Rating summary
Movie | | 4.5 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 4.5 |
Extras | | 4.0 |
Overall | | 4.5 |
Vikings: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review
Valhalla Awaits
Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 18, 2013
Successful television dramas have been made about the most unlikely candidates—neurotic mob
bosses, meth dealers, serial killers—so why not the Vikings? For starters, there's the practical
problem that Viking culture relied on oral tradition. It left almost nothing by way of
contemporary written records, unlike the English royals whose histories have provided creator
Michael Hirst with such rich material for The Tudors, as well as the film scripts for Elizabeth and
Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Almost everything written
about the Vikings comes either from
sagas recorded hundreds of years after the fact or from accounts by those they attacked, pillaged
and enslaved. As a result, the portrait handed down in popular history is both larger than life and
less than complete.
Modern historians have pieced together a more detailed understanding of Viking society from
artifacts unearthed in burial chambers and other archaeological finds. The more Hirst researched
this extinct culture, the more surprises he found. With a richly developed mythology (as actor
Clive Standen observes, their myths and legends match anything in the modern fantasy genre), a
complex and, in some respects, surprisingly modern social structure, and a boldly adventurous
spirit, the Viking world was a treasure of dramatic possibilities when viewed from the inside.
Like most societies, it just made no sense to outsiders. Indeed, the cultural clash itself was part of
the drama.
Vikings was the first original dramatic series to be shown on The History Channel, premiering on
March 3, 2013, and concluding an initial nine-episode run on April 28. Although some scholars
nitpicked the show's historical accuracy, the general consensus was that Hirst and his production
team had captured the feel of a lost world, aided by strong performances and the spectacular
landscapes of the Irish coast, doubling for medieval Scandinavia. The History Channel recorded
some of the best ratings it had ever seen and quickly ordered a second season, which will be
shown in 2014.
The hero of
Vikings is Ragnar Lodbrok (Travis Fimmel), a real historical figure who became a
legendary Viking chieftain but, as the series opens in 793 A.D., is a youthful and ambitious
warrior with a farm, a wife, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), and two young children on the cusp of
adolescence, Bjorn (Nathan O'Toole) and Gyda (Ruby O'Leary). Ragnar also has an older brother
named Rollo (Clive Standen), who lacks Ragnar's taste for family life. A proud adventurer and a
ferocious fighter, Rollo's relationship with his brother will become strained as Ragnar's exploits
bring him acclaim and Rollo feels overshadowed. Over the course of the season, their loyalties
will be tested repeatedly.
As the first episode opens, entitled "Rites of Passage", the brothers are exhausted but victorious
on a bloody battlefield, and Ragnar sees the black-cloaked figure of the god Odin wandering
among the dead. Accompanied by ravens, the god is selecting the warriors who fought and died
with sufficient valor to earn entrance to the great hall of Valhalla. The desire for a good death in
battle is an essential element of Viking belief, and later in the series we meet an elderly warrior
who grieves that he has survived all the battles that have claimed the friends of his youth,
denying him their company in Valhalla—and begs the leader of his clan for a last chance to die
on the battlefield. (
Star Trek fans will recognize the source of much of Klingon lore in the
Vikings.) The Viking belief in honorable death makes them fierce adversaries. When they fight
Saxon troops in England, their opponents are stunned at their lack of fear, but it is precisely
because they believe that dying well in battle is their surest chance at life after death.
Both Ragnar and Rollo have sworn allegiance to Earl Haraldson (a broodingly regal Gabriel
Byrne), who holds court in the town of Kattegat with his wife Siggy (Jessalyn Gilsig). They take
Ragnar's son to Kattegat to pledge his loyalty to the Earl and also to receive the annual direction
on where to set sail in search of plunder and treasure. But this year Ragnar proposes a radical
notion. Instead of staging their annual raids to the east, as has always been the custom, why not
head for fresh territory in the west? Ragnar has learned a new technique for navigation
(explained in detail in the first episode), and he will soon have a new type of ship designed and
built by an eccentric friend, Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård), who half-jokingly claims to be a distant
relation of the trickster god Loki.
The Earl rejects Ragnar's idea and is suspicious of his ambition—with good reason, as it turns
out, because Ragnar defies his ruler's commands, gathers his brother and closest friends, and
sails west anyway. After a perilous crossing, they reach the shore of Northumbria in England,
where a peaceful monastery is an easy target, and they depart with a haul of gold and silver
chalices, crosses and candlesticks, leaving many slain monks behind. The first raid is followed by
others, which are met with greater resistance, as King Aelle (Ivan Kaye) of Northumbria gathers
troops to resist. But Floki has been busy building additional ships, and the Vikings arrive in ever
greater numbers.
Back at home, Ragnar's exploits are celebrated by the people, which is exactly what Earl
Haraldson feared. The Earl is happy to see his wealth increased by Ragnar's raids, but he cannot
forgive disloyalty, and he does not brook competition. He soon becomes suspicious of all around
him and begins testing even those he used to trust. Eventually he behaves with the summary
brutality of Shakespeare's tyrant kings.
One of
Vikings' most intriguing characters is a Saxon monk named Athelstan (George Blagden),
whom Ragnar brings back from England as a slave but then treats almost as a family member.
Athelstan has learned ancient Norse in his travels as a missionary, and he teaches Ragnar enough
of the Saxon language to let the Viking commander parlay with representatives of King Aelle.
But Athelstan's real function in the story is to provide a pair of Christian eyes through which to
perceive Viking culture. As he repeatedly prays to God for guidance and is alternately fascinated
and repulsed by what he sees around him, Athelstan's is the closest to the audience's perspective.
In Episode 8, "Sacrifice", Athelstan accompanies Ragnar's family to the temple at Uppsala for a
major religious event involving celebration, feasting, hallucinogenic intoxication and carnal
indulgence—followed by human sacrifice of willing victims. To Ragnar and his family,
this is all normal custom, but Athelstan experiences each event as a new and strange occurrence.
His combined horror and fascination as he witnesses the ritual killings is provocative,
and it's a reminder that his own religion is also steeped in the blood of sacrifice—but until
now the blood has only been symbolic. For the Vikings, the shedding of blood is part of the
natural order.
In the later episodes, writer Hirst expands his canvas to include the political machinations of
King Horik (Donal Logue), the future ruler of Denmark, and his enemy Jarl Borg (Thorbjørn
Harr) of Götaland, which would eventually form part of Sweden. On this larger stage, both
Ragnar and his brother Rollo must decide anew where their loyalties lie and their futures will
lead. The possibilities for the second season are numerous, but the commentaries suggest that
even larger battle sequences can be expected.
The performances in
Vikings are impressive, and the three leads in particular inhabit their period
wardrobes and surroundings so completely that the actors are almost unrecognizable when they
appear in the Blu-ray extras in contemporary garb speaking in their own voices. Travis Fimmel's
Ragnar is clearly a man who hears the call of destiny, but he is patient enough to wait until that
call provides clear direction. As Ragnar's wife, Lagertha, Katheryn Winnick creates a credible
portrait of the Viking shieldmaiden who was just as capable of standing beside men on the
battlefield as she was of keeping a household; such women had rights, and commanded respect,
far beyond what is usually seen in a typical patriarchal society. Clive Standen's Rollo is a darkly
complex presence whose actions are impossible to predict; he is the classic individual trapped
between a good angel and a bad one on either shoulder, but Standen always leaves you guessing
which one has Rollo's attention at any given moment.
Vikings: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Vikings was shot in HD video by John S. Bartley, a veteran of such stylized storytelling as
Lost and The X-Files. The color palette has the slightly desaturated look
often used for historical
tales, but certain colors have been emphasized in post-production, e.g., the rich green of
grasses and forests in both Scandinavia and England, the deep red of blood, the bright yellow and
orange of fire and the intense blue of Ragnar's eyes (their natural color, according to Standen and
Winnick).
Each of the three 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays in Fox/MGM's set of the first season contains
three episodes (in various versions, as discussed under "Special Features"), presumably sourced
from digital files, and they all look fantastic. The sequences shot in direct sunlight are sharply
detailed and free of noise or artifacts. Those shot at night or indoors are authentically and darkly
lit, by candlelight or torches, but the blacks are solid, and the shades of black and gray are well
delineated to allow detail to emerge from shadow. The lovingly re-created period detail in
clothing, weaponry, decor, utensils and other practical objects can be seen in its full glory, and so
can the blood and grime of battle.
Thanks to some updated BD-Java code that choked my BD-ROM drive, I was unable to obtain
complete BDInfo scans or calculate average bitrates, but if there were any compression artifacts,
I certainly did not see them. Vikings is one of the finest video presentations of a TV series I have
had the pleasure to review.
Vikings: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
The most pervasive presence on the Blu-ray's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is the haunting
score by Trevor Morris, who also scored The Tudors for Hirst. Morris' score takes its cue from
the song "If I Had a Heart" by Fever Ray, which plays over the stylized opening titles, and
invests each episode of Vikings with a brooding, intense presence. The score expands throughout
the surround array and reaches down into the low ranges for deep bass response, where it readily
mixes with some of the more impressive sound effects, such as the thunder and lightning of a
major storm during Ragnar's first crossing to England.
Crowd noises at the Earl's court and various other scenes, the sounds of the sea and, of course,
battle sequences engage the surrounds in subtle but effective ways that help immerse the viewer
in the experience. The dialogue is clear and well-prioritized, when it's in English, but there are
smatterings of old Norse and Saxon throughout Vikings as a reminder that the characters spoke
languages long since dead. These lines are subtitled.
Vikings: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Extended Versions: Each episode offers an option between the version shown on The
History Channel (which includes "previously on" recaps) and the so-called "extended
version". The extended versions appears to be the uncensored episodes shown
in Europe, featuring alternative takes with more explicit nudity and gore.
- Season Mode: This option allows the episodes to be played continuously, and it
automatically bookmarks the spot when the viewer stops playback.
- Commentaries
- Episode 1, "Rites of Passage" (disc 1), with Michael Hirst and Jessalyn Gilsig:
Hirst discusses his original concept for the series, and Gilsig describes the process
of entering this historical, re-imagined world to portray one of its characters. Her
account of how she and Gabriel Byrne developed the relationship between Earl
and Siggy Haraldson is especially interesting.
- Episode 9, "All Change" (disc 3), with Katheryn Winnick and Clive Standen: The
actors who portray Lagertha and Rollo chat amiably about matters both small
(details of hair, makeup and props) and large (the bigger themes of the show and
elements of Viking culture). They also drop a few hints about season 2, which was
filming when they recorded their commentary.
- Deleted Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1): All of these scenes are brief extensions to existing
sequences and were probably cut for running time.
- Disc 1 (3:01): Three scenes, all of which were removed from Episode 1.
- Disc 3 (0:38): A single deleted scene from Episode 8.
- A Warrior Society: Viking Culture and Law (disc 3) (1080p; 1.78:1; 20:48): Series
creator Michael Hirst provides an overview of Viking society, with substantial
contributions from Dr. Anthony Perron, Professor of History, Loyola Marymount
University; Dr. Jochen Burgtorf, Professor of History, University of California, Fullerton;
and Justin Pollard, described as a "Vikings Consultant". Cast members, including
Fimmel, Winnick, Standen, Gilsig and Blagden, also contribute insights based on their
research into their characters.
- Birth of the Vikings (disc 3) (1080p; 1.78:1; 17:09): Hirst and the principal cast discuss
how the series and its lead characters were developed and evolved.
- Forging the Viking Army: Warfare and Tactics (disc 3) (1080p; 1.78:1; 12:11): This
short feature covers training for the complex battle sequences with sword master Richard
Ryan, stunt coordinator Mark Henson and key members of the cast. Comparisons
between rehearsal and on-set footage illustrate the extent of the preparation.
- Interactive Blu-ray Exclusives (disc 3): Each of these features loads a graphical chart
featuring individual items. Clicking on an item activates a brief segment featuring
historian Dr. Jochen Burgtorf, who provides relevant background or context. Both charts
include a "play all" function.
- The Armory of the Vikings
- Conquest and Discovery: Journeys of the Vikings
- Sneak Peaks (disc 2): The first four also play at the startup of disc 1.
Vikings: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
I missed Vikings during its History Channel broadcast, and my first encounter with the show was
this Blu-ray set. Without knowing what to expect, I was surprised at how quickly the series drew
me into its storylines. Hirst is a talented writer, both in his creation of individual scenes and in
planning long-term arcs that play out over several episodes, or an entire season, or even longer.
He also appreciates the value of surprising the audience with an unforeseen development that
isn't just pulled out of the air for shock value but, when you look back, turns out to be the logical
outcome of events to date. (I am being vague on purpose, but I am thinking of one specific
development in this first season.) Above all, he appreciates the importance of casting the right
actors, directors and craftspeople to fill out the visual dimension of a story, which is why Vikings
doesn't look quite like any other series. If the upcoming second season is as good as this
first one, The History Channel can look forward to more great ratings. Highly recommended.