This is a spoiler-free review of all eight episodes of Vikings: Valhalla Season 1, which premieres Friday, Feb. 25 on Netflix.
Vikings: Valhalla, Netflix's companion/sequel series to Vikings, which ran for six seasons on History and covered the legacy of Norse warrior-explorer Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons (who included also iconic Bjorn "Ironside" and Ivar "The Boneless"), is a sturdy, exciting follow-up to the original series, though not one without a few tonal disparities.
Valhalla, which covers the end of the Viking Era and showcases later-stage notables Leif Eriksson, Canute the Great, and Harold of Norway (among others), is a more straightforward series than Vikings was, more interested in the broader beats of the story than the poetic and spiritual ruminations of the original series. That's not inherently a bad thing though, just different.
The long and lauded run of Vikings on History was created and solely written by Michael Hirst (yup, all 89 episodes). It had a rather singular vision and voice. Valhalla, on the other hand, has been cranked out through much more of a traditional production model. While Hirst is credited as a co-creator and EP, none of the episodes are written by him. Jeb Stuart -- famous for writing '80s and '90s action scripts like Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October -- is the EP/showrunner here, penning the first two episodes and presiding over a traditional writers' room for the rest. The series is reliable and sometimes thrilling, but from the opening credits alone, Valhalla feels worlds apart from its predecessor.
There's nothing here that will be off-putting for fans of the original series, though. It doesn't feel the same but -- as an unexpected safety net -- the slight switch in tone is almost baked into the story. The world of vikings is very different in Valhalla than it was during the time of Ragnar so, accidentally-on-purpose, Valhalla can present things in a new light because the old Norse ways are dying. The end result is a series that presents as a well-executed axes and arrows adventure, with gritty performances, big battle sequences, and dramatic twists (anchored in history), with the downside being that it lacks Vikings' ethereal specialness and that show's haunting dance with what lies beyond the veil, which is the curiosity that fueled all of Ragnar's voyages and unconventional connections.
Sam Corlett is the centerpiece of Valhalla, playing the famed Leif Eriksson, a Greenlander viking whose location has kept him, his sister Freydis (Frida Gustavsson), and other close comrades far off and detached from the Christianity that has all-but consumed the viking people during the century between the two series. When Leif captains a small boat through a deadly storm to Kattegat, to answer the war call of King Canute of Denmark, who wishes revenge on England's King Aethelred, he finds his worship of old gods makes him a disrespected outsider. And so, at the core of Valhalla, underneath all the city sieges and various blood feuds, is the implosion of the viking people from within and the growing Christian faction seeking to violently cleanse their ranks of pagans.
This new breed of Christ-worshipping also explains why many of the characters on the show feel Anglicised, with their Scandinavian speech patterns and cadence buried and the sing song-y timbre muted. They are more animated and less pensive, though Leif, from far removed Greenland, still often stews in silent intensity, most of the time motivated by singular, honorable purpose. Corlett makes for a captivating Leif, who must struggle to resist enemies from within and without, while Gustavsson's Freydis follows her own journey for most of the season, her destiny very much tied up in the more mystical, religious elements of the show. Gustavsson gives a powerful performance here, infusing Freydis with a noble heart and steadfast stubbornness that helps carry the back half of this season once the major assault on England is over and many characters scatter to other areas of the realm.
The unexpected MVP of the middle of the season is Bradley Freegard's Canute, who really steps up to become an intriguing presence half way, representing, perhaps, the end result of Ragnar's drive to be a more progressive and understanding viking. To juxtapose this, Canute's father, Sven Forkbeard, is rife with old-style viciousness. Of course, this is the type of series that will actually point out these themes through dialogue and not leave them understated. Nothing passes through with subtlety on Valhalla, though it's never so clumsy that it beats you over the head. Sadly, Canute, just as he starts to breathe new life into the story, vanishes from the final episodes.
The third central character here, after Greenlanders Leif and Freydis, is Leo Suter's Harald Sigurdsson, the great grandson of Vikings' Harald Finehair. Harald, a Christian, isn't as righteously piggish as his half-brother King Olaf (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), so he finds himself acting as a berserker broker of sorts: a peacekeeper who takes a liking to Leif, and even more of a liking to Freydis. Harald, caught between religious rivalries and his own need for personal vengeance, is nicely balanced out by Suter, who gets to deliver a hunky wild card aspect to the series. Harald's lack of prejudice allows him to see the intelligence and skill that lurks beneath Leif's stoic exterior.
Vikings: Valhalla never skimps on action. There are two marvelous war moments here in Season 1, both spotlighting different strategies, twists, and turns. The Battle of Stamford Bridge, as history labels it, is particularly gripping, offering up a ton of bloodshed and suspense, while the finale's violent chaos crazily marks the end of a huge era for this saga, bringing the brutality home to where it all began. Asbjørn Krogh's pious and psychotic Jarl Kåre makes for a formidable seasonal boss, which is something new to the franchise and a further gust in the winds of change.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/D1F76cW
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