Bear

Been watching a lot of Vice documentaries since I got home from Oslo as they cover a lot of interesting subjects, but why is it that 99/100 times they're having some uncharismatic, nooby college kid in front of camera? Stupid/dumb/poor questions seems to be a must for these guys, the documentaries are usually way, way, way, way too short to be able to properly cover any subject whatsoever, but if they're actually long they're poorly paced. Frustrating. Watched the one about E-sports last night, and the interviewer was so fucking dumb. More or less took all the fun out of the interviews. Awkward guy who just had no idea what he was doing or how to do it properly. They got some interesting stuff on Bosozuku, modern gangsters and Yakuza in Japan, but they are all so fucking short. 22-33 doesn't let you cover shit to be honest. Why not go the full way when you set out on doing something? This shit isn't even half-done. It's just lazy to be honest. Again, fucking frustrating!

Till fjälls, del II Making a part II of such a legendary classic as Till Fjälls is seriously risky as fuck because people will automatically put it up against the original, but as Naturbål was a proper return to form and their folkiest/most viking-esque album since Ödemarkens son I am really excited for this. Naturbål is excellent, and I've got some high expectations for this. There will also be a bonus EP with tracks from around 96-97 or something, from the time when they went from Vargatron to Vintersorg. I think they're re-recorded, or slightly re-recorded at least, but that is very interesting anyway. They've also started playing live. Finally!

Atom Age Vampire The second film is Atom Age Vampire, a film that is on the opposide side of the scale compared to Carnival of Souls. Atom Age Vampire has a beautiful poster and a really cool title, but the problem is that the film has nothing to do with vampires whatsoever. It's just a poor translation of it's italian title, which would translate to Seddok, the Heir of Satan if done right. Anyway, Atom Age Vampire, directed by Anton Giulio Majano, is a complete shitfest from start to end. The script is poor, the direction awful and the acting worse. Oh, did I mention the godawful editing? Or dubbing? Well, let's see it from another way and point out the good parts in this film, because that is a lot easier: the special-effects looks cool and whenever the monster grabs a woman it looks kinda cool. And Susanne Loret who's beautiful. And that's it. In other words, this is a bad film, but it's not bad enough to be considered so-bad-it's-good. It's just bad. Really bad. So why the fuck do I like it? I don't know, to be honest. I really shouldn't, but as with the majority of pre-1980's horror films, I just find it entertaining. There's something about these old films that please me no matter how bad they are. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, but this 60's euro-sleazy, trash, whatever, does in fact please me. 6/10

Decided to watch every 50 films in the Horror Classics box chronologically since I've already seen, if not all, the majority of the films anyway. So the sub-par quality of some of these don't really matter. Carnival of Souls The box set kicks off with an absolute beast of a film. Carnival of Souls is Herk Harvey's only feature film as a director, and he produced, co-wrote, directed and acted this masterpiece which looks, sounds and feels like a billion bucks. It was not a success on its release and did not gain much attention at all, but its since then gained status as a cult classic and the film is more often than not feature on lists of scariest films, and it's inspired people like George A. Romero, David Lynch, Roman Polanski and James Wan among others. But hey, I mentioned that it looks, sounds and feels like a million bucks, so let's just start with the budget: 33 000. 33fuckingK. Compare that to Night of the Living Dead's 114 000, The Innocents' 43 0000, The Haunting's 1 400 000, Cat People's 134 000 or Peeping Tom's 135 000. In other words, this is as low-budget as it gets. Made from close to nothing compared to other films of the era. But it surely does feel like a big-budget film. But the problem was never it feeling like a low-budget, but it being slightly more artistic and slow-burning than other horror films of the era. It's closer to an Ingmar Bergman film than classic horror films. It's just different. The film is beautifully shot in B&W. The cinematography is simple but effective, and the entire film is almost free of any special-effects whatsoever, and instead relying 100% on creating atmosphere via cinematography, acting and more than anything, an organ score that sounds like the soundtrack to a 1920's horror film. The film is eerie as fuck, very surreal and dreamlike, and that's basically what makes this so god damned great. If you're into atmospheric horror films, then this is for you. But you do need a bit of patience, because it is kinda slow. But it's never boring. Masterpiece! 9/10

I'm not big on the Fright Night remake. Decent for sure, but it just feels so unnecessary. It doesn't offer enough freshness for me, despite some great performances. I brought this back from my mom: The quality of the release looks a bit cheap and the quality of the prints ain't the best, but this is a fun pack. Features everything from shit like Atom Age Vampire, Creature from the Haunted Sea, The Screaming Skull, Swamp Women, Bloodlust and The Beast of Yucca Flats to super classic films like Metropoilis, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, Night of the Living Dead, The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Carnival of Souls and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So you've got a bit of everything in here, but the majority of these films are, if not good, at least really fucking entertaining. http://www.imdb.com/list/ls000810176/?start=1&view=detail&sort=user_rating:desc&defaults=1 I wonder if this is that list. It looks that way. Mill Creek got a lot of interesting releases, from horror to sci-fi to martial arts to crime to fantasy to westerns and whatnot. I really want a lot of these because they're full of cult, classics, cheese and crap. But the quality of the prints is poor, the non-english films are dubbed and so on. Take their martial arts releases Iron Fist Frenzy, Way of the 5 Finger Death Strike, The Great Impersonators, Kickin' It Shaolin Style and Flying Fists of Kung Fu. These boxes are filled with obscure and hard to find gems of both good and awful films, but they are, to my knowledge, dubbed. That's a big problem. Same as with the Wu-Tang Collections. It's dubbed and they look like they're transferred from old, shitty VHS tapes that's watched to death.

Sukekiyo not wanting the audience to talk/sing/make noise is something that I would actually appreciate quite a lot, the whole dresscode however comes off as retarded.

Home, tired and destroyed. Feels like I am gonna die any minute now. Anyway, good festival as usual, and even tho my brother was missed we managed to have lots of fun. Wednesday: Tangorodrim - Simple, stripped down and straight-forward black metal heavily inspired by Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Darkthrone. This gig was top notch. No mumbo jumbo, just pure black metal. Hail Spirit Noir - I was drunk out of my mind when these guys played, and that might have done wonders to the gig. But this was fantastic. Great gig! This was moments before I puked on the security guard and walked around in Oslo puking all over the place, looking for my friend. That's the state I was in. I have no idea how they could serve me the last 5-6 beers/G&T's. Also catched a couple of tracks by Borknagar, but it was pretty poor. Thursday: Got there late, so Destruction was our first band out. Sounds a bit too modern, but the gig was pretty good. Was better in 09 or whenever it was, tho. Pillorian was amazing. While they were black metal as fuck, they did sound a lot more Agalloch-esque live than on album. I even thought they played an Agalloch track, but from the looks of it I was mistaken. But this was great and the ending with Dark Is the River of Man was brilliant. Just... completely put us under some kind of a spell. Carcass was headlining day two, and they went on with a full 90 minute set. Which is really long for a band that play this type of music. But it worked and it was fantastic from begining to end, and Jeff Walker looked like he was having the time of his life. Looked like he could've gone on for a couple of more hours. My biggest problem was Bill Steer who looked like he came straight from a stoner rock gig, and with some nu-metalish moves here and there. But that's not a big deal. Amazing gig! Missed out on Helheim and Venom. Inc, but they played too early for me. Simple as that. Having to go a gig before 8pm one of the days is more than enough for me. Friday: Infernal War kicked off our day with some brutal black metal. Just pure brutality from start to end. Far from amazing, but very fun. I didn't expect much from Samael as I haven't enjoyed a single album since 1994's Ceremony of Opposites, but this was a very good gig. Lots of fun, even though I wish Xy played a real drum kit for the old track. But it was good. Gorgoroth was surprisingly good. Drums was a bit off, but it wasn't awful or anything. Considering they headlined friday I expected them to do a bit more on stage, but they kept it really simple. Lots of spikes was all really. They were mainly carried by Hoest (I believe it was Hoest handling the vocals live this time) who did a fantastic job. Superb stage pressence for this gig. Looked like he came straight from hell. Tried Crowbar but left after a couple of songs. Boring. Saturday: Primordial kicked it off and they were as good as only Primordial can be. Winner of Inferno Festival 2017. The sound was a bit muddy and "tight", but you could hear everything and A.A. Nemtheanga is just out of this world as both a vocalist and frontman. Stunning! I had never heard Kontinuum before their Inferno Festival gig and the gig didn't make me want to check it out any further. Progressive black metal/post metal clearly inspired by crap like newer Sólstafir. Just... they were all over the place. Didn't seem like they knew what type of music they wanted to make. Meh. Belphegor surprised me quite a lot. I did not expect to like this live, but it was pretty good. Tho, I got a bit tired towards the end. It's just more of them same until it's over, and the drum sound was a bit annoying. But the first 3/4th of the concert was cool. LOL at Serpenth looking like the fucked up, uglier son/brother/whatever of Dani Filth, though. I've seen Svartidaudi a few times now, and I've never really been too impressed. But this gig was a a force of its own. Blew me away! I did miss them covering their faces tho (only the two guitarists did it this time). Abbath got the honor of ending Inferno Festival 2017 and they just fucked it up. Or, Abbath fucked it up. He's a fucking diva, a pussy and a fucking idiot. They played four songs before he threw his guitar in on the floor, left stage and never came back. How anyone wants to be in a band with this dick is beyond me. Rumors has it that he was angry, had fought with the rest of his band earlier this day and that he had some technical problems. But still. A disgusting way too end Inferno Festival 2017. Got not statement from them yet, tho. But whatever. Great shit. Got way too drunk for most part. But it's all good. It suits me.

Great night last night. Had way too much to drink, and as I was standing alone somewhere and puking a security guard came over to see and ask how I was doing. My response? Puke on the guy and walk away. Classy. And that was just the first out of four days with alcohol and concerts. Not my proudest moment.

There's so much to look forward to this year, bot new seasons of older series and completely new stuff. Black Sails, Better Call Saul, Fargo, The Defenders, Westworld, Taboo, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, The Expanse, Twin Peaks, The Deuce, Guerrilla, The Punisher, Inhumans and more. It's gonna be a busy year. I'm almost done with The Get Down part 2, still very fun. Half hip hop, half disco, it sure does contain lots of good music. I'm not too keen on the relationships in this series as they seem very artificial, but the stories themself are good and the musical numbers, especially the ones by The Get Down Brothers, are exceptional. I also like the cartoonish, over the top violence, even though it's been toned down quite a bit for this part 2. But it's all fun.

Next week is Inferno Festival, my 10th anniversary actually. Really looking forward to this. It kicks off on wednesday with the club day, which means a lot of bands playing in different clubs. Which means you'll always miss out on some bands. The bands I really want to see: Vulkan/Pokal: Red Harvest Borknagar Nachash Tangorodrim Furze Parteateret: Whoredom Rife Deus Mortem Blå: Hail Spirit Noir Should manage to see Nachash, Red Harvest, Tangorodrim and Hail Spirit Noir, but my main priority is Hail Spirit Noir. Nachash is a fantastic band, but they play really early. So we'll probably miss out on them. Thursday: Helheim Venom Inc Destruction Carcass Pillorian Heavydeath (ends this night at Revolver, which is a short walk from Rockefeller/John Dee). We always go to these shows. Helheim and Venom Inc plays a bit too early for our taste, but I would love seeing both. Friday: Anaal Nathrakh Samael Gorgoroth Infernal War Crowbar Other than Samael and Infernal War I am not too interested in seeing any of the bands this day, but we'll go and gotta catch some bands. And these are the most interesting of the lot. Last time I heard Anaal Nathrakh live they were atrocious. They didn't even seem to know how to perform live. Absolute trash. Doesn't help that's it's been 11 years since their last good album, and that they since then seem to have found lots of inspiration from metalcore. Saturday: Slagmaur Primordial Belphegor Abbath Svartidaudi Only metal bands I've seen live that's better than Primordial is Ghost, and I've seen quite an amount of metal bands live by now. Slagmaur is an interesting band, but they've not been very good the two times I've seen them live. But the second time was a huge improvement on the first time at least. But I fucking hate the masks they use live. Looks so cheap. Like they bought it from a kids store in October. Belphegor is Belphegor. Not a huge fan, but they've got some good albums and could prove to be good live. Anyway, I have 48 0,5l cans of beer and a bottle of gin waiting for me at my moms house, so no matter wich bands we see or miss, the four day long party will be majestic as always. First Inferno Festival without my brother who moves to the Philippines earlier this year. Will be a huge miss as he's been with us 8 of these 10 years, and we've spent an insane amount of time in Oslo with the friend we've always stayed at when we've been in Oslo. But life goes on I guess.

Thought I'd keep updating this thread with good albums that I hear. Belgium's Possession have blessed us with a fantastic dem and two great EPs of violent and chaotic black/death metal in the vein of Slaughtbbath, Sarcófago, Vulcano, Sepultura and so on since 2013, and now, five years after their creation they are back with their debut album. Possession - Exorkizein A new release dealing with possessions, demonolatry and witchcraft, subjects I feel suits the raw music very well. While they once again manage to release something proper good, they still aren't close to matching their phenomenal demo. It's mainly the production which is a bit off, but it still sounds very good, and this is still highly recommended of course.

I can't stand having spare time. When I get off work, I just can't wait to go to work again the next morning. The time inbetween work is fucking awful. Then come the weekends, and I just get drunk off my mind. It's not unusual for me to drink about 60 0,5l of beers at home, and 10-12 0.5l of beer out during a weekend. Can't stand it. Today I was told I most likely have to take out 2 or 3 weeks of vacation this summer. This shit is gonna be the end of me. 2-3 weeks is 1-2 weeks too much for me. If I had to choose I'd take 0 days vacation. Gonna be hard, unless I manage to talk them into giving me some work.

Just finished Narcos, season 2. I really liked the first season, but I was very sceptical about this season and delayed watching it because I read somewhere that the first season was something like 75/25 true/fiction and that this was 25/75 true/fiction, and I didn't think they could create something as good as the first season. But I was wrong, because season 2 is a step up from the first season. Fiction or not, this season was fantastic from start to end. Season 2 is a lot more action-oriented, but at the same time it pays more focus to the emtotional side of the characters, and that's what really makes this season. I'm very surprised, but this was excellent. Can't wait for season 3. And good thing is that they can so easily move this to other coutnries, like Mexico, as they seem to have stepped into fiction a long time ago anyway. Holy shit, excited for more!

Yeah. I can understand that the ex-members are angry if Papa Emeritus has kept promised money from them and stuff, not honored a contract, but when they go out with his name and their own names the way they do I get a feeling that they're really fucking butthurt and jealous as fuck on him and the reputation he's build with Ghost, as it's been known from the begining that Papa Emeritus was Tobias Forge. No matter what has happened, this is a terrible move for them. Not the suind, but the name dropping. Anyway, Ghost has three brilliant albums and one of the best cover albums ever (If You Have Ghost) to their name, and I hope Ghost wins because of this. I want more Ghost albums. Them being one of the best live bands on the planet doesn't hurt either. Anyway, speaking of bands with hidden identities, fucking Brujeria comes to mind. Which is why I played through their two first albums a couple of times this week. Death metal/grindcore, and in their early days they were heavy on the secret identity thing as they performed with pseudonyms and pretended to be Mexican druglords wanted by the FBI and stuff, with lyrics dealing with drug smuggling, Mexican pride, satanism, immigration and stuff. I always thought this imagery was really fucking awesome. In reality it's a band consisting of people like Shane Embury, Emilio Marquez, Billy Gould, , Dino Cazares, Jello Biafra, Raymond Herrera, Jesse Pintado, Tony Campos, Jeff Walker, Tony Laureano, Adrian Erlandsson, Daniel Erlandsson and Nicholas Barker among others. So we're talking people who are pretty known in the world of (extreme) metal, as well as punk. I highly recommend their two first albums if you're into grindcore in the vein of Asesino, Machetazo, Napalm Death and stuff. Their later albums are more groove metal-oriented and I don't like them very much at all.

I don't give a shit about that to be honest. As long as the music is top notch they can do whatever the fuck they want.

Yeah, I would say it is. Not that I've given Varjot or Voitto tai Valhalla too many spins, but I just get this feeling that it's more heavy metal inspired, epic and way cheesier, but not in a Alestorm/Korpiklaani/Finntroll-foly vein. It's just the combination of riffs, synth and production that makes it cheesy. The cover art is pretty spot on as far as the atmosphere and feeling of the album goes.

Fuck trimming it down, because I began but got a few problems. Which do I keep and which do I remove? So I'll just post everything that's left. Someone might find some of these releases interesting, so I'll put some time and effort into the post. 10/10 Rude - Remnants... Rude debuted with an absolute monster of an album in form of Soul Recall in 2014, and 2017 sees the band return with their sophomore album, an album that is just as good, if not better, than their debut. It sounds old school and very familiar, but as with their debut it sounds very fresh at the same time. They don't try to hide their influences, and the riffing, vocals and production reeks of old Pestilence, Morbid Angel and Death, but they still got their own thing going. 9/10 Black Magic - Demon Lord Black Magic has gone from playing black metal on their two first demos, to heavy/speed metal on their EP and a more heavy rock sound on this one-track demo. Totally different, but at the same time it sounds Black Magic as fuck. The occult feeling isn't gone. And as for the quality of the song, this is probably my favourite Black Magic track thus far. Catchy! Black Magick SS - Kaleidoscope Dreams I've been a fan of Black Magick SS' psychedelic rock with hints of black metal since the begining, and this is by far their best release so far. It's so cheesy, but it sounds awesome. Really, really good, and as unique as it is good. Original band! 8/10 Helheim - landawarijaR It took me many years to get into Helheim's post-Terrorveldet releases, but after years of trying I suddenly got into them a year or two ago. Their brand of viking metal and black metal is very unique, and it's always been so, but with landawarijaR they're offering their best and most unique album since Blood & Ild. It's a weird album, almost sounding avant-garde in the vein of Celtic Frost's Into the Pandemonium at times and progressive like mid-era Enslaved at other times, but it always manages to sound like Helheim. Still got lots of brass that makes it feel really epic. Obscure Evil - Void Fumes Mean and raw black/thrash metal with lots of Bathory, Aura Noir, Nifelheim and the likes in their sound. Not original, but really good. This is a compilation of their demo and EP which is fine as both releases rules. Goatmoon - Stella Polaris I've always considered Goatmoon to be as bad as they are ridiculous, and never in my wildest dreams would I dream that I would end up enjoying this. But I do. A lot actually. Nice, epic-sounding black/folk metal that's still furious, but it's seasoned with lots of heavy metal riffing here and there. Just check out Stella Polaris that out of nowhere turns into a heavy metal song, and that glorious riff gets even better towards the end of the song when there's a brilliant solo on top of it. It kinds sounds like traditional finnish black metal gone folky. As if Sargeist or Horna added folk metal to their black metal. Surprise of the year for sure. So good I will revisit their older material. Front Beast - Third Scourge from Darkness I've always been a huge fan of Avenger and many of his bands, especially Front Beast, Nocturnal and Szarlem. With Front Beast Avenger pays a tribute to the ancient black metal of the past, with mean and raw riffing in vein of Darkthrone, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Bestial Summoning, Countess and more. But there's also plenty heavy metal riffing throughout, but it's black in the vein of Mercyful Fate, Oz and Hell. Great stuff! Pillorian - Obsidian Arc When Agalloch broke up it didn't take long before John Haughm announced his new band, Pillorian, together with Trevor Matthews of Uada and SP of The Will of a Million. And even before they had released a single song to the public, they got booked for shows around the world, among them a headliner spot at this year's Inferno Festival. So how's the music? Well, very good, I'd say. Kinda sounds like a mix of the blackest of Agalloch and Uada, which should come as no surprise. But it's more traditional black metal than Agalloch ever were, but if you're familiar with Agalloch you should be able to hear influences from there. John Haughm's grim vocals are really good for this release too. I'm pleased! Sale Freux - Vindilis Sale Freux are one of a few "newer" French bands who carries the torch of demo-era Peste Noire. It's not as medieval-sounding, but it's got that dark, gritty and french countryside-feeling to it. Would be a nice soundtrack when walking over a french battlefield with thousands and thousands of dead soldiers everywhere. Fucked up drumsound, but I like it. The Great Old Ones - EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy Post-black metal inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, influenced by old Altar of Plagues, Wolves in the Throne Room, Fen and Deafheaven. These guys just gets better and better, and their third album is by far their best. Really powerful! Bròn - Зарђала Круна I have, over and over again, mentioned Bròn's two demos and debut album Ànrach as masterpieces, and I still do. Зарђала Круна is the band's new EP consisting of one 32 minutes long song, and it's another masterpiece of cold, atmospheric black metal in the vein of Evilfeast and Forest Silence. Breathtaking release! But as far as I know, this will be the last Bròn release with black metal elements, at least for a while. But the atmospheric ambience of these releases are amazing too, so I expect the future releases to be great too. That's it for now, but I've got some other releases I'll add to the mix too. I just need to spin them a few more times.

I can't write for shit when I am on my phone. So many typos. Christ. Anyway, just put together a "great albums of 2017" list, but I'll try to trim it down a bit before I post it as it is about 20-25 albums or so.

Alestorm's crowdfunding parody of Jari and Wintersun is hilariouus and spit fucking on. Fuck Wintersun, fuck that douchebad Jari and more than all, fuck their pathetic fans. Cancer to 'em all!

The problem with Godzilla (2014) , as far as I see it, isn't that it is an action-adventure or anything. But a poor plot and subplot, awful characters, a shitty Godzilla design, godawful pacing and more. The entire film just feels so superficial. The characters have no personality. They have no character. They're a bunch of empty shells who doesn't offer anything at all, running around acting like idiots. The only decent character was Bryan Cranston's, and he got killed way too early. And at the end the entire film felt more like a shitty american disaster films from 1998, rather than a Godzilla film. Which is awful considering it's a Godzilla film. I will add one thing tho, where I seem to have quite a different opinion than "everybody else", and that is that I like how little screentime Godzilla is given. When done properly this would've just added so much suspense to the entire film, but when they did as they did it didn't add anything at all. Just fuck this film, and like the first american Godzilla it is best forgotten. I'll take any of the Japanese Godzilla films over these two anyday. Even the bad Japanese Godzilla films like King Kong vs. Godzilla, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Godzilla vs. Gigan, The Return of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla's Revenge/All Monsters Attack and Son of Godzilla are more worth as they provide plenty entertainment. It's shit, but it's very fun and entertaining shit for those of us who enjoy that kind of stuff.

Shin Godzilla looks neat as fuck. Kinda looks like the best kaiju film since forever. Really looking forward to seeing it. Also like that it's supossed to be much bleaker and don't have your regular slick hollywood/blockbuster cliches, cuz that shit doesn't fit a proper kaiju film. Really looking forward to the new american Godzilla too, deapite the first one being weak as fuck. Michael Dougherty is a suoerb director and both Trick 'r Treat and Krampus are modern classics. He could do something great with this.

Yes, they are. Or rather, Yoshihiro Nishimura is. He wasn't involved in directing the original, but he's got Tokyo Gore Police on his filmography, even though he's failed to deliver after that film. He's done good films, just nothing that matches the brilliance of Tokyo Gore Police. But since we're on this subject, anyone seen Hard Revenge, Milly? Both the short and feature film? Not sure if I've seen these (probably have, but can't actually remember it), but anyone know if these are super violent/bloody/gory splatter films or if they are much more serious? They look a bit more serious on the picutres I've seen, rather than the splatterfest we're usually getting from the genre.

I just rewatched RoboGeisha and this film is still as fun and entertaining as it is absurd and bad. I don't know where to begin with this film. Cybernetic AssSwords, breast milk from hell, castle-shaped robot, bleeding buildings and whatnot. This shit isn't for everybody, but if you're into this kind of shit, then this surely will entertain you. I feel like I've seen a lot of the new wave of japanese splatter films, but I still feel I gotta dig even deeper than what I've done. It just have to be even more gold made by these guys, or which is connected to the "genre". Don't think I'll ever find anything as good, great and brilliant as Tokyo Gore Police, Meatball Machine and The Machine Girl (in that order), but I am hoping. But these three I can watch over and over and over again without geting bored. Just... amazing!

Finished Black Mirror, season 3 today. The third exceptional season of a TV-show that's different and completely unique as far as modern TV-series goes. Both San Junipero and Hated in the Nation are among the best episodes in the series so far, if not the best. San Junipero showed a total different side by ditching the grey environment and bleak atmosphere in favour of something colourful, cheerful and positive. A very uplifting episode in many ways, and a real pleasure to the eye. This was visually stunning. Hated in the Nation are so far one of the most thematically relevant stories of the series so far. A top notch thriller clocking in at 90 minutes, making it the longest episode of the series so far. The storytelling here is much more traditional and familiar, but it's really nicely done throughout. What a series. Holy shit! Brilliant! I have no problems understanding the hype or cult status. Deserved!