by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
Welcome to Cross-Platform Partners. In honor of a movie coming to theaters and/or streaming services, I have selected a TV show to watch to pair with the movie. Think of it as a way to get hyped for the new movie, a preview of things to come, a means to tide you over if the movie won’t be released where you live for a little while, or a change of pace if you’ve run out of related movies or sequels.
In honor of The Northman being released in April, I watched a TV show about vikings. When I think of Vikings, I think of a few things. I’m from Chicago so unfortunately the Minnesota Vikings come up frequently. One of my favorite movies series is How To Train Your Dragon, which is about vikings learning to co-exist with dragons. One instance of TV I remember is watching a show called Deadliest Warrior on Spike TV. The show pits two types of warriors against one another, and a computer program would determine which type of warrior would win in a grudge match against one another. Vikings were pitted against a samurai. They lost, but it was close, mainly losing out a to better trained and faster warrior with better weapons. This isn’t to say that vikings aren’t ferocious warriors, though. History, as well as film and TV, depicts Vikings as ruthless and skilled fighters who are tactically sound and brutal killers. Other than this random episode, the obvious choice for this topic is History Channel’s epic series, Vikings.
Vikings follows the adventures of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel), a farmer and viking explorer who dreams of leaving the shores of his home, Kattegat, Norway. He is married to Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) and has two children, Bjorn (originally played by Nathan O’Toole, later played by Alexander Ludwig) and Gyda (Ruby O’Leary). Ragnar is joined by brother Rollo (Clive Standen) and Floki the boat builder (Gustaf Skarsgard) as they seek to find their fortunes all across Europe. They’re challenged by the local leader at Kattegat Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne) and his Queen Siggy (Jessalyn Gilsig), who’s jealousy and lack of leadership threatens Ragnar’s desire to explore and raid different lands. Vikings originally aired in 10 episode seasons on the History Channel, then season four saw the episodes increase to 20 per season for the rest of the series run. The sixth and final season (or at least the second half) moved to Amazon Prime Video.
First thing’s first — trigger warnings abound. Vikings is a violent and gory show. How can it not be? It’s about vikings! There are also instances of sexual assault. So if these are things that make you uncomfortable, then it may be best to skip this one, or at minimum, exercise caution. It’s also important to note that I’m not a history expert when it comes to vikings, which means I can only take the show on its own merits rather than comparing it to history. So if I offend anyone for my lack of viking knowledge, it’s not my intent… unless you’re a Minnesota Vikings fan, which in that case, offense intended.
Structurally, the show is pretty basic. There is a clear main character with Ragnar, his family, and his allies. Each season, there’s a different group that serves as a challenge or enemy for the vikings to conquer. The earlier seasons are a little better because there are 10 episodes versus 20 in the second half of the show. I don’t really understand why they decided to go with 20 episodes (in reality, I do; it’s called capitalism) because it creates a bit of a slog in the series where they have to fill in more content with more time. This is often done by splitting the characters up, introducing more new characters, or enhancing the stories of minor characters by giving them more to do. Regardless, the later seasons dragged on at times and we can tell that the show is trying to keep our attention by introducing more conflict, more violence, more sex, and more gore. While there is a fair amount of sex in the show, since this was on the History Channel there isn’t any nudity or prolonged or gratuitous scenes. It feels like in the hands of another channel or streaming service, this probably wouldn’t be the case.
There are a lot of characters that come in and out of the show. Characters disappear for episodes then show back up when the story demands it. Make no mistake though, this is Ragnar’s show. He carries the most weight, and his reputation as a fierce fighter and master tactician in battle come up time and time again. When he decides to raid Paris, his plan for getting into the city is absolute genius. As much as the show focuses on Ragnar, my favorite character is Lagertha. Winnick’s performance is outstanding as she gets the chance to do a lot of different things. She’s a mother, a wife, an earl, a queen, and a fighter. She experiences a lot of hardship and pain but she still manages to find strength and grace. Certain characters were better in earlier seasons. Rollo and Floki both had compelling plots in early seasons only to be more background characters or have confusing storylines. There are a lot of time jumps as well to keep the story going. So when we see a child in a few episodes, then they all of a sudden become an adult, it can be jarring. I understand why they did it this way, but I wish it had been more gradual versus the sudden shifts. The character we see the most growth from is Bjorn. Later nicknamed Bjorn Ironside, Ludwig makes the most of his chance to become the central focus and star of the show. We see him grow from a boy to a leader. We see his mistakes, his tragedies, and his triumphs. He’s not perfect, but he’s a fierce fighter and is an effective leader on the battlefield.
The action scenes with battle are a lot of fun to watch. They’re creative and they try to do something different each time. We see battles in open fields, battles in the woods, battle in swamps, battles in the water, battles in cities, and battles in deserts. I really appreciated these different battles, as they never became stale or repetitive. Their stakes were also high. Vikings is a show that doesn’t have an issue killing characters off, regardless of their prominence. That’s war, after all; death can come at any time. Later seasons have more epic battle scenes, and as the cast grows, so does the ability to showcase more battles. The gore and means of death get more graphic as the series goes on. I definitely squirmed a little more in the later seasons as the violence got ramped up. There’s an action scene in the final season where a group of vikings construct a maze to confuse their enemies. I found this to be entertaining, but also cool to watch.
Since this is a show about vikings, we see a bunch of different countries as they set out to explore and raid other parts of the world. In the first season, our main focus is on Kattegat and the surrounding villages that decide they want to raid England. Once we get to season two, the story starts to split its time between England and Norway. Once we get to later seasons, we divide the time even more when France becomes more of a featured area. The problem with this is that with the story and characters being split up between so many different areas, our focus as an audience is divided but also some people are given more time that quite frankly, I didn’t care about as much as other characters. For a show about vikings, there can be stretches of episodes where there’s not a lot going on with the vikings but more going on with other groups of people.
One thing that comes up a lot throughout the show is the struggle that people have with religion. The vikings believe in the norse Gods, so Thor and Odin are mentioned quite frequently. Paganism is prevalent among the vikings, but clashes with Christianity once the vikings land in England and France. In later seasons, other religions are explored as the world expands. This clash between Paganism and Christianity becomes a central conflict not just between the Saxons and the vikings but for some vikings themselves. Ragnar in particular struggles with this notion of deciding which religion to follow, particularly when he’s facing danger or his mortality. Floki champions Paganism throughout the show, but even he struggles at times to keep his faith even in the face of tragedy. Another character, a monk named Athelstan (George Blagden), who is kidnapped during one of Ragnar’s raid but eventually becomes one of his closest allies, struggles with this a great deal since he practices Christianity but then believes in the Norse Gods.
Vikings also struggles a little with its treatment of women. On one end, women are regarded as shield maidens and are even encouraged to fight in battle. There’s a lot of strong and powerful women throughout the course of the series, even some rising to positions of power. Whether it’s being a shield maiden, using short range weapons like axes or swords, or using long range weapons like spears or crossbows, women are just as capable of handling their own in battle as men. Conversely, women are treated terribly by large swaths of men. Women are routinely mistreated, beaten, raped, and murdered on the show. They also unfortunately are sold as slaves, bartered as alliance creators by being promised to be married, or relegated to give men children. Daughters of the vikings don’t get to do much besides stay back and maintain the home. It’s like the show wants to have its cake and eat it too with its treatment of women. Women are also punished for adultery or cheating on their significant other but men universally get a pass when they cheat. It was “expected” since men need to have sons in order to carry their bloodlines.
Vikings is an epic show that spans large swaths of time and space. It’s not Game of Thrones, and it carves out a grounded, violent, and politically-savvy show. The later seasons lose steam due to more episodes needing more time to fill story. It was still enjoyable but became a slog to get through 20 episode seasons. I’m excited for aspects from Vikings to show up in The Northman. I’m hoping for more violence, more shields, more axes and swords, and more norse mythology. There’s even a family connection as siblings Gustaf Skarsgard from Vikings and Alexander Skargard from The Northman will compete to see who will have more viking sway among their family.
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