back to article Løvefïlm signs hit beards’n’berserkers series Vikings

British and German fans of horned helmets, dragonships, bloodeagles, forked beards and berserker frenzies will need to avail themselves of a LOVEFiLM LoveFilm subscription if they want to catch the History channel’s popular new historical potboiler, Vikings. The Amazon-owned video streaming service blew its gold-rimmed horn …

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  1. I'm Brian and so's my wife
    Flame

    Game of Thrones

    I've heard people recommending this for a year or two, but ignored them since I wasn't at all sure about the fantasy bit of it - all a bit too Dungeons & Dragons for me (those guys used to scare me at school).

    Then I started watching it with my wife and found I thoroughly enjoyed it! If anyone else is sitting on the fence over GoT, please give it a go!

    Flames for the dragons, natch.

    1. Dave 126

      Re: Game of Thrones

      Yeah, the fantasy elements of Game of Thrones are very much on the periphery, much like how a map from the middle ages shows fantastic beasts dwelling just beyond Christendom. It is more driven by good ol Shakespearian themes of lust for power and political intrigue.

      It looks good- being filmed across appropriate countries rather than cheesy sets or CGI. Some people have said that they find the nudity excessive, but this is The Reg...

      1. Tom 38

        Re: Game of Thrones

        They've toned done the nudity quite a lot since the first season - which wasn't overly prurient, it was simply reflecting the nudity described in the books for the most part. In fact, lots of it was trimmed, for instance Dany in the book has one breast bared (the left, iirc) from the time she arrives in [spoiler redacted] until [spoiler redacted].

        Compared to something like Spartacus, which is proper Sandal Porn without any real story, well, the nudity is incidental rather than the purpose of the show.

      2. Ragarath

        Re: Game of Thrones

        Some people have said that they find the nudity excessive

        I take it you did not read the books first more of it is described there than shown on TV.

        The series is actually quite close to the books and stuck to the story well enough, but there are still some parts that TV just cannot depict well enough to the viewers. I keep having to clarify parts of the show to my Wife because they have failed to describe what in the book I felt was important.

    2. MrT

      I liked the cross-series dig...

      ...in 'Once upon a time' where the florist shop is called "Game of Thorns"... It's a bit more subtle than spotting all the Firefly references in Castle, but adds a bit of fun ;-)

  2. Vimes

    And then we have NowTV for other exclusives. And Netflix for yet more exclusives...

    I wonder how many people are prepared to pay for all three just to get around all these limits put in place by all these exclusive deals?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Does anyone?

      Does anyone pay for all three?

      Until they start showing brand new shows when they actually come out, my LoveFilm subscription is purely to satisfy my girlfriend's craving for foreign movies.

      Why would you pay for three services when they don't even show new shows/movies?

      1. NightFox
        Stop

        Re: Does anyone?

        I hate that we move closer and closer to a US-style TV model, which seems to be completely stacked in favour of the interests of the corporates rather than the viewers, with more and more exclusives tied to single service providers or offered as PPV. TV of the future, be it IP, satellite or terrestrial is not going to be driven by quality (and I think in the UK we have still have some of the highest), but by the awful US model just because of the influence US companies are going to exert. Take the rumoured Apple TV set - I know it's all conjecture at this stage, but if it's anything like the existing Apple TV box then it's geared towards PPV/subscription IPTV and even though Smart TVs haven't really changed anything yet, companies with the clout of Apple have the influence to change the way we do things to the way America does things (or the way the company wants us to do things), be it for better or worse.

        Yes, I know the likes of Sky and Virgin have already seen us off along this road, but thankfully we're still not at the stage where every new show is treated as a carrot to milk even more out of viewers (excuse the mixed metaphor).

    2. andy mcandy
      Pirate

      giganews subscription.

      job done :)

  3. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Thumb Up

    Whilst I love the GOT books...

    And recognise that the complexity of them must be a bit difficult to film - I found the acting in the first series to be a bit lame - and it just looked a little... cheap? Great that they decided to keep all of the "adult" themes and scenes - and thank god "Neds dead baby" because I still don't understand how Sean Bean manages to land so many roles. The casting of Peter Dinklage was inspired though and captures Tyrion Lannister perfectly.

    The second series however was fantastic and am thoroughly looking forward to watching series 3*.

    * - Just as soon as I've found the time to catch up on Burn Notice series 3-6 :-$

    1. Dave 126

      Re: Whilst I love the GOT books...

      I believe they had a bigger budget for the second series after the success of the first. Series 4 was commissioned after the first episodes of the current 3rd series aired.

      It rare for a TV series to complete its story arc... so it is reassuring to know it has legs.

  4. Trygve Henriksen

    horned helmets?

    That only exists in old German operas...

    No viking would be daft enough to go into battle with something like that stuck on their helmets.

    Not only would they catch on everything(low branches in the woods, low ceilings, doorframes), but they'd also guide an otherwise harmless glancing blow directly to the temple...

    1. Marvin the Martian
      Unhappy

      Re: horned helmets?

      If it's on History, it wouldn't surprise me to see horned helmets.

      I had the misfortune of watching their "Rome" series, filmed somewhere in the Baltic (and they didn't even bother faking Latin) with 20 blokes that normally reenact the triumphs of the XXth Legion every weekend: Over I think six episodes, I saw the same 20 blokes fight another 15-20 blokes dressed up now in vaguely-arabic, now vaguely-norse, then vaguely-asian dress, and so on.

      Except the one time the first twenty split into two groups of about ten, with the newer group holding a newly-painted sign "VI" up and that represented civil war. That kept me on my toes.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hilarious (and gory)

    Yep, this is high-quality junk television. Wobbly accents galore, far too pretty a cast and the same air of authenticity that the same team brought to The Tudors. Well worth catching.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Too many "exclusives"

    Like Vimes said, how many people are genuinely going to pay for NOWtv, Netflix AND Lovefilm?... Seems barmy to me and an invitation for torrenting.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Too many "exclusives"

      WEll isn't that how it is in the US with HBO, ShowTime, etc - each is a separate package in some way? I never understood how US TV works...

      1. Dave 126

        Re: Too many "exclusives"

        >I never understood how US TV works...

        And yet it produces some excellent content.... this is well worth look a look, a view from someone who has made series on both sides of the Atlantic:

        Armando Iannucci: BAFTA Television Lecture 2012

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmViA8zRhLI

        1. I'm Brian and so's my wife

          Re: Too many "exclusives"

          > And yet it produces some excellent content

          Indeed! GoT, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, Walking Dead, Sopranos and The Wire are all series my wife and I watched avidly over the last 5 years. They're also all from AMC & HBO.

          1. Al Jones

            Re: Too many "exclusives"

            You don't pay a premium to get AMC - it's usually included in your bundle of Cable Channels, unlike HBO and Showtime, which cost an additional $15/month each.

            Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Walking Dead are all AMC shows, and were available without an additional premium to most Cable and Satellite customers in the US.

            AMC, USA Network (the aforementioned Burn Notice), FX (Justified) produce some very enjoyable programming - and they aren't nearly as quick to cancel a show with a "challenging" story!

      2. JDX Gold badge

        Re: Too many "exclusives"

        Thanks to those who downvote a simple question but don't even bother to provide an answer. Presumably because I dared to suggest or at least imply that paying for content was OK?

  7. Irongut

    Vikingspilot

    Is that some kind of tool for penetration testing if you're worried about Scandinavian hackers?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Friend of torrents!

    Lovefilm, helping the torrent scene by requiring Silverlight! Bless..

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sod Game of Thrones, I'll sign up if they start streaming Noggin the Nog !

  10. Dave Bell

    In some ways the BBC is no better

    The BBC's iPlayer service is good sometimes. Then Adobe drop an update on you, stuff breaks, programmes you downloaded become unusable, and you cannot download a second time.

    Torrents start to look desirable.

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