Dear NCIS:LA - there is nothing fascinating about force-feeding and gulags are not lovely

NCIS:LA has managed it again. I am pretty much speechless with what's been said in the past two episodes. In my opinion it goes well beyond all boundaries of decency into being despicable.

In the last episode 5x08 the NCIS:LA characters threatened a suspect with possibly sending him to Guantanamo. They speculated they would need to send him there for his own protection. And then there came the ultimate kicker line: "I hear force feeding is fascinating!" in a sarcastic tone

I am at a loss here. Guantanamo bay as a prison is a serious human rights violations. Deathly, utterly serious violation. Force feeding is a form of despicable torture.
These are serious matters that need to be discussed, people need to be aware of. Many people are campaigning against Gitmo and this use of torture and actively fighting against it.
So why on earth did NCIS:LA decide it was okay to reference it in this way? No one would dream of calling the gas chambers in Bergen-Belsen 'fascinating' or slavery 'an interesting experience'. Because doing so is highly disrespectful, indecent and insensitive. It would be beyond any boundaries of civility. So why on earth is it then okay that force feeding referred to as fascinating, even if it is in a sarcastic tone?
I love sarcasm, I really do but there are boundaries to the ways in which it can be used - and in this case it did not work. It was just despicable and a low for the show.

And today's episode did not improve on anything. Russia was yet again the enemy and they breezily broke into the house of a Russian consulate as if it's the easiest thing in the world to do and even if, according to Granger, it damaged the already precarious relationship between US and Russia. And there was of course a reference to the Cold War being far from over apparently. And it seems Russians are still obsessed with using nuclear weapons on USA. And NCIS:LA gets less than zero points in managing international relations.
I am starting to debate whether the NCIS:LA universe is still stuck in the eighties while the rest of the world (Europe at least) has long since moved on. The Cold War ended in 1989, there was a historic meeting in the 1980's in Reykjavik between Reagan and Gorbachev which change the course of the war. It's been 24 years since it ended and yet, the powers that be NCIS:LA continue using it as a plot point, recycling over and over again the plot of Russians trying to get their hands on nuclear weapons and wanting to attack USA. It gets old, stereotypical and displays a serious lack of creativity.

And the kicker was that when they decided to infiltrate the Russian consulate they discussed they might face criminal charges or be expedited. And then there came two of the quite possibly worst lines ever to be heard on the show:

"I have never been to Russia"
"I hear the gulags are lovely this time of year"

Gulags are not something to joke about. Never ever. They were prison labour camps during Stalin's reign. These were terrible, horrible camps akin to the Holocaust camps were people were systematically tortured and killed. Millions of people were wiped out in these camps, millions were sent to them for no other cause than being Jewish, being educated, being from the Baltic country, even just being alive was a sin. They were used as a serious form of political oppression. I have read stories from these camps on my own and it left me shivering, sad, terrified. It is a tragic and horrible part of Russian and Eastern-European history.

So I have to ask? Why on earth does NCIS:LA then think it's okay to reference those things as being lovely, even if it's sarcastic. I've said it once and I am saying it again: No one refers to the Holocaust in this way, or slavery, or genocide. So why is it then okay to refer to the Gulags? There was practiced a form of genocide, systematic killing of people. It is estimated that over 20 million people were killed there. Let it sink in, over 20 million. And yet it is used flippantly.

What I am questioning here is the way in which serious human rights violations both contemporary and historical are treated and referenced on TV. There have got to be some boundaries to this and in my opinion NCIS:LA as a show has overstepped it. I firmly believe that historical events such as the gulags need to be dealt with, discussed, taught about, learned from. But they should never ever be referenced lightly or be joked about. Never. It is as simple as that.

And I hope I'll never hear things like this on NCIS:LA again.

(If people want to learn about the gulags, my favorite fictional book about is 'Between shades of grey' - it's a book that changed my life.)

The token linguists - English language and the rest of the world

As I've made explicitly clear I am an EFL speaker. I spend all my day dealing with English as it's my major at Uni and I've been functioning in two languages for years, since childhood actually. English feels natural to me and I feel more than comfortable with it. But that does not change the fact that it challenges me on a daily basis and I must keep up. And a part of that is watching TV shows to help my auditory skills. I can read English as well as any native speaker but my auditory skills are not as good. So hence, TV is a great resource to train.

I also read a fascinating statistic recently that 1/4 of the people of the world speak English, ranging from a native level to rudimentary. That's a lot. But that also means that 3/4 of the world speak no English at all. So even if English has become a global language, it is still imperative to study and know other languages. And this is reflected in the TV shows I deal with here. They are all American and use English as a primary language but still every single show has a character that can speak more than one language. I find it interesting how they deal with language and I listen intently to all language related things on TV. It's my bread and butter really when it comes to TV.
And today's topic is presenting an overview of those token linguistics

NCIS
Ziva is the multilingual wonder there - She speaks French, Spanish, German, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew and English. That is quite a lot but it is fully possible in the real world. I have always loved this aspect of Ziva's character and enjoyed a lot how they have dealt with her journey of discovering English. As an EFL speaker it has taught me a lot and given me great enjoyment.

Abby speaks ASL and uses it regularly which I really like. I can finger-spell in ASL and I highly enjoy seeing how NCIS has incorporated ASL easily into the show.

NCIS has always provided me with the most language jokes and it's an aspect of the show I absolutely love. Plus, I never run into trouble understanding what the characters are saying which is nice. The show challenges my English abilities but in a good way.

NCIS:LA

Sam speaks Arabic, Japanese and Spanish - Japanese and Arabic are two extremely different languages with two different alphabets, systems of writing, pronunciation, vocabulary. It's not like French and Spanish which are derived from a similar source. These languages share no similarity. And apparently Sam is comfortable with them both! And they have never bothered to explain how on earth he learned them which I find annoying.

Callen - He is a fluent Russian speaker. It's been implied he learned it from a foster sister of his for a few months but that does not account for his remarkable skills. Yet again, NCIS:LA does not bother with explaining! His pronouncation seems good though.

Nell - She is meant to be fluent in Spanish but I have yet to hear her say a single word in Spanish.

Kensi - She speaks French, Spanish and German, basically she takes care of all the main European languages. She is by far the one most comfortable with dealing with languages and I enjoy it when she deals with them. But, to be nit picky, it has never been explained why she has an extremely good command of French, well beyond any general school level (I say this as a former French student and sufferer). My personal guess is at that Kensi grew up as bilingual with French and English.

Hetty - apparently she speaks German but it feels really forced every time she uses it. I'd rather listen to Deeks and Eric gleefully butcher German.

NCIS:LA contains by far the biggest number of linguists but it goes way overboard with it. I mean way overboard. It supplies a good number of language jokes but also the biggest challenge for me as an EFL speaker. It sometimes takes all my concentration to keep up with what the characters are saying so I regularly run into trouble. I notice pronunciation differences between my own English and theirs which helps me evaluate my skills and learn words properly. And whenever I run into words I am not completely familiar with I mentally spell them. The latest was 'thingamajig' and noticing how they say the words 'vehemently' and 'awry'. I apparently go British with these words. Watching NCIS:LA helps me improve but it can get vastly frustrating not being able to catch properly what the character say. Sometimes I don't get it at all, it just becomes a bunch of meaningless syllables and consonants thrown together in my ears - something I heartily dislike and to be honest, I feel super annoyed by it. I have great pride in my English abilities and being caught off guard like that when I feel I should be able to catch everything makes me frustrated.
I am typically on my toes the entire time I watch: listening, processing, spelling, concentrating. It really challenges me but it pays off sometimes like feeling a bit proud when I get things right (like managing to understand all the acronyms and slang). I'll never associate NCIS:LA with relaxing my English abilities in any case.

Criminal Minds

This show contains my two favorite linguists, Alex Blake and Reed.

Alex Blake - she has a PHD in linguistics and teaches them. I love how they've incorporated this fascinating aspect into her character and I really enjoy all the scenes she has dealing with language. I am a sucker for anything linguistic related and I love how CM works with it. Plus, all interactions between Blake and Reed involving linguistics are great. Two people fascinated with language is absolute heaven for someone like me to listen to.

Spencer Reed - quite possibly my most favorite nerd on TV. He speaks Russian, Spanish, French and I think German. And best of all, his linguistic abilities have been explained (NCIS:LA might take note!). I love how he is enthusiastic and passionate about language and how it's been used to help solve crimes and evolve his character. Linguistics are a fascinating field and I love exploring it. CM has done a fabulous job incorporating it into their show and showing a different and wonderful side of English

I have no trouble understanding CM which I love. It instead keeps me enthusiastic and interested as I pick up new things about language and its usage and I don't need to concentrate all the time. It is instead vastly enjoyable.

Cultural references and a clueless Nordic

One of the topics I cover here is my inability to grasp language and cultural references. And today's topic is dedicated to my complete and utter inability to understand certain cultural references and traditions.

Entering houses and apartments while wearing shoes and walking straight into the living room
Here where I live, people always take their shoes of before entering any house or apartment. Not doing so is considered is considered to be the height of rudeness. I would  personally never ever do it. And when entering any house or apartment, there is always a space or a room for leaving once clothes a shoes before entering.

So you can imagine my look of terror every single time I see people enter /burst into houses and apartments in shows while wearing their shoes. I get that agents/cops cannot be bothered with moving their shoes (it'd just be weird) when taking a suspect down but not once have I seen any of the characters on the shows I cover here take their shoes off. Not once. Not even when visiting houses. It seems normal in the context of the shows but I can say that here in the North, the characters would be considered absolute brutes for not taking off their shoes.

Weird food

I personally come from a culture that is filled with weird food. Our national cuisine literally reads like something out of a horror magazine. So I do have a lot of experience with strange food but there is one instance in which I was ready to throw up when watching NCIS:LA.

Deep-fried bacon. They had deep-fried bacon and what was worse, the characters were eating it! I am no bacon lover but I can eat it if necessary (like say in a full English breakfast) but combining deep-fried and bacon just sounds like a recipe for a heart attack.

But they did score a definite point with me when Deeks said he loved liver. Liver is a part of the national Nordic cuisine and I eat it regularly. It is the cheapest kind of meat you can get and in the past it was known as poor man's food as it was so cheap. Plus, it can be cooked in some really good ways. So I was very surprised to hear Deeks express his love for liver and counting the many ways in which it can be cooked but it made me grin my ears off. Nordic food references for the win!

Sports

Nordics love football and handball. We take it so seriously that you'd think the national happiness of the Nordic countries depends solely on our achievements in sports. If one Nordic country does well, we all feel proud. If the Nordic countries are competing against each other, things go dark for a while. Currently Sweden and Iceland can potentially go the World Cup in football in Brazil in 2014 and let me tell you, even if it's only two countries out of five we are behind them. One Nordic country typically means all.

But aside from that - two sports I will never ever get are American football and baseball. These sports are not practiced here and I have less that zero knowledge of them. Not that I have absolutely no interest in sport but I can at least talk about football a bit. So any and all times these sports are mentioned and referenced, there is one Nordic that sits with glazed over eyes and shakes her head. NCIS:LA, NCIS and Castle have all had extensive references to these sports and I have never gotten them. The only one I have gotten was when NCIS:LA mentioned the football team 'The Vikings', I know they come from Minnesota - that's it.

Monster trucks and cronuts

These have been mentioned on NCIS:LA and I was completely lost what on earth they meant. I had a vague idea of what monster trucks are but didn't bother looking them up. So imagine my surprise while I was rolling through TV channels and saw a promo for a Monster truck show. And my first thought was: "Ah, so that's what they were talking about on NCIS:LA".

And cronuts - It looked to me like a weird kind of donut and I knew it somehow mixed together French and American cuisine but more than that was beyond me. So I was yet again mightily surprised to be flipping through an advertisement from a local boutique showing what they were offering on 'American theme days' (my country mostly imports from Europe so there are regular themes days in shops that offer more specialty items from countries) and I came across a cronut. Turns out it's a mix of a donut and croissant. And yet again I thought: "Ah, now I get the reference".

So my inability of grasping cultural references continues but I enjoy the ride.

Having Iceland on the map - Maps on TV

This has to be the geekiest post I will ever write on here but here it goes.

I am randomly fascinated by many things and if there is one thing I like it is maps. I have a beautiful Atlas and if I need to unwind after exams I pull it out and immerse myself in maps. I grew up with maps all around me in school and it has always fascinated me.
Maps are integral part of education here and every single person is expected to know their way around a map of Northern and Western Europe and being able to point out countries. I cannot say how many times I learned the following: "Italy looks like a high heeled boot, Germany borders Denmark, Russa is the biggest European country, Spain sticks out of France and Portugal is sandwiched into Spain, Britain and Ireland are islands, Greece is close to Italy, Turkey links the East and the West , Norway is thin while Swedish is fat, Iceland is a massive island...". I could point out the European countries in my sleep.

But early on I noticed that on many of the world map I looked at school Iceland was missing. Iceland has a small population but the island itself is massive (the size of Kentucky, bigger than Denmark...) and it serves a bridge between the American continent and Europe, so seeing it missing is strange. I noticed this very early on and it fascinated me and ever since I have developed the habit of checking every single world map I look at to see if Iceland is there. And it's honestly amazing how often it is missing from maps. There is just a giant gap between Greenland and Norway where there should be a massive island. I find it so strange that the country so regularly goes missing.

Another map habit I developed in school was getting used to one specific kind of map where Iceland and Greenland are in the top middle with Europe and then Africa below, Asia on the left side and both American continents on the right side. So when in high school when my teacher pulled out a world map where America was in the centre I was completely confused and it took me some time to adjust. I was so used to the other style that this threw me completely off game.

And these habits has of course followed me into the realm of TV and I am not kidding when I say that every single time a map appears on the screen I automatically check for Iceland, it never ever fails. Castle, Parks and Rec and Criminal Minds have never ever featured world maps but Parks and Rec has mentioned Iceland several times so I am certain they locate it on a map :)

My darling NCIS franchise has however proved to be a goldmine in this regard. NCIS regularly has up a world map and I am happy to say that Iceland is always on the map. But sometimes they do show a map of the world which has random X's all over the world, including in Iceland and I have never understood why.
And once when I was doing my regular map checking I was thrown for a loop when I noticed they had a USA central world map in episode 8x16. I was confused when I saw it and it took me by surprise. So my advice for TV producers that want to confuse their audience is throwing in subtle visual clues like this.
And in episode 11x02, there was on Ziva's list very clearly written "Visit Iceland and America" and it was shown very clearly several times yet it was never said out loud! I am still trying to figure out why they randomly threw in Iceland. If it was a shout out to the Nordic NCIS fans I am very happy with it but my guess is that they were randomly throwing ideas around for an exotic place Ziva would want to visit and felt Iceland would be obscure and strange enough.

And I cannot go without picking NCIS:LA apart. I am happy to report that not once have they had a map that hasn't featured Iceland. And believe when I say, I check every single time a map is shown on the show but so far they have not failed. So there's one thing they do right. But on the other hand they have made one major faux pas when it comes to Iceland. In episode 3x21 they were showing the potential outbreak of a dangerous virus. It'd would have effectively wiped out much of Europe and it did look very creepy to see the color red spreading all over Europe and the characters looked very serious and sombre when looking at it. But I, the ever nerdy Nordic, noticed that while Europe got red, Iceland remained nicely green. In other words, they completely forgot to include it which makes no sense since it serves as a bridge between Europe and America. So a scene that was meant to be very serious has me snickering every single time I see it. I will never be able to look at that scene without laughing.

So my advice is - make sure you cover Iceland and feature it on maps. Because believe me, some of it look for it every single time.

NCIS:LA - The grand Europe edition

I have frequently written about NCIS:LA's seeming obsession with European bad guys, particularly Russian, French and German with a good dash of Eastern-European thrown in like Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya and other countries. I have also covered how their less than smooth approach to German and Russian history and the cultural and historical factors at play in Europe. Watching NCIS:LA is sometimes equal part fascinating and horrifying in this regard.
As I have thought this through, many things have crossed my mind so I've decided to do a one massive post dedicated to NCIS:LA and their strange fascination with Central and Eastern Europe.

What about the North and South?
The thing is this: Northern and Southern Europe have been been left out of the picture pretty much entirely. They have made passing mentions about Iceland, Sweden and Norway but Finland and Denmark have never been mentioned. And the times they've mention Nordic countries it has been in good jest - Something called the Swedish handoff (what it is is beyond me), Sam's determination to visit Iceland and Deeks's Norwegian ancestry.
I do not remember a single mention of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta or any of the other Mediterranean countries in the series, except perhaps naming their main cities in passing.
My guess as to why these areas are left out is at that none of these countries have ever engaged in negative communication with America so it'd be really difficult to come up with and justify a believable plot involving these countries and the question of national security.

What makes Central Europe so interesting?
NCIS:LA has this weird obsession with French and German bad guys, Janvier and the evil guy from the season 2, two-parter being the most notable one's. And I have yet to figure out a plausible reason for why they are so obsessed with these two countries. I get having a French and German villain every once in a while but NCIS:LA includes it so often it has stopped being a coincidence, rather it seems they like the idea of Central European bad guys. France and Germany both have terrible and bad things in their past in regards to oppressing other people, colonizing, Nazi, WWI and WWII , the cold war and many other things. But their activities have generally been concentrated on Europe and Africa, not America. So I find it rather strange that the French/German villains would always be aiming for America in the show when it is far more likely they'd be concentrating their efforts within Europe or Africa. I wouldn't mind if NCIS:LA would one day explain the motivation of their French and German evil guys.

What is up with the obsession of Eastern-Europe?
NCIS:LA has a mad love for Eastern-European villains. Practically every single episode involves a least one Eastern-European villain and there is almost always a Russian involved. One can always count one NCIS:LA delivering more than enough Eastern-Europeans plotting evil deeds and attempting to do one scandal or the other. Yet, their motivation is never explained and only once have they featured a normal Eastern-European and shown the team working with someone from Eastern-Europe that is on their side, even then said character was Chechen and a former soldier. NCIS:LA seems to me to be so sold on the idea of the evil Russian/Eastern-European person that it leaves little room for actual character development for such characters, explaining their motivation or even attempting to feature them as more than evil villains set on threatening national security.

It seems to me that for a show like NCIS:LA which is often bursting at the seams with creativity, always going for the same kind of villain gets boring and dull and diminishes what the show is capable of, not to mention employing outdated and unfair stereotypes of people which serve no purpose.

New and fresh ideas involving Europe!
In order to take the focus from Eastern-Europe I propose two ideas that involve different European countries than NCIS:LA has used before and I have never come across plots like that in other shows. Can you say Jackpot?

Why not future Scandinavian enemies? Or better yet, have a band on European villains that all come from tiny European countries, that have the common goal to prove to America that little countries can hold power as well. I am thinking along the lines of having Malta, Iceland, Faroese Islands, Luxemburg, Lichtenstein, San Marino and all other small European countries unite to create a bigger European power

Current issues NCIS:LA could deal with concerning Europe - that is if they want to go down the road of political commentary
-Spain and Britain are fighting over to whom the country Gibraltar belongs, it is a part of Spain geographically but belongs to Britain as a colony and the issue is causing friction at the moment.
-The situation of Roma people in Europe - the biggest disgrace here at the moment and a very complex and sensitive matter but one that needs to be discussed
-Economic crisis - take your pick, most countries are suffering terribly
-The Golden Dawn party in Greece and the effects of the economic crisis there and the rise of Neo-Nazism there.

The biggest issue at the moment is the fact that NSA likely spied on many European leaders and on the public in countries like Spain and Germany. To say people are mad here would be the understatement of the century. Try something more along the lines of absolutely furious. This issue is highly complex and does not help relation between European countries or America. NCIS:LA is notorious for how easily it spies on people so I am honestly very interested in seeing how they would deal with this issue. NCIS:LA regularly takes on issues that concern spying and the battle against terrorism with varying degrees of success but I would like to see their take on this. I do hope they will cover it.

My best posts concerning the issue for those too lazy to scroll through the blog

NCIS:LA - look on foreign policy
Implications of the focus on Russia in NCIS:LA
Implicating history - sensitivity is needed
European stereotypes on TV
The continent syndrome - European edition

And with this long and enjoyable post I hope I've covered all bases. If not I will strike back with a vengeance. 

Measuring everything with Hiroshima-Nagasaki

Today's topic is on the heavy side but it has been weighing on my mind lately and I felt I needed to share my thoughts on it.

Everyone is aware of the tragic events of Hiroshima-Nagasaki at the end of WWII in August 1945. When America hit the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons that devastated the area permanently and killed over 300.000 people. It is one of the most tragic events of the 20th century and is the only known instant of nuclear weapons having been used in warfare in the world. It is an extremely complicated, controversial and difficult event to explain and come to terms with and it's my feeling that it can never be explained properly. But that does not mean we shouldn't try.

Earlier this year, my local library held an exhibition about the events which featured stories of the events, real items from it like singed shirts, shoes and books, pictures and an explanation of the effects this has had upon the area, the Japanese nation and how it is being dealt with today. It was a very well received exhibition and it affected everyone that went there. I know that for me personally, it was devastating to see it. Devastating but necessary. I know many teachers brought high-school students to the exhibition and it affected them a lot, many parents took their children as well to teach them about this difficult history and raise awareness of the issue.

And how does this relate to the TV world?

It seems to me that every single time my favorite TV shows deal with nuclear weapons and distribution of them (or just bombs in general) they always reference Hiroshima-Nagasaki. But not to acknowledge these events or attempt to deal with them. No, it is used as a measuring device. I cannot count how many times I've hear something along the lines of: "The nuclear device is so big it can kill up to 3 million people, that is ten times as much as Hiroshima-Nagasaki". And then all the characters nod seriously. Am I the only one that feels that people are trying to upstage the death toll of Hiroshima-Nagasaki when they do this? It's like: "Yeah sure, those bombs killed 300.000 people but our fictional bombs, they are much deadlier. Take that Hiroshima-Nagasaki!"

NCIS has had this, Castle and NCIS:LA. And for the life of me I cannot understand why. Hiroshima-Nagasaki is what it is - a devastating and terrorizing event with immense political controversy attached to it. It should never be used as a measuring stick for fictional death toll on television. 

It crossed my mind that when measuring death toll I have never heard certain things. I have never heard people comparing death tolls to the lives lost in the Holocaust, the tsunami in 2005, the earthquake in Haiti, The Armenian genocide, the Boznian and Serbian civil war in the early 90's, the civil war in America in the 1860's, the number of people killed by Stalin and so many other events. And it is obvious why, to use those events as a measuring stick for fictional death toll would be highly disrespectful and ignorant. 

So why then is it fair-game to use Hiroshima-Nagasaki as a measuring stick? Devastating events when masses of people die, be it due to war or natural causes should never be used flippantly on TV and never ever as measuring sticks. They should and can be dealt with deftly and with respect. But never ever for the sake of pure entertainment.

I have sometimes written about here my worries on how TV shows approach reality and how it can shift our perception of it. TV represents heightened and freaky reality and should always be taken at a surface level. But when TV reality starts treating the real reality flippantly and without caution and respect, we are on a dangerous path. It seems to me that the TV world is partly on that path already but it can be changed and it should. Otherwise, we are in dangers of starting to approach historical events as if they do not matter, as if history and it's effect isn't real. And that is something we cannot allow to happen. 

(And in case people need a measuring stick instead of Hiroshima-Nagasaki. Iceland has a population of roughly 320.000 people, similar to the death toll of Hiroshima-Nagasaki. So just reference the Icelandic population instead. Much easier, inoffensive and will make a lot of Icelanders happy)

Taking things apart - The dangers of cultural approbation, perceived white privilege and the Aryan myth

I have thought this topic through many times, over and over again and decided to write about it here. It is not TV related strictly but it's related to culture and racism. The opinions expressed here belong solely to me and are 100% my own.

I am a Nordic and one of the things I love about it is my the culture that comes with it, especially the Nordic Mythology. The mythology is an integral part of the societal fabric here, it permeates every part of my society and culture and it is very important to us, historically and culturally. It is heritage that we are proud of and work hard to cherish and teach children about as a part of our national identity and culture.
That is why, simply put, a movie like Thor annoys me to the ends of earth.

I mean, isn't a good idea to take a god from Nordic mythology, which has been written about preserved and is a very important cultural icon, and do a little Hollywood magic and Americanizing him in order to serve him to the public? I mean why go for the original sources, when Marvel has provided an "excellent" source of historically inaccurate and demeaning information and misrepresenting and entire Northern-European culture? The answer should be pretty clear!

That's why, Scandinavia raised its collective eyebrow while we stood by and watched Hollywood eagerly taking Thor apart and putting it together - making sure it was as sickly American stereotypical as possible. I mean of course, a Nordic God will return to America, right, speak English, wear metallic clothes and be an American? Assuming that somehow overnight a Nordic god that has 'existed' (been written about) for thousands of years and comes from a very influential mythology will somehow become American overnight of course.

So, yeah - I was pretty annoyed by the movie and I have yet to meet a Nordic person that took it seriously. It felt like an approbation and diminishing view of our culture. Nordic Mythology provides many beautiful and extraordinary things to work with in a creative manner. It is absolute dream material to work with if it is done right. Going for the Marvel version therefore just seemed awfully naive to me. To somehow make the entire mythology a Hollywood glamour package, entirely ignoring the cultural factors beneath it and the fact that this mythology is extremely important to Northern-Europeans is just so bad.

But what scared me most about this was one thing. I found news online that a conservative white supremacist group was boycotting the movie and making a fuss as a British black actor was playing Heimdallr. Heimdallr is described as having been 'the whitest of white' among the gods and in the middle-ages it would have meant he was white. Nordics are by origin ethnically white. As simple as that, much as any god in an Ethiopia for example would have had black skin. But that is not the point.
The point is at that the white supremacist group was working under an extremely dangerous assumption which originated with Hitler. That somehow white people were above other races, Nordic people were seen to be a prime example of the perfect Aryan. It is ironic and terrible at that was what saved the Nordic countries from suffering too much loss. This highly dangerous assumption that we were somehow above others because of our heritage and skin. That our culture was better and more prestigious. This is a legend that still haunts us to day, it makes people queasy just thinking about it. This thinking is what caused the terrorist attack in Utoya in 2011.
Nordic people are no better or worse than anyone else and our skin color should never make us privy to others or above them. To assume otherwise is extremely dangerous.

What I want to say is this: Nordic mythology does not belong to Hollywood or Marvel. That much is certain. But more importantly, Nordic mythology does not belong to white supremacist group that want to claim is as their own, claim as cut above other cultures and inaccessible to people based on their skin color and race. Because it is not theirs. Nordic mythology and culture is open to the interpretation and love of anyone, anywhere in the world  irrespective of race or origin- as long as the person approaches it with respect and care, just like one should approach any culture. Nordic mythology originated in the Nordic countries and is our heritage, culture and history. But anyone can fall in love with it and anyone should.
Just not the Hollywood/Marvel version and not the dangerous perceived idea that wrecked Europe.