The concept in this show is compelling. The story of a modern day Thor growing up and into his powers after they are fully activated by an old woman in the town he was born as his family moves back there. Magne is a great character with a lot of potential. The actor is very good at making the emotions believable.
It is a great shame that the storyline is so messed up and unbelievable. I get that this is supposed to be urban fantasy so there needs to be a portion of the story that isn’t quite realistic. However, the writer or writers for this show are so worried about making the show about evil corporations and climate change that they managed to horribly screw up the focus of the show. The show is supposed to be about Thor learning who he is and becoming the champion of man. I get that they needed to have a protagonist, but, the character of Magne already had issues and struggles that he was learning to overcome. From having glasses initially, to having a learning disorder and more. Within the first couple of episodes they kill off the only lesbian character who also was the only friend of Magne in this new town. Even his own little brother was being a dick to him both in and out of school. No surprise that he is Loki considering the lore and who I suspect is his father. I couldn’t even finish the last episode of the first season.
The last straw for me was that when Magne actually found proof that the company was the source of the pollution in the area he went to the police and his teacher with it to have them come look. The cop decided that she needed to inform the company that they were coming to have a look! That would not happen! If a serious allegation like that were to happen along with photographic evidence which he had from his friend’s phone she would have gone to her boss the sheriff, then they would have gone to a judge to get a warrant. From there the police would have put eyes on the area to make sure nothing hinky was going on before serving the warrant to the company. They wouldn’t have brought Magne and they wouldn’t have brought the teacher. If they did or didn’t find anything THEN they would have brought the witness into the station to either accuse them of false reporting or to have them verify from photographs of the crime scene that this is what they had seen before.
Of course this was set in Norway so they could handle things differently than here in the USA so that could be a cultural difference. However, it pissed me off. Especially when there is an obvious pattern of behavior from not only the family that owns the company but signs of corruption in the town that are blatant. Like how the cops changed how his friend died at least twice. The fact that Magne’s own mother is so morally corrupt that she had more concerns in keeping her job than believing him with evidence that she betrays her own son to those very people is infuriating. If the woman that raised him assumingly alone since his father died when Magne was six years old is that corrupt then how in the hell did Magne himself end up with a strong sense of right and wrong.
If you want to see Norse Mythology turned into modern urban fantasy I would suggest watching The Almighty Johnsons instead of Netflix’s Ragnarok. At least then the focus is on where it should be instead of trying to be Woke and convoluting a storyline with crap that just doesn’t make any sense.
Derek's Mindscape 