TV review: Vikings — Season 1

Those who haven’t watched Vikings will probably assume it’s something it’s not. If you’re hoping for abundant excess in the areas of sex and violence, you’re not going to find what you’re looking for. That’s not to say that shows can’t lean heavily on those traits successfully — both Spartacus and Game of Thrones do so to varying levels of worthiness (Thrones often struggles to convince with its reliance on nudity) — but this History channel drama has its priorities firmly elsewhere. Focused on character building and fascinating explorations of early medieval culture and society, Vikings is a surprisingly engaging watch.

It helps that when it does bring in the raping and pillaging aspect of Viking culture, it is able to bring as much nuance to that as it is to everything else it’s dealing with. It also helps that the show strives to have a strong presence from its female characters in each episode, so that it never feels like we’re only getting one perspective on this unusual world. Vikings is hardly perfect and it’s not particularly adept at bringing attention to its thematic points in subtle ways, but it is ambitious and addictive. Even when compared to the shows it’s clearly inspired by (the two mentioned above are obvious influences), it displays a desire to do things differently.

I highly doubt this show will ever be as narratively expansive as it could be. That’s not as much of an issue as it initially seems, though, because simplicity and focus prove to really work for the story that Vikings is telling over the nine episodes of its first season. The drama here is really all about Ragnar Lodbrok (played tremendously by Travis Fimmel), a man who desires to raid to the west rather than to the east and is rewarded when he discovers England and the many treasures left unguarded within its churches.

To really get invested in the characters of Vikings means having to be comfortable with a worldview and morality that is completely unfamiliar. Some shows will set events in the past but constantly portray the characters in ways that feel modern. This series doesn’t do that at all, and it expects you to really understand the importance of religion and custom within the Viking way of life. Whether it is historically accurate is really beside the point, the show has a strong sense of internal logic and only a few characters you need to pay attention to. Because of this, we get to learn about this way of life and frequently see how it affects people.

While the outlook of Vikings is relatively limited throughout its first season, only really concerned with those close to Ragnar and the challenges that he faces, its final pair of episodes makes it obvious that there is a real potential for the scope to expand as it progresses. This season has wisely introduced the man who is perhaps Ragnar’s greatest threat in King Aelle of Northumbria (Ivan Kaye) but it doesn’t necessarily have to focus on those raids because we know that, historically, Ragnar explored far more than just England.

The show is beautifully shot. Filmed in Ireland but with some background shots done in Norway, Vikings has a really distinctive and engaging atmosphere, and is filled with characters and scenes that look quite unlike much else that we usually see on television. It’s telling to notice that one of the most cinematic television debuts of the year (or, rather, another in a growing list of visually involving dramas) is also one that very few people will have watched. Nevertheless, Vikings does have widespread appeal, positioning itself as an entertaining historical drama with an interesting perspective and characters you’ll gradually find yourself really rooting for.

If you’re still not convinced that you should give this series a chance, I should mention that the fight choreography is some of the best you’ll see anywhere. It’s clearly painstakingly deliberated over, but it flows perfectly onscreen and the combat occurs in ways that are really compelling because, once again, it’s not really something we’ve seen presented in this way before. It’s stylish without being bloody, but it’s still brutal enough to convey the weight of events that occur.

All in all, I’m really far more impressed by Vikings than I ever expected to be. Fimmel’s portrayal of Ragnar is incredibly impressive, as he creates this charismatic and reckless figure and makes him somebody that you believe in time and time again. I’m also a fan of many of the other characters that I haven’t had a chance to mention, including Katheryn Winnick’s Lagertha and Gustaf Skarsgård’s Floki, as everyone on this show seems to add to the colour of the world being displayed. Occasionally, the series has some issues with not being subtle enough to do anything other than spell out what it’s trying to say. This is an infrequent issue, though, and is often solved by its confidence to speed up and slow down its narrative in a way that makes everything we see something that is important for driving character arcs forward. Far more engrossing than I thought it would be, I’d now wholeheartedly recommend Vikings as a series that’s worth getting into.