The Almighty Johnsons

It took me ages to get to see this show and it has exceeded my expectations. As a comedy drama it works on both of those levels. The main characters are likeable and as a fan of Norse mythology, I like the dilemmas they face as modern day Aucklanders who happen to be the vessels of gods and goddesses. I can't praise the cast enough but Shane Cortese as Colin/Loki is wonderfully sleazy, and Ben Barrington as eternally young grandfather Olaf/Baldur is believable as the Johnson who uses getting stoned as a means of coping with immortality.There is pretty good character development and the myths are used as a good inspiration for some of the storylines. I'm almost through all three seasons and I will miss it when I have finished watching it, although I very much feel that it is a show that will go out on a high. Earlier episodes show that the budget may not have been huge, but everything else makes up for that and you can see it has been made with love.

Update: binging 3seasons, somewhere in the 2nd season it lost some of it original appeal. 3rd season felt mostly like couples tv drama wt sex happening all the time and fastforwarded some...i give it a 7 +1 for a conclusion that terminated the series properly.--------------------------------------------- Recommended. good cast. not a children friendly show( sex,drugs...) interesting take on the Norse mythology . humor is quirky, sarcastic, misognistic .give it 2 episodes ....you may end up binging like idid. Too bad budget was low for locations and special effects . yes it ca have been better but also worse. thanks .

Why on earth does IMDb display one of the few poor instead of the many positive reviews of this series on the main page for this show?

I came to the Almighty Johnsons after watching an ad for the show on Sky and thought "why not? I'll check it out". The show easily lived up to all my hopes and expectations. Starting off lowish budget but with brilliant acting and storytelling with action and comedy easily worthy of the Norse legends it parodies.

Olaf and Anders provide the comic relief whilst Mikkel and Axl provide the main, straight performances that move the story along. Ty is the dark one of the brothers, whose character becomes so much more so in the second series.

Don't believe the haters, try it for yourself. If you are looking for intelligent drama/fantasy with a dedicated, well acted cast then you could be in with a winner here.

This show is really well put together. It is a perfect blend of fantasy and reality and explores Norse mythology in a compelling way. The main premise is that four brothers belong to a family of people that are living reincarnations of Norse gods. Upon his 21st birthday, Axl finds himself being told that he is Odin the All-Father, and is given a quest to find his Frigg. All four brothers - Ty, Mike, Axl and Anders - have distinct personalities. Alongside the main story line, the show also deals with how Gods interact with mortals and the grey-area that is prophecy.

This is a great show that is witty and quirky. There is quite a bit of nudity, but overall the characters drive the action forward and the mythological elements keep things interesting.

So basically it does not have the production values of Supernatural or some other show from the US but I have been brought up on the cheap sets of Dr Who which requires a more interesting storyline and in that respect if you go into this show with low expectations you will actually end up impressed.

Going through the list of actors you can see that there is not much experience but they all pull together really well, I especially like Anders character as he adds a certain amount of lightness to the darker back stories and the Thor character from one episode was laugh out loud funny. I would certainly not classify this as a comedy but more of a light hearted supernatural drama.

I have just watch the first series through in three day and can't wait for the second season to air and really hope the good story pace and sharp writing is continued.