Vikings (2013/History)

Not technically fantasy, but given the roots of the genre, I'm curious if anyone else is watching Vikings over on History. It's about the legendary hero Ragnar Lodbrok and his wife Lagertha - both characters I adore. The usual Viking pillaging and heathenism ensues, with a bit of a Game of Thrones-inspired aesthetic and some decent characters. The story is pretty simplistic, but it's pretty good for the History channel. Plus, I'm a little in love with the monk character, Athelstan.

 

It's a sad state of affairs when the History Channel has more shows about aliens than the SyFy channel.

 

I like it so far. The characters are really enjoyable and it has enough going for it in terms of story to keep it interesting. It hasn't been too shy about mentioning some of the darker aspects of the whole Viking pillaging thing, either. At the very least it's given me something to do this month before Game of Thrones starts up again. Definitely not perfect, but it's better than any other TV show I have seen about Vikings. (Though not as good as the manga Vinland Saga, if the period/culture interests you. That one is brutal, but damn good.)

 

In terms of legend/history, it's definitely not aiming for rigid accuracy, but it's not horned helmets levels of artistic license. It romanticizes a few elements of the history and shies away from touchier topics, though only in the 'this has to be allowed on our channel' kind of way, but it doesn't feel like it's just set in some strange pseudo!Norway like most of the old Viking action movies were. The myths of Ragnar Lodbrok as a person/character are limited enough that they aren't taking too many liberties yet, but I'll be interested to see how things go given which characters are popular and where in the timeline they decided to start the series.

 

Resurrecting this thread because we're a few weeks away (February 27th) from the season 2 premier. A lot of great shows this upcoming season - between Game of Thrones and Hannibal, I don't know if I'll find the time to watch this until the summer, but the trailer looks promising and I did really enjoy the first season despite some iffy choices in the finale.