Back in the summer of 2016, just after Game of Thrones ended, I started a project at Gabbing Geek where I would do write-ups for five different shows, one for each day of the week (excluding weekends), one episode at a time. I decided each should have something in common with Game of Thrones whether it be a fantasy setting, political intrigue, or something along those lines. I mean, I justified all five choices to myself at the time. There was something.
I may have just been looking for an excuse to watch these shows and a project to make sure I finished ’em.
Anyway, the original five were Rome and The Wire from HBO, Penny Dreadful from Showtime, House of Cards from Netflix, and Vikings from the History Channel. At the time, I was looking forward to finally finishing The Wire, a show I had started twice before but never finished, and Rome, Penny Dreadful, and House of Cards all greatly impressed me out of the gate. Vikings, by contrast, was clearly the weakest show in the bunch. At least, it was at first. House of Cards got real old, real fast, such that I decided not to finish it at the end of Kevin Spacey’s run, and it didn’t even have anything to do with Kevin Spacey. And while the other shows ended and were replaced by new series in my write-ups, Vikings somehow stuck around.
At least, it will be for now. The series entered it’s sixth and final season recently,
Something about Vikings just grew on me as time passed. It wasn’t ever a great show, but it was something of a good one. Vikings is a lot like a comfortable pair of slippers. They may not be the best shoes you could ask for, but they feel nice on your feet and you know what you’re getting when you put them on. The characters on Vikings are often written simply by series creator/head writer Michael Hirst. The vikings, as a people, are very blunt. They often tend to reply, “I understand,” when given new information.
If anything, the series has more or less survived since the show killed off lead character Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) halfway through season four. Ragnar’s death was, quite frankly, somewhat required. What little research I have done into viking history (I read Wikipedia) tells me that Ragnar was probably a historic figure. Vikings myth and history tends to mix and match, and both the historic and TV Ragnar met his end in England, tossed into a snake pit by King Aelle. His sons then roused the Great Heathen Army and avenged their father’s death. And like Ragnar, the series has used fictionalized versions of his two historically famous sons Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) and Ivar the Boneless (Alex Hogh).
But Vikings was never about history, not really. Fimmel was an incredibly charismatic lead, and his Ragnar was a fairly complex character for this show. Most of the longstanding characters on Vikings are fairly straightforward and simple, but Ragnar was a man who excelled at violence and strategy, but at the same time wanted to explore other countries, learn about other people, and find ways for his people to settle down and farm outside of the part of Norway they call home. There weren’t too many other complex series regulars, but I would count two more. First, there was the captured Christian monk Athelstan (George Blagden), torn between the restrictive Christian God he pledged to and more freedom-loving Vikings was also fairly deep, but he was killed off in season three. Additionally, there was Ragnar’s fictional brother Rollo (Clive Standen), who may have been the show’s most fascinating character, a man who alternated between loyalty and treachery, a guy who loved his brother but hated being in his shadow all at the same time. But he was mostly written off the show after season four as it is.
Which is not to say the other characters are bad. Katherine Winnick, as Ragnar’s first wife and Bjorn’s mother Lagertha, has a fierceness that fits with the now-aging shieldmaiden, and Gustaf Skarsgard’s religious zealot, the mad shipbuilder Floki, always makes for a fine time on the screen. Three of Ragnar’s adult sons are seemingly set up to exemplify some of their father’s traits. Bjorn has his sense of responsibility and desire to explore. Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) has his father’s desire to peacefully co-exist beside other people as he also takes up exploring. And then there’s rotten, evil-tempered brother Ivar, who managed to get his father’s tactical mind.
The fourth brother, Hvitserk (Marco Ilso), never quite got much in the way of a personality. The show seems to be trying to give him a sense of haunted alcoholism in season six, but it may be too little, too late for the bland brother.
And so, we start season six with Ivar in exile, rousted from the throne of Kattegat by Bjorn and Lagertha in some not-at-all-subtle political allegory, making a new ally in Russia in the form of Russian viking Prince Oleg, the self-proclaimed prophet. Bjorn is honoring an obligation to an ally while looking to be a good king to his people. Lagertha had a short-living retirement to a farm of her own. Ubbe wants to explore more. Floki is still missing, last seen finding utter despair when a cave-in trapped him in a tunnel deep below Iceland, the place he set up to live purely to the Norse gods only to find a Christian cross deep underground. As I expected, so far Vikings is that same familiar show. I’m expecting some clever action sequences, a little political intrigue, and actors who are at least comfortable in their respective roles.
That is not to say the show is problem-free. The History Channel for some reason upped the episode order of each season from ten episodes to twenty, and I often wonder if these seasons have enough story to run twenty episodes without going to the boring land of Wessex in England. The soap opera- style romances continue, and quite frankly, female characters that aren’t Lagertha or played by one of Michael Hirst’s daughters tend to get something of a short shift. I find them largely bland and forgettable.
But this is still the beginning of the end of the road for Vikings. You know, until the spin-off sequel series lands on Netflix.
Grade: B-
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