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I had thought that a Scandinavian series about Scandinavian mythology would have had their sources better. Every episode opens with what is supposed to be an encyclopaedia quote. There you have things like: “Tyr is the God of war, he lost his hand in battle”. Right. And why would you give the ‘pater familias’ of the giants, the name of a son of Odin (Vidar)?
But, there are also elements that are somewhat amusing when you know the myths.

A mother and her two sons move back to the small town where the father of the family passed away. The village has the unimaginable name “Edda”. The small town is largely dependent on a rich family with a metal factory, which -as you soon learn- is led by giants.

One of the adolescent sons, “Magne” soon develops ‘superpowers’. There is a suggestion that he is in some way a God. His brother amusingly develops genderbending traits which easily connects him to another Norse God. Other funny details are the way in which the bloodbrothership between Odin and Loki takes place and a tapeworm that grows out to be the Midgard serpent.

On and off, Magne takes and leaves the role of being a God and with or without a team he sets out after the giants. Allegiances change, there is the usual adolescent (overdone) drama, whiny kids and often fairly shallow use of the myths. There are some contemporary themes woven into the story, such as environmental problems.

The series are not all bad, but they are certainly not great either. Especially the final episode is very poor.

An oldie, obviously based on the Decamerone of Boccaccio (1330-1375). The book contains 100 stories, the film only a handful.

The book is infamous for its criticism of the Church and the licentiousness of the stories. Still, it is regarded as the highlight of Italian literature.

The film is a view into old Italian film making, spoken in the director’s accent, with gritty characters, humor and of course sex, but not as much as some descriptions of the film have it.

Netflix suggested “Spider-Man”. I was surprised that Netflix would have a Marvel film, since all the other have to rented from Amazon Prime. Then I noticed that in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” other Spider-Man films are listed, but the first is “Spider-Man: Homecoming” only from 2017 (in “phase 3”).

So have Spider-Man films been made outside Marvel? Not really, since “Spider-Man”, “Spider-Man 2” (2004) en “Spider-Man 3” (2007), all by Sam Raimi and with Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man and Kirsten Dunst as his girlfriend are Marvels, but apparently ‘stand alone’.

This old film is quite ‘teen’. Peter Parker is a nerdy college student who is bullied by his school mates and who’s pretty neighbor girl (Mary Jane, played by Dunst) does not see him. When he gets bitten by a genetically modified spider at school, he turns into a spider-man over night.

After getting used to his new abilities, Spider-Man becomes a vigilante, but of course there is also powerful opponent in the form of “Green Goblin” (Willem Dafoe) who created a bit of an Iron Man type fighting suit.

“Spider-Man” is not the spectacle of later Marvel films. You can se that two decades ago the audience was targeted differently. More teen romance, less American moralism, but with fighting and special effects.