Mrs. Brik and I love to watch historical dramas. We especially liked The Tudors and The Borgias, rife with murder and sex, and “based on true stories.” Vikings promised to be more of the same, and it pretty much delivered on all accounts.
Vikings is about Ragnar Lothbrok, who is a famous Viking, apparently. I’ll confess I know pretty much nothing about Nordic history. Anyway, it’s about his rise from meager farmer to king of the Vikings. Along the way, he engages in the requisite sex, murder, and conspiracies. All these things culminate to make the show fun.
The thing about Vikings that bothers me is that it isn’t masterfully plotted. It’s like the writer (there is only one, Michael Hirst) sits down at a table and says, “What should Ragnar do this week?” Things herk and jerk episodically. I don’t get the sense that Hirst drafted a season-long game plan. That much should be apparent when the big climax of Season 1 comes halfway through the nine-episode run, and then the final episode ends with some basic dialogue, only to be resolved in the first half of the first episode of season 2.
Awesomely Shitty 