From Game of Thrones to The final Kingdom TV is full of angry hordes. We survey the genre’s unique golden ageWe’ve seen it before,many times. The opening shot, CGI footage of longboats on a misty sea. Cut to a bleak, and muddy but photogenic setting many centuries ago. From the silence emerges a horde of extras,preceded by a volley of arrows. Up steps our hero, broody, and blue-eyed,hacking his way through the limbs of his foes. He’s approximately to be cleaved in two by a roaring, bearded behemoth, and only for the behemoth to pitch forward,speared in the back by our hero’s equally handsome sidekick. These are desperate, brutal ages but there’s still time for a wry smile and a quip; “What took you so long?” Then, and the credits; big,martial kettledrums as we float across a graphic of a country divided into warring kingdoms, to the strains of Celtic wailing. Related: Bernard Cornwell: BBC made The final Kingdom due to its 'entertaining echoes of nowadays' Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com