Summary: Ragnar's group meets with Borg and Ragnar tries to orchestrate a deal. Ragnar is shown around the place and meets Aslaug who he has sex with. Bjorn is unhappy and gets Ragnar to stop. Floki meets with Horik who declares he will not compromise with Borg. Borg gets Rollo to join him against Ragnar. Ragnar returns to Aslaug in the night. At Kattegat, a sickness spreads through the camp killing Thyri and Gyda.
The Good: The negotiations were a lot of fun in this episode. Ragnar was his usual charismatic self and there was tension from the indirect dealings between Borg and Horik which looks to be heading into an exciting war next season. This episode was quiet and without much action but I appreciate that decision. I thought some character dynamics were well done. Ragnar's dilemma between staying loyal to Lagertha and pursuing the possibility of sons with Aslaug was poignant and it built up nicely to his choice at the end of the episode. Rollo finally choosing to turn on Ragnar was a long time coming but it was nice to finally see it happen, and his choice was nicely intercut with Ragnar's. I really like that the Seer was given a bit of a character detail as he expresses annoyance at always having to deliver news of sorrow. The Bad: Rollo's arc got too repetitive so his choice had me feeling more like "finally!" instead of trying to connect with the character. The sickness storyline at Kattegat wasn't built up well and fell pretty flat. None of the deaths had any impact and it felt like a waste of time. "Vikings" has never been particularly strong without any action. While I respect the choice to have no action, the show's characters are not strong enough yet to have a particularly good episode with no action. Best Moment: The final 5 minutes with Ragnar and Rollo making huge choices that will likely have massive consequences. Conclusion: This was a slow-paced, character-driven episode which was a surprise for the season finale. While it didn't play to the show's strengths, I thought the episode was still pretty good and ended with some critical moments for the story. I've written a review of season 1 already. Click here to read it for more thoughts on season 1. Score: 63
0 Comments
Summary: The Vikings go on a yearly pilgrimage to Uppsala. Ragnar intends to sacrifice Athelstan to the gods, and Athelstan slowly realizes what's happening. However, Athelstan is still holding on to Christian virtues so he can't be sacrificed. Leif volunteers to be sacrificed in his place. King Horik comes to Uppsala and meets with Ragnar. They form an alliance and Horik gets Ragnar to be his emissary to help prevent a conflict.
The Good: I liked the visual style of this episode and I thought that Athelstan's realization throughout the episode was well executed. The sacrifices at the end of the episode were also surprisingly affecting and powerful. I credit the expert cinematography and style for that. The introduction to King Horik was really well done and I was surprised and pleased with his unique portrayal. The Bad: The time jump to kick off this episode was really jarring, and once again I think it robbed the story of its weight. We never got to see Athelstan renounce Christianity and we never got to see Ragnar learn that his child died. These were huge moments for the characters that disappointingly happened off-screen. Athelstan was focused on a lot in this episode but since I didn't buy into him converting to the Vikings' culture at all (because the show didn't show this happen), his storyline fell flat for me. I just wasn't invested in his conflict or his fate. The sacrifice was a well shot sequence, but it's hurt by the fact that a side character who I didn't know at all was the one who died I didn't have any reaction to this at all. Best Moment: Athelstan's adherence to Christianity being discovered was an outstanding moment, well-acted and scary. Conclusion: This episode had some good moments but the time jumps skipping over crucial character development really hurt the show here. This episode feels awkward in its placement and none of the character moments landed the way they should have. It's a shame that the story was so dependent on these character moments, and since they failed, the episode was not very good. Score: 52 Summary: King Aelle sends his brother Aethelwulf with an attack party to fight the Vikings but the Vikings attack the camp during the night and take Aethelwulf hostage. Ragnar and a small party treat with the King and they come to a deal: Aelle gives them 200 pounds of gold for his brother's life. Aelle violates the deal and sends a party to attack the Viking camp but is defeated and Aethelwulf is killed. Aelle caves and gives the Vikings the gold but swears he will have revenge on Ragnar. Back in Kattegat, Lagertha miscarries.
The Good: This was a really well-paced, well-structured, intense and exciting episode that felt like a complete experience. The action was the best of the series with genuine suspense and tension since Aelle is a far greater threat than anything else the Vikings have taken on so far. But the story is told beautifully and the Vikings come across as devilish monsters with their fighting ability and comparatively barbaric nature. I really adored the scenes in the King's hall as they were dripping in intrigue and suspense. This episode was fantastic for Ragnar. I really grew attached to him in this episode as he comes off as a wild and unpredictable man with endless charm and charisma. This episode made me completely rethink Ragnar and appreciate his mysterious nature so much more than I did before. There were some small things I liked. I really enjoyed the way that the show subtly and effectively switches between the Vikings speaking English and Pagan between scenes to make it easier to follow along. I enjoyed the Floki/Rollo conflict and I thought that it provided some really nice character development for both of them. I love how religion is consistently being portrayed as important to the characters in this show. Lastly, I loved the ending of this episode as it feels ominous and exciting, building up a lot of anticipation for the next Viking excursion into Northumbria. The Bad: Lagertha's storyline feels tacked on and out of place. It has no impact to kill off a baby who was only introduced an episode ago. The time jumps in the previous episode definitely hurt the story. Best Moment: The scenes in the King's Hall were fascinating, highlighting the differences between the Englishmen and Vikings. Conclusion: This episode was all action and it made me really fall in love with the charm and charisma of Ragnar. It's no all-time great episode, but it's a great experience that is easily the best episode of the show so far. Score: 69 Summary: Haraldson agrees to Ragnar's challenge. They meet in combat and Ragnar is victorious, taking the position of Earl for himself. Haraldson is given a big funeral. Lagertha tells Ragnar she is pregnant. Rollo asks Siggy to marry him. Athelstan learns about Ragnarok. Ragnar returns to Northumbria for another raid.
The Good: This needed to happen. It was good that we finally got to see the tragedy of Haraldson's story before he died. The single combat was pretty well done, and Ragnar's ascent to Earl was an event that needed to happen. I enjoyed the Ragnarok sequence as it was the best and most stylistic look into Viking culture we have had so far. The Bad: This was another poorly structured episode. The climax was in the middle of the episode, and this episode had far too much clutter, making it by far the worst paced episode so far. The time jumps throughout the episode are incredibly jarring and it prevents us from fully enjoying what we are watching. Haraldson's story was a failure. His monologue was poorly written and unoriginal. We should have seen this story play out on screen instead of having the show attempt a sympathy monologue for Haraldson right before he died. I had no emotional reaction to his death. The character was boring and his fate was predictable. Rollo's release made no sense, why didn't Haraldson keep him? Siggy murdering the other Earl also makes no sense. Surely that should have consequences! Aelle's snake pit murder was ridiculous and it is laughable that he would wait months before murdering this man, who also happened to be the only person who has fought the Vikings before. It's a stupid move to kill him. Lastly, I was disappointed to see that the show skipped over the change in Ragnar's life now that he's an Earl. This should have been when we learned more about how leadership roles work in Viking culture. Instead that's deemed too boring for the show so we skip several months to a raid instead. Best Moment: The Ragnarok moment. Conclusion: This episode was extremely disappointing. Haraldson's storyline flopped, and the transition of Ragnar becoming Earl was rushed and had no substance to it. This episode was not handled well at all. Score: 48 Summary: Haraldson attacks Ragnar's village and nearly kills him. Ragnar escapes with his family and heals up at Floki's. Haraldson chooses to marry Thyri to another Earl. Rollo attends the wedding and Haraldson cuts a deal with him. Upset by Rollo's betrayal, Haraldson ends up capturing and torturing him. Torstein informs Ragnar of this and Ragnar decides to challenge Haraldson to single combat.
The Good: Haraldson's attack on the village is really intense and we get some strong action. It's also nice to see Ragnar get badly injured as it sells that he isn't an invincible protagonist. I liked the build-up to Ragnar's decision to challenge Haraldson at the end of the episode. The Bad: The structure of episodes in this season has been strange. The last two seasons have had climactic moments at the start of the episode rather than the end which creates an unnatural flow to the episode. Ragnar's escape was ridiculous and I can't buy at all that he would get away with those wounds. After making Ragnar look mortal, they give him all the plot armour in the world to get him to escape. Thyri's wedding didn't work at all. It was purely done for shock and for the plot, it had no impact on me. Best Moment: The start of the attack was surprisingly brutal and got me invested in the drama very quickly. Conclusion: This was an okay episode. The structure didn't work well but there was fine, unspectacular drama throughout the episode. Score: 58 Summary: The Vikings raid another town in Northumbria. Lagertha kills Knut when he tries to rape her. On their way back, the Vikings encounter a group of Englishmen waiting to fight them, and they murder them. One survivor returns to king Aelle, who is displeased. Upon returning, Haraldson puts Ragnar on trial for killing Knut. He tries to get Rollo to betray Ragnar and testify against him but Rollo doesn't do it.
The Good: The action was again the highlight here. It was intense and a whole lot of fun to see the Vikings murdering the frightened Englishmen who haven't seen anything like this before. I liked the conflict that was given to Rollo in this episode and there was weight to his decision since it was going to impact the story in a big way. The Bad: A lot of moments of poor writing hurt this episode. Ragnar not telling anyone his plan to attack when the Englishmen are in church was predictable and typical of boring television. He only hid this plan because the writers wanted the surprise. The action was flawed since it's hard to buy that the Englishmen were stupid enough to not go around the shield wall and just charge head-on. Athelstan has been given no development whatsoever so it's incredibly awkward to see him be so loyal to Ragnar and caring for his family. He was a slave an episode ago! Ragnar taking ownership for Knut's death is absurd. Why would they not plan out how to handle this before meeting with Haraldson? They could easily have said Knut died in battle without any questions asked. Furthermore, it's hard to believe Lagertha would be so against Knut raping an English woman. These are Vikings, rape is what they do. Rollo's conflict is hurt because we don't know how important brotherhood is to the Vikings. We would be able to understand his conflict more if we knew the importance of being loyal to your brother. The ending attack was awful. Not only is it completely unclear who was attacking, but we got a death scene for a complete nobody of a character. It was really poor. Plus, is there going to be no justice for this? Ragnar killed Knut and there was a trial, yet this attack can happen without any prompt and the society just accepts it? That's completely at odds with what was established before. Best Moment: Rollo choosing to side with Ragnar was a welcome surprise. Conclusion: This episode had fun action, but everything else that happened was nonsensical and the stakes were always unclear. This episode should have been much better. Score: 53 Summary: Ragnar returns to Kattegat and Haraldson confiscates all of the treasure he brought back. Ragnar keeps a monk, Athelstan, as a slave. Haraldson buries the treasure. Ragnar speaks with Haraldson who agrees to let him go back to England, but he has to take Knut with him. Lagertha goes as well. When they arrive in England, men of the king are waiting for them. A fight breaks out and the Vikings win.
The Good: I like how the characters are motivated in this episode. The Vikings were not moral, complex characters and that is depicted here. All of the characters are assholes motivated by simple things like greed, faith, and lust for power. The second voyage ended up being set up pretty well and the action scene at the end of the episode was a lot of fun to watch. The Bad: The show is already starting to feel repetitive with the raids since we already get to see another one only half an episode after the previous one finished. I was unhappy with Haraldson murdering the child for his own gain. The show seems to care more about brutality than fleshing out this character. I thought that the bond between Ragnar and Athelstan was very rushed, and as such I can't buy into Ragnar leaving him in charge of his children. Best Moment: The tense confrontation between the Englishmen and the Vikings which broke out into an epic action sequence. Conclusion: This was another simple and fun episode with some good action, though flaws are starting to pop up within the show. Score: 62 Summary: Ragnar's group sails west and they reach England where they raid a monastery, murdering most of the monks and taking the rest as slaves. Olafur informs Haraldson of Ragnar's intent to leave but is killed when Haraldson loses trust in him. Knut becomes Haraldson's spy in Olafur's place.
The Good: This is exactly what I wanted from the show. Showing the Vikings setting sail, going on the journey, and concluding with the raid of a holy village was exactly what I had hoped to get from this show. I enjoyed the little things like Floki's mannerisms, the sense of wonder when they finally reached land, and the remarkable brutality with which the Vikings murdered the monks. I'm also pleased that Ragnar isn't shown to be unusually sympathetic for a Viking; he's just as brutal as the rest and sees no problem with it. The Bad: Haraldson's storyline felt like a lot of senseless brutality and did not do much for the character. I thought that more details should have been acknowledged with the Viking voyage, such as food. I also think it's strange that nobody seems to think about what would happen to their families while they are gone and what would happen when they come back after disobeying the Earl's direct orders. Best Moment: The confrontation in the church which patiently turns into a massacre. Conclusion: This was a fun episode that gave me the action I wanted. There's nothing special about the show yet, but I'm having fun watching it. Score: 64 Intro: This is the first of my new shortened episode reviews. For more thoughts on the show, you can read by seasonal reviews. These episode-by-episode reviews will contain brief thoughts on each individual episode.
Summary: Ragnar's son Bjorn becomes a man at a Viking ceremony. Ragnar decides to sail west on his own despite not getting permission from the Earl. The Good: The most interesting aspect of the episode was the look into Viking culture. Things like the Viking events, the sun board and stone that Ragnar used and the focus on religion and gods was really interesting to watch. I also really liked that the show immediately tackled how justice worked in this world. The Bad: For a pilot, this wasn't very memorable. It didn't do anything horribly wrong, but it did nothing to grab my attention. The episode is slow and doesn't connect me to the characters very well. The premise of the show isn't deep enough for me to feel very excited about what's coming next. Best Moment: The suggestion of conflict between Ragnar and Haraldson. Conclusion: This episode was fine enough to watch and didn't do anything wrong, but it was far from a gripping pilot episode. Score: 60 Intro: This is the first of my new season-based review format. It will be structured very similar to my typical episode-by-episode reviews, just without a score at the end. For each individual episode I will be typing up much briefer reviews which will all be going up in the next few days.
The Good: Now that I'm at the end of the season, I can comfortably say that the main character is the strongest thing about this show. Ragnar Lothbrok is such a memorable, charismatic and exciting character to watch on screen. Admittedly, I was very off-put by him at first. I didn't ever fully understand his motives or intentions, so the character frustrated me for the first few episodes. But once I got more familiar with him, I realized that I had been expecting the wrong things from Ragnar. What I had thought was his biggest weakness was actually his biggest strength. With each episode, I grew to love Ragnar's wild unpredictability more and more, and I began to be thrilled by Ragnar's various mannerisms and spontaneous decision-making. The more I learned about Ragnar, the better it fit him. He's a character who is incredibly intelligent for his time, but he's also a big believer in fate and lets it guide his way in numerous moments, such as his decision to take on Athelstan as a slave. It makes no sense for him to make these choices, but that's precisely why he makes these decisions; they are a result of a gut feeling. I haven't seen a TV show present its main character as somebody outside of the audience's point of view. The show has never let us in on what Ragnar is thinking, and he consistently feels like an outside perspective to us despite being the character we are supposed to relate to the most. It's a very unconventional approach and it has no right being as fun and enjoyable to watch as it is. This has to be credited to Travis Fimmel's wonderful performance, as he really brings Ragnar's charisma and charm to life in a most engaging way, making every second with him utterly fascinating. Outside of Ragnar, things aren't quite as good but they still work. The side characters have nice variety to them, and the performances are consistent throughout the show. I enjoyed Floki's unhinged performance, which reminded me of the strange, yet oddly mesmerizing mannerisms of Jack Sparrow. Lagertha is another really solid character. I'm pleased to see that she isn't just a generic wife character, instead having a lot of toughness and inner strength which befits the Viking culture that we were introduced to. I also enjoyed other characters like Rollo and Athelstan for the character variety they provided, even though I thought their character arcs weren't very well done. The show wasn't primarily built around characters though. In fact, whenever the show slowed down and was reliant on its characters to provide the drama, it got substantially weaker. Where this show shines brightest is when there's plenty of action. Everyone watching this show knows what they want to see: Vikings doing Viking things like pillage and plunder while getting a unique look at their culture. And when the show is doing that, it's very entertaining. The best parts of the show came whenever the Vikings were off raiding in England, allowing us to see the characters do what they do best, while being portrayed as animalistic demons to the people of Northumbria. It's remarkably entertaining to see the Vikings destroying the English men, and it creates a very unique sense of emotional investment since the Vikings are doing horrible things from a moral perspective, yet they are still the heroes of this story. It ends up being a dissociative experience for the viewer who will find themselves rooting for things that typically aren't what they would believe to be morally correct. The action's unique, it's thrilling and it's memorable. It's what the show does best. As for the rest of the show, several little things are done well. The exploration of Viking culture is pretty accurate from what I can tell, and I really appreciate details like an explanation for how they were able to navigate the open seas to maintain a western course to land in England. I thought the set design, costumes, make-up, and overall presentation of the Vikings was really well done. Despite not actually being set in Scandinavia (the show was shot in Ireland), the setting felt like it belonged in Scandinavia due to some really inspired cinematography and camera work. The show was incredibly well put together and it's clear that there was a lot of effort put into making the show look impressive. The Bad: But the show isn't quite clicking yet. I'm having fun with it, but I'm not properly invested in the characters or the story. There was a distinct lack of an emotional investment in most of the episodes in the show, and the only times I was really engaged in what was happening was during the raids to England, which only happened in 2 episodes. I never got emotionally invested in what was happening on screen, even with Ragnar who I praised so heavily in "The Good". I enjoyed the character only on a very basic level, and the show never threatened to make me truly care about what's going on with him. And outside of Ragnar, the show didn't even come close to making me care about the story or characters. Nobody had that extra depth or likeability about them that made me care about their inner conflict and their fate. After 1 season, I'm still feeling indifferent to every one of these characters and that's a problem. I enjoy seeing them on screen and it passes the time well for me, but I simply don't care about what happens to them. The structure of the episodes did not help the show at all. The pacing of this show is downright terrible most of the time and there were numerous times when the show's surprise time-jumps really took me out of what was happening. The show somehow managed to jump through time at the worst points every time, and it often did not even signal that time had passed, and it was unclear how much time had passed. The only indicator we had was Athelstan's ever-changing hair, which is unreliable at best. There are numerous episodes that I thought were destroyed by having time jumps randomly in the middle. At times when the show should have been exploring the fall-out of key story moments, it instead opted to jump months into the future, leaving a bunch of interesting story beats unexplored and underdeveloped. I'll be addressing more specific examples of this in my episode-by-episode reviews. As I hinted at before, I thought that some of the side character storylines were very sloppily executed. One of the biggest flops of the season was the arc of Athelstan. There wasn't a single episode where I bought into the character's inner change because I never got to see it happen. The show would hint at these developments, but the character would end up growing off screen. As a result, I never bought into his transformation and whenever the show tried to center the drama around Athelstan, I could not bring myself to care about it. I felt disconnected with the character's journey because I didn't get to see any of it. Rollo was another poorly handled character. He had the most repetitive arc in the show, where every episode seemed to have Rollo reach a crossroads where he could stay by Ragnar's side or pursue his own future. And the conflict was the exact same every time, and in most cases the situations were almost exactly the same too. It became so dull to see the character make the same choice time and time again. The kicker came at the end of the season when Rollo finally chooses to turn on Ragnar. The problem is that there is nothing at all that convinces Rollo to make a different decision. There's no special build-up, no extra depth to the character being explored that highlights why Rollo chose differently. There's no drama to be had, no exploration of the character, no fascination regarding what has changed in his relationship with Ragnar to make Rollo want to turn against him. It's indicative of the fact that Rollo should have turned against Ragnar ages ago, and that it made no sense for the character to stay in Ragnar's shadow. There is nothing that Borg tells Rollo that he doesn't already know, so I found myself confused by why Rollo decided to abandon Ragnar now rather than before. It's not good storytelling. Haraldson's story was another disappointing one. The character was acted well and on paper it's a good story about a proud character whose flaws bring about his downfall. But in execution it is remarkably flat. It feels obvious that Ragnar will ultimately defeat Haraldson to take his position as Earl, so it's easy to dismiss Haraldson as a dead man as early as episode 2. As a result, it's hard to invest in the character knowing that he will likely die soon, and the ensuing conflict between him and Ragnar is about as predictable and uninspired as it gets. The character of Haraldson unfortunately isn't executed well either. The character's motivations are never expressed until the episode where he dies, making it difficult to invest in him and his plight. Furthermore, the way we learn more about him is so sloppy and uninspired: it's a simple monologue featuring clunky dialogue in a very basic attempt to make us feel for the character before he dies. The character of Haraldson never connected with me and I found his entire arc to be a pretty big waste of time in a season that could have used more time spent on the characters that would be surviving through to the end. Lastly, I thought that this show had a ton of missed potential in its individual storylines. There are plenty of episode's that had really promising stories on paper, but flopped spectacularly due to various reasons. Be it uninspired writing (Haraldson's death episode), wonky pacing (Ragnar becoming the Earl, time jumps in the middle of episodes early in the season), or poor execution of character arcs (Athelstan, Rollo), it felt like there were always several big problems that would ruin the story that the episode was trying to tell. The Unknown: I have a few questions going into season 2. Will Ragnar actually leave Lagertha? How will Bjorn react to this? Will there be strife between Lagertha and Aslaug? Where will this Ragnar vs Rollo conflict go? Will Ragnar remain loyal to King Horik? Who is going to win the conflict between Horik and Borg? How will Ragnar react to Rollo's betrayal? Will there be any fighting before Ragnar's party leaves Borg's encampment? Best Episodes: E02 The Wrath of the Northmen: This episode makes it because of the fantastic sequence of the Vikings murdering the monks remorselessly. It's a shocking sequence that makes you question if the people you are watching are worthy of being the good guys in this story. E07 A King's Ransom: This episode was excellent. It was action-packed and kickstarted a thrilling conflict between Ragnar and King Aelle. A really memorable and fun episode overall. Worst Episodes: E04 Trial: This episode embodied all of the frustrating character arcs of the show, including Haraldson's predictability, Rollo's repetitiveness and Athelstan's disjointedness. At least the episode had some good action. E06 Burial of the Dead: Another frustrating episode with countless time jumps that provided the predictable (and thus completely unsatisfying) conclusion of Haraldson's arc. Character of the Season: Ragnar. Conclusion: I came into this show with low expectations. I just wanted to see Vikings be Vikings. And for the most part, that's all I got. The show had some pleasant surprises like the uniqueness of Ragnar, but for the most part it was what I expected. Flat character drama surrounding some pretty cool action sequences. I did enjoy a few parts of the show and I thought it was visually impressive, but the show failed in executing a lot of the character drama it attempted and that really hurt its quality. This first season was an okay start to the show. It was watchable, but very flawed and never got me really excited to watch more. I will hope that season 2 corrects some of these flaws, but I don't think that "Vikings" is a show that can ever be truly great. The potential just isn't there unfortunately. But for what it's worth, this is fine enough junk food television. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|