It's no longer unusual for a creator to have such a wide-ranging influence on his television show that he might as well have written every episode himself. Of course that'd be kind of ridiculous and nearly impossible to do. And yet, Vikings creator Michael Hirst has tried to do that very thing on Vikings, writing every single one of the 28 episodes so far.
And I think the show has suffered for it. It's creatively stagnant with few surprises and constantly checking on stories that have never been interesting. The first season was a good show with a few flaws that never got fixed. The second season was pretty much an identical season to the first, quality-wise. And the third season in my mind represents a clear decline.
One of the biggest worries for me going forward is that I thought the dynamic between Athlestan and Ragnar was one of the most compelling and intriguing parts of the show. And for some reason Hirst had him killed off by Floki. From a plot sense, it made sense. Floki has been resentful of Athlestan for years and it was only a matter of time. But from a character perspective, it loses a lot of the appeal I once had for this show. With him gone, what relationship will provide the bedrock for the series?
Similarly once a staple of the show, the relationship between Ragnar and Lagaertha is another thing that's been missing. Occasionally, we'll get a glimpse of their past, but it's few and far between. Understandably they've grown apart, but unfortunately their new partners are significantly less interesting. Aslaug has never been a good character and barely anything changes this season. I can't think of anything she did this season except come into contact with a wanderer and humiliate the Christian who thought he could carry a burning stick. The wanderer brought the death of Siggy and her death was far more interesting than anything she did in life. THAT was a good example of using a death for a character who had exceeded her time and raising the stakes.
And Kalf is a dud as a character, who instead of being menacing, just makes Lagaertha bad because she trusted him. His character motivations made no sense either. Lagaertha wanted to marry him and he didn't because we needed a plot here, so he usurps her by gaining the trust of another member who wanted her gone because women be crazy. That member was apparently impactful enough to convince everyone else Kalf was good as earl, but not impactful enough to convince everyone Lagaertha was bad. It's a mess and it could probably be forgiven if Ben Robson is at all convincing. But he's not and every time spent on him was time better spent elsewhere.
Which is really the story of Vikings at this point. It's a shocking change of pace from one moment to the next. You're either really interested in what's happening (Ragnar is usually involved) or not at all interested (most of King Ecbert later in the season, although thank god for Linus Roache). Speaking of not being interesting, I have no idea why they decided to make Athelstan have sex with Princess Judith. Here's where something comes out of nowhere. Despite never showing any interest in women, he all of a sudden is so distraught with "love" for Judith that he abandon common sense and has sex with her. She gets pregnant and then gets her ear cut off and then Ecbert wants to have an affair with her, because she's apparently irresistible despite having no personality. She's basically a blank canvas so that Hirst can do whatever he wants with her in order to have a plot.
Floki is well played Gustaf Skarsgård, but his character is extremely annoying at this point. I'm sure there's another beat to be played other than "Really religious and hates Christianity" but Hirst has yet to do it. It isn't that his character isn't well-explored, it's that there's got to be something else to the character. It was good to see him get his comeuppance in the battle because I no longer like him at all.
Speaking of that battle, Hirst keeps trying to do the impossible and fool the audience into thinking something will happen that so clearly won't. Last season, it was Floki turning on Ragnar. This season, it was acting like Ragnar died. Look, it was somewhat convincing, but the biggest problem is that without Ragnar there is no show. He IS the show. So if he dies, what the hell else is he going to do? Plus, all of his actions where nobody could see him look worse because if you're playing a long con on the audience, you need to have him fooling someone else who isn't supposed to know. But if he's coughing up blood by himself, that's just cheating.
Naturally, Travis Fimmel is as good as ever. He's the reason to watch the show at this point. In fact, I'm not sure if his story is still technically interesting as it is written or if Fimmel is just that good. Similarly, Linus Roache does his best with some weak material. When he's a part of the plot and he and Ragnar grin and play mind games with each other, it's honestly fantastic television. When he starts just getting thrown in to remind us he's still a factor, he's not really able to save the pointlessness of it all.
Not much else to say about this season - or at least if I did have more, I'd talk too much about plot. This show is technically better than other shows as mediocrely written as this because of its production values, it's acting, and it's period drama. Technically speaking I should probably give this a higher grade than I will. It's a C show that is elevated to a B show from its production. But I'm going to give it a C anyway because no way in hell do I think this season deserved a B.
Grade - C
Playlist
1. "Easy" - The Commodores
2. "The Man in Me" - Bob Dylan
3. "Maggot Brain" - Funkadelic
4. "1999" - Prince (Look this up on Spotify I guess; no Prince songs on Youtube)
5. "House of the Rising Sun" - The Animals
