Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands - Episode 2

Our publicity image for this episode features J'onn J'onzz, David Ajala threatening to do me in for calling him Black Tim Curry, and the dead stunt casting again, despite him not being in this episode at all.

I think we may be in the lands of the post-apocalyptic parallel, a concept I came up with to describe the way in which a sufficiently dodgy pseudohistorical setting is improved by regarding it not as the original historical or pseudohistorical story, but a loosely equivalent story set in a post-apocalyptic world, hence the goofball costume choices and scads of black Scandinavians.

Episode 2 sees the Queen trying to delay the approaching Thanes until Beowulf PI can track down a skinshifter, the shapeshifting mudborn that killed the old reeve. This leads to the smelters, an underclass of mostly black vikings who... keep beasts for gladiatorial combat? I'm actually not sure. I may not have been paying attention. He briefly suspects Thoroughly Modern Millie, but she gets her kit off and he's convinced. (Seriously; he knows the skinshifter is injured, so she drops her dress to prove a) that she's not it, b) that she's modern and comfortable with her body and c) that this show sucks at subtle sexual tension.) Beowulf partners up with the chief of viking police, Col, who turns out to be the skinshifter in a twist which would have been shocking if I'd known who the fuck he was before this episode.

The Queen meets the Thanes and tries to persuade them to make her Jarl. The interchangeable old white gits (full disclosure; there may just have been the one guy) seem loosely in favour, but her main rival is dead set against her policy of appeasing the mudborn. When I heard his voice I thought they'd somehow cast young, cute Tim Curry, and he does look a bit like him, but black, and without the need for time travel. Of course, now I'm stuck thinking of him as black Tim Curry, which doesn't make me feel good about myself. I have white guilt. I look at actor David Ajala in the picture above with his 'come at me bro' stance and its like he's calling me out for it.

Meanwhile, Prince Sneerface meets up with another Thane, played by David Harewood (Supergirl's J'onn J'onzz, so naturally with all this shapeshifting going on, I'm liking him for a Martian) and gets captured trying to rescue one of the thane's soldiers from bandits. Fair play, Sneerface is actually a pretty complicated character; a bit of a weasel, but committed to his inappropriate girlfriend and not without some chutzpah.

I'm starting to wonder why I'm still watching this, but it's drawing me back with an Atlantis-like magnetism.