Summary: Ragnar and Rollo battle but Rollo finds he can't fight his brother. Ragnar orchestrates peace between Horik and Borg, agreeing to raid England together. Lagertha learns about Aslaug and leaves Ragnar with Bjorn. After a 4 year timeskip, Ragnar finally decides to raid but leaves Rollo behind. Borg is also not allowed to come. The Vikings raid Wessex and come into conflict with King Ecbert. Ragnar organizes a deal but urgently leaves when Borg attacks Kattegat. Horik's men are slaughtered by Ecbert and Athelstan is captured. Ragnar finds his family and routes Borg with the help of Lagertha, now an Earl. Horik wants Ragnar to make peace with Borg for their next raids. Ragnar kills Borg and his men anyways. Athelstan becomes more familiar with Ecbert who forms an alliance with Aelle. Horik starts manipulating Floki to turn him against Ragnar. The Vikings return to Wessex for another raid. Ragnar wants to come up with a deal but Horik doesn't and attacks Ecbert's men. The Vikings are defeated and Rollo is almost killed. Athelstan and Ragnar arrange a truce between the parties. The Vikings are allowed land but will not raid and can only battle as mercenaries for King Ecbert. Horik doesn't like the deal and plots to turn on Ragnar. However, Floki and Siggy turn on Horik and he and his men are killed. Ragnar becomes king.
The Good: The biggest takeaway from this season is that the action is phenomenal. Season 2 really stepped up on this front with battles happening much more frequently with higher stakes and more meaningful conflict. There are plenty of battle sequences, but none of them ever feel out of place or forced. The show naturally builds up to these sequences and does a terrific job of making them feel different from each other to avoid becoming repetitive. There are Viking vs Viking battles, battles in the forest, open field battles between the Vikings and the Englishmen, and plenty of other variations that keep things feeling fresh. These sequences for the most part are also very well directed, capturing the grittiness and brutality of battle in really neat ways while also highlighting character conflict. For example, the battle in "Brother's War" highlights Rollo's inner conflict, while the battle in "The Choice" is more about the disagreement between Ragnar and Horik. Merging conflict with battle makes it far more interesting to watch and is a big reason why the action in this season was so memorable. "Vikings" is also impressing with how artistic its visuals are. For a show about Vikings, you never expect it to be tackling very many deep ideas with memorable visuals. Yet that's what this show tries to do, and it works surprisingly well. The season has a very unique style to it, with an emphasized use of hallucination-based visuals to explore a character's inner conflict. While the conflicts themselves could have been better (see: The Bad), the artistic depiction of them on-screen is magnificent and gives the show a cinematic flair through its use of visual storytelling. Season 1 had hints of this style, but season 2 doubles down on it, including a uniquely filmed, almost dream-like sequence in just about every episode. As for the character work this season, it's a bit hit-or-miss but it has some definite highlights. Ragnar is still a tremendously fun main character. He doesn't feel quite as vibrant and charismatic as before, but the character is still portrayed with such fierce yet sheepish energy and is always a joy to watch. His scenes remain the best parts of the show, and his eccentricities are still quite amusing. Ragnar was given conflicts with a lot of characters this season: Horik, Borg, Rollo, Ecbert, Athelstan, Floki, Lagertha, Aslaug, Bjorn. While not all of these were great, it meant that there was always something interesting for him to do this season and the story never felt like it was getting stale. The highlight storyline for this season has to be the England one. Season 1 spent precious little time in England, and thankfully that changed with this season. The introduction of King Ecbert was fascinating, and he's proving to be a far more competent and interesting antagonist than Aelle. His scenes were always a highlight, and I thought that his conflict with the Vikings took some surprising turns with how diplomatic he was willing to be. On top of this, integrating Athelstan into the England storyline was a fantastic move. Exploring Athelstan as a man torn between religions was stunningly powerful and unique, and it made the character shine far more than season 1 did. I'll have more details on his arc in my episode-by-episode reviews, but I often found his scenes to be a highlight of the season, and I just wish that more time was spent on him, particularly towards the end of the season. A lot of the best moments this season featured Athelstan and Ecbert. Another great conflict that served as the main driving force this season was the Ragnar/Horik/Borg conflict. This conflict was fresh with twists and turns in every episode, and the fact that there were three different players involved gave the season a sense of predictability since you would never know when alliances could be formed or broken. This conflict gave the season momentum, something that was missing for much of season 1. Since I was intrigued by these characters and their ideals, I was invested in finding out where the characters would end up. Would Ragnar and Horik stay allied? Will Borg really take the peaceful option or will he attack? Will Ragnar actually forgive Borg for what he did? These were all key questions poised to us throughout the season, and it was fascinating to find out what the answers were. Lastly I want to draw attention to Rollo, who had a much better season this time around. The character was given a lot more variety in his story, whether it was openly fighting against Ragnar at the start, or proving his worth to protect Ragnar's family during Borg's invasion. The character was given a pretty solid redemption arc, and I thought that he was utilized well this season. The Bad: Unfortunately the show lost that brilliant sense of momentum after Borg was executed. The trifecta of Ragnar/Horik/Borg gave the show a sense of unpredictability which was lost quickly after Borg's execution. After that, the story felt remarkably predictable and uninspired until the end of the season. It became obvious that the Ragnar/Horik conflict would take center stage and that it would end in Horik's death. And because of that, it was painfully obvious that Floki wouldn't be betraying Ragnar and that this was part of the plan. I appreciate the subtle hints that were thrown in to suggest Floki and Ragnar were conning Horik, but they didn't end up working because the twist was so obvious that I could see it coming from a mile away. It felt similar to Haraldson's death being inevitable in season 1, with the Ragnar/Horik story having the same type of blandness. I'm disappointed that the last 3 episodes of the season were wasted trying to set up such a predictable twist. Furthermore, Horik completely failed as a villain. The character was really interesting and cunning in season 1, but that isn't followed up on in this season. Horik seems to have become a selfish moron off-screen for no reason, and he ended up being a completely flat, uninteresting character with no depth whatsoever. Hell, we didn't even get to explore what it meant for him to be a king which was I think was a massive failure. After 2 seasons I still have no idea what the difference between King and Earl and Jarl is, and that prevents me from properly understanding the Viking society and the seriousness of the conflict between Ragnar and Horik. It also makes me ask questions, like why doesn't Horik have more loyal men since he is the king? Surely Ragnar isn't his only loyal vassal. Plus, this lack of understanding of the significance of being a king makes it completely fall flat when Ragnar becomes king at the end of the season. What does this change? I have no idea, and that highlights the failure of the show to make us understand the governing system of the Vikings. I mentioned in "The Good" that the show is excellent with its artistic style, and that it nails scenes of visual storytelling. Unfortunately, artistic style isn't enough to make a conflict compelling. We need to see the character grapple with this conflict and make choices which will have consequences. The show would often spend too much time being artistic, that the most important part of characters making decisions is often glossed over, making the storylines fall flat in the end. This is most prominent in Athelstan's story, which has a really disappointing resolution because the show does not give enough focus on Athelstan's decision to stay with Christianity or to return to a Pagan lifestyle. Another issue with this season is the dialogue. The show is fantastic when there isn't any talking going on, with epic action scenes and gorgeous artistic sequences. But whenever the characters start talking, I often ended up rolling my eyes with how awful some of the dialogue was. This is a historical show, yet some of the dialogue feels like it was ripped from a 2000s era soap opera. It's embarrassingly bad at times, and there are many scenes this season where the dialogue takes me out of the episode. Some examples include Bjorn and Porunn's romance, Horik's attempts to manipulate Floki, any scenes of Siggy playing the role of Lady MacBeth and Ragnar's conflicts with Aslaug. Lagertha didn't have a very good season unfortunately. The character is still enjoyable to watch but her story really sucked. The character of Sigvard is a simplistic embarrassment, and every second he was on screen was painful. Even worse was how rushed Lagertha's ascent to Earl was; the lack of context in this storyline left me scratching my head wondering how Lagertha becoming an Earl was even possible. The story was rushed and had no depth to it at all, making it fail spectacularly. The switch to adult Bjorn was a little jarring for me. He honestly does not feel like the same character anymore and I don't think that I like the new actor as much as I liked the child one. Unfortunately, Bjorn doesn't have a whole lot to do this season and I think I actually like him less at the end because of how awkward that transition from kid to adult was. I hope he gets more to do next season, because I wasn't happy with his portrayal and story in this season. Lastly, the pacing of this show still feels incredibly strange. The show speeds up and slows down at perplexing times and it makes the story often feel jarring. I'll go into more detail in my episode-by-episode reviews, but I often found that the show's timeskips felt out of place (particularly at the start and end of the season), and that the show would often waste its time on storylines that it should have sped through instead. Oh, and also Kwenthrith was awful. That's all I need to say and that's all I will say. The Unknown: What will Ragnar do now that he is king? Will anybody oppose him? Will the alliance with Ecbert last? Will the Vikings help Ecbert conquer Mercia? Will Ecbert turn on Aelle eventually? Will Aelle turn on the Vikings? I feel like there's still enough hatred between Aelle and the Vikings that some conflict will arise there. Will Athelstan stay with Ragnar or will he go back to Ecbert? Will he ever find inner peace by picking one particular religion, or will he have to find a different path going forwards? Erlendur was allowed to live at the end of the season. Will Ragnar regret leaving one of Horik's sons alive? Will Erlendur try to depose Ragnar? Best Episodes: E02 Invasion: This episode had the best battle of the season and also saw the return voyage to England. As a fan of watching Vikings doing Viking things, I really enjoyed this one. E03 Treachery: Athelstan was focused on heavily in this episode, and his conflict was fascinating. This episode also saw some tense build-up to conflict with King Ecbert and a surprisingly intense ending as Borg decides to raid Kattegat. Worst Episodes: E09 The Choice: On paper, this should be a really good episode with a lot of drama to it. However, the execution is flat with a lot of key moments of conflict and character being glossed over, and a battle that didn't quite hit me as hard as it should have. E10 The Lord's Prayer: This was a completely flat and predictable end to the season. The Horik storyline ended with a weak whimper, and there were loads of frustrating moments throughout this episode that made Horik's eventual demise so unsatisfying when it should have been a monumental moment. Character of the Season: Athelstan. Conclusion: Season 2 was a definite improvement over season 1, tightening up the show's directing with action scenes and visuals, and having a much improved pacing and plot. But the season wasn't without faults. While the first half of the season was strong, the show stumbled quite a bit towards the end with some of the storylines falling flat. As a result, this season is an improvement, but it's still a mixed bag that could have been a lot more had there been some tighter writing and more interesting storylines building up to Horik's death and the peace between Ecbert and Ragnar. In my review of season 1 I claimed that "Vikings" was great junk food television. After watching season 2, I have to change my mind on that. The show is certainly trying to be more than just bland television, and it succeeded at that a number of times in this season. I think the best description of season 2, and the show as a whole, is that it's a show that tries to be more than just your average TV show, but it doesn't have the writing or storytelling ability to quite fulfill its lofty goals. Still, I will be watching the next season to see if the show can continue to improve.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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