Vikings a robust spectacle
Land’s end is in sight on Vikings’ season finale. And quite the finale it promises to be, after last week’s eerie, haunting episode about pagan rituals and ritual sacrifice.
The first-year period epic about Norsemen braving stiff winds and high seas to pillage Christian monasteries up and down England’s northeast coast is no longer an unknown quantity. “Seventy-four million have watched,” according to breathless History Channel promos that have been running all week in the U.S. “But … on the finale … no one will see this coming.” Them’s fightin’ words. Vikings may suffer in comparison to the epic Game of Thrones, not to mention the more intellectual, absorbing The Borgias, but it has proven to be compelling, addictive even, in its own right. Make no mistake: Vikings is a robust spectacle, brimming with confidence and a kind of brutish, lowdown style.
It also tells a cracking good yarn, with solid performances by Australian actor Travis Fimmel, unrecognizable from his Calvin Klein modelling and Tarzan days, as Ragnar Lothbrok, a lowly farmerturned-pillager and explorer of the high seas, and Etobicoke, Ont., native Katheryn Winnick as Lagertha, Ragnar’s wife and a shieldmaiden handy with a stone axe.
In the finale, Ragnar and his band of warriors are commissioned by their king to journey to nearby Götaland — Sweden to you — to settle a land dispute with the noisy neighbours.
Meanwhile, back on the family homestead, there are early signs of a deadly plague, a pre-Dark Ages strain of the Black Plague perhaps, and there’s not much anyone can do but turn to Lagertha for help appeasing the gods. Another ritual sacrifice, perhaps?
Promos trade in hype, of course, and anyone who’s watched TV for even a moment or two knows how easy it is to be misled.
Vikings has two things working in its favour, though. Last week’s episode was eerie and frightening and beautiful, and the closing image of ritual sacrifice was unforgettable. It seems unlikely that, after such a strong outing, Vikings will suddenly head south in the finale.
The other thing Vikings has in its favour is a consistency of tone. By now, fans know exactly what to expect. It’s serious, but doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s violent, but not gratuitously bloody or offputting. It’s set in the historical past, but it doesn’t play like a history lesson. The writing touches on big-theme issues like faith versus reason, nature versus nurture, and devotion to one’s family versus loyalty to the clan — but it’s entertaining, too. Watching Vikings is both enlightening, from a historical point-ofview, and darn good fun. It’s rock ’em, sock ’em entertainment, with something resembling horned helmets. (Sunday, 10 p.m., History)
Orphan Black opened with a familiar and seemingly tired premise. A young woman on the outs learns she has an identical twin who is living a better life. When the identical twin dies suddenly, the first twin assumes the other’s identity, only to get more than she bargained for.
Something interesting has happened with Orphan Black in recent weeks, though. It has matured into a thoughtful sci-fi thriller in which there’s not one twin but several — dozens, possibly hundreds, even. (Saturday, 9 p.m., Space)