is a silly stop motion thing. It was entertaining enough, but I will let you check it out for yourself.