Oh how I'd love to be a Viking!! A review of 'Vikings' on LoveFilm

I always thought that being a Viking would be a right laugh. Plundering and pillaging all day in some far off lands with my mates dressed up in a various array of animal skins and pointy helmets swinging an oversized axe and not fearing death one bit as it meant that I got to go to what might be the greatest party in the skies with all you can eat and drink at a never-ending table with the Gods. Then by night I could sit round the fire in a great hall and tell tales of my conquesting and looting drinking myself into a stupor before heading to my chamber with a buxom wench only to wake up the next morning to do it all over again. Forget free healthcare, this is the life I’d be lobbying for.

You've got a little something on your face Lagertha

However, Vikings, the new series from Love Film tells a very different tale of events and has shattered my illusion of what it would have been to Norseman. Yes there is plenty of the two P’s going on but that’s only amongst the scenes of backstabbings and betrayals and also having watched what is actually was like to be on a raiding party I have reconsidered how great the experience might have been.

Though shattering dreams aside Vikings is rapidly becoming one of my favourite shows at the moment, and has momentarily healed the rift that LoveFilm and I were suffering. It’s a little like this is the part in the relationship were we’ve just started exploring a few new things that has really spiced things up, and LoveFilm’s sister Netflix isn’t really all that appealing anymore, though come Christmas when the family get together if her hands wander under the table like they did last year I might be tempted.

The show is inspired by the tales about Ragnar Lodbrok, one of the best-known Norse heroes and notorious as the scourge of France and Britain. It portrays Ragnar as a Viking farmer who pioneers the first daring raids into Britain with the support of fellow warriors, his brother Rollo, and his wife, the shieldmaiden Lagertha. He appears the ultimate man; attentive to his wife and family, a good provider and brave warrior. The first few episodes give us the picture of a maverick who come hell or high water is going to prove himself as an adventurer sailing “West” to new undiscovered lands with their untapped treasure that will make him and his crew rich. The only thing that stands in his way is the evil Earl Haraldson who tries to tarnish Ragnar’s efforts at every turn insisting that he is in charge and they will sail to the “East”, a much safer option for them. Once Ragnar has proved himself able to go “West” bringing the plunder back with him, including the monk Athelstan, the conflict between the two escalates into violence during episode 5 (as far as I’ve got at the moment, but can’t wait to see more!).

The album cover shoot was going well.

Recently there’s been a trend in fantasy/historical dramas with Game Of Thrones the most recent success that is an obvious comparison to Vikings. At times it is painful to see the show try and pander to the viewers of the HBO series with all the uncovered bits and such that come with it. Being originally aired on the History channel in the USA they can’t go as far as their cable network cousin and it ends up being rather sad that they feel the need to try and draw attention to itself with being another show with actual CHEBS in, I mean look at them they’re out on TV! Unless you’re a thirteen year old boy that has rather malevolent parents who cloak your internet in a filter it’s now just become a little sad that shows think that the only way to compete is to show us some wobbly bits to keep us interested. But if you are a thirteen year old boy with the Stasi monitoring your web searches go nuts with Vikings, there’s nothing you won’t love about it.

What Vikings does do well it does very well. The human relationships and interactions between characters are brilliant each exchange adding something new a titillating to the story. The scenes between Ragnar and Athelstan are a particular favourite with both of the men blindly defending their own beliefs but at the same time doubting them with each conversation learning more and more about the others world. I half expect at the end of the series Ragnar a celibate Christian monk and Athelstan taking the Viking way of life too far simply swinging an axe into the faces of people he meets in the street. Other highlights are Floki, the crazy shipbuilder who is half Heath Ledgers the joker and the other half Jim Carrey in The Mask and the beautiful way that the violence and brutality of Viking life is captured, each chop and stab framed with such purpose, choreographed so thoughtfully that the blunt instruments of battle become a ballet when it could have been a cumbersome exercise.

Aside from the insistence of pointing out that: yes she’s naked; here look at her there’s boobs! Vikings only downfalls are small enough to forgive. The sets at times look a little like those that were left over after a cheap looking history docudrama was shut down because in a PC world Vikings are surely off the cards now, but the breath-taking scenery of Ireland more than makes up for it. Also, often you are pulled out of the action by a historical inaccuracy such as:  Ragnar insisting on helping to wash the clothes, his wife Lagertha joining them in battle and the raiders forming a “turtle” with their shields when fired upon (A Roman trait not a Viking one). Each done for a plot point rather than to ring true to history with entertainment and advancing the script obviously the first priority and things that the average viewer might easily skip over but torture for a history buff. The only other time that I fell out with the series was when the raiding party chopped their way through a room full of defenseless monks at a monastery, historically accurate now but not getting me to identify much with a group of characters who are happy to get on-board with that.  

In the end Vikings is a great watch and I can’t wait to get to the end of the 9 episode first season, most likely this week in time for season 2 early next year. I just hope that the writers do less of the diet Game of Thrones stuff and focus on more of what makes the show so great; showing the tender side of a time in history where we focus far too much on the hacking and slashing. Maybe being a Viking wouldn't be all that bad after all.