Weekly Witch Hunt: Vikings Season 4 & 100 Streets

We decide what artistic endeavour passed approval to earn the Scorcher label from the past seven days & what also had the dishonour of being that week's Torture...

Welcome to the start of 2017's Witch Hunts.  This last week I took great pleasure in raiding along the English coastline; but then ruined it by visiting a small pocket of London.  Read on to find out more.

The Scorcher

The second half of season 4 of Vikings recently concluded so I went on a typical binge watch so I would be able to pass judgement on this bunch of heathens.  It might not be the most historically accurate of shows but my word is it entertaining.
When I first decided to start watching Vikings I was hesitant because I was unsure how they would keep such a story interesting.  The characters are based on Viking legends; made up of ones that we know existed and ones where we are not so convinced about their overall legitimacy.  So the basis is there for a good story.
However these legendary warriors all existed at different times throughout Viking lore so how do they accomplish a historical telling of these tales and still manage to educate about their historical significance?  Well the History Channel has taken the novel approach of condensing the actions of these Norse heroes into a much smaller timescale so that they can all interact with one another.  You still get a sense of the impact each had in their culture and the wider world at large.
It works surprisingly well.  The historical events are depicted with the filmmakers taking similar liberties with accuracy that you see in many "based on a true story" movies that are released.
Where the show does excel in keeping up interest levels; is in the ability to not follow normal conventions.  You can be watching a scene and think you know exactly what is going to take place and the complete opposite can happen.  This is totally refreshing and in many cases mimics the actual events from the Norse saga of the time.  Season 4, more than all that have come before it, certainly takes these curveballs to the next level of surprise.
I will be very keen to see how season 5 develops from here and whether it can maintain the momentum.

The Torture

Have you ever felt like slashing your wrists after watching a particularly depressing film?  If you answered no then this one might put you in that frame of mind.  Okay so it isn't all doom and gloom but it's a pretty bloody dismal movie.  100 Streets focusses on three different stories with no connective tissue joining them up; or what little there is, is very tenuous at best.  The title refers to the characters of the storylines all living within one hundred streets of each other so there you go.
This feels like three stories that weren't fully developed being cobbled together to form one film.  The only one with any substance that I really wanted to see more of involved George the taxi driver as his had the makings of something intriguing.  His tale however was the one we saw the least of.
Idris Elba and Gemma Arterton are recognisable names so it is only fitting that they get the most screen time.  Their story is one of the most relatable too as it involves a marriage breakup.  It doesn't really go anywhere though and by the end you don't really know if either of them is any better off than when we were first introduced to them.
Franz Drameh's Kingsley is one of the most commonly used redemption stories; where a young black man is on the wrong side of the tracks and realises the error of his ways.  You can tell instantly when Ken Stott's Terrence starts interacting with Kingsley that it won't be all sunshine and rainbows.  It holds no surprises in the least to see how this one ends up.
I was ready to torch the whole lot of them when it ended on a typical Hollywood style high note after watching an hour and a half of complete drabness beforehand.  This is not a film to watch for the suicidal!