Just edited the list moving best currently running show to the top:
↑↑↑Vikings {Season 2}
.... sure to be replaced by Game of Thrones when that begins to air mid-April. But for now, Season 2 of The Vikings just began and that'll remain at the top till then. Here's a clip of King Ragnar On the question of Happiness:
[youtube]d8HXABcJ09s[/youtube]
Also added a new word to my vocabulary today in perusing the literature, explaining why I love grand fantasy series like these:
Mythopoeia,
a word coined (and used as the title of a poem) by mythology scholar and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien to mean "myth-making"; it has since become a literature and film genre of myth-like fictional narratives, especially in the high fantasy tradition. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series, is of course, the grand master by which we judge such works, especially as committed to film in the best possible way. Having seen
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in IMAX 3D over the holidays, I'll continue to hold the whole of that work in the highest possible regard. The Hobbit was the first book I read on my own, of my own volition and not under the compulsion of an adult, when I was not yet out of school and I was mesmerized, then, now and always. We obviously live in the best of times, with respect to the human imagination. Thank G-D, the real world really sucks.
The Vikings very much belongs to this genre, although with roots in actual history and on this earth, rather than strictly born of fantasy. But it tells a mythic story that rings true and has heroes and demons to be vanquished. And great battles of course! Enjoy!