Vikings: Valhalla review: Netflix drops a violent, same-y sequel series

Sequels, reboots, and the typically unholy union of the 2 (“Requels”) are all over the place today — notably on Netflix, the place what’s lifeless might by no means die and the streaming service has resuscitated various dormant or waning initiatives. See: Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath, You, Manifest, Designated Survivor, and Lucifer; all Netflix originals now, in a method or one other.

However Vikings is an entire different ballgame. The unique sequence was Historical past Channel’s first stab at fiction TV, and a large rankings success out the gate. The exploits of the good Ragnar Lothbrok, Bjorn Ironside, Lagertha, or Ivar the Boneless was like a smaller-scale Recreation of Thrones, with an emphasis much less on advanced political intrigue than a world audiences knew coming into a brand new interval. Plus, extremely bloody raids.

Netflix’s spinoff, Vikings: Valhalla, goals to seize that lightning once more, only a bit additional down the timeline in Vikings historical past. And it involves TV when ax-swinging imitators are rather more frequent. Put one other method: Valhalla has to do extra to set itself other than the pack — of historic fantasy epics and the Netflix glut alike.

What’s Vikings: Valhalla?

Set 100 years after the occasions of the Historical past channel unique Vikings, Valhalla picks up because the age of the Vikings is nearly coming to a detailed (although the Vikings on the present actually don’t know that).

When the present arrives in Kattegat, it’s arduous to know precisely what would be the greatest contributor to the downfall of the civilization. However there’s actually so much to select from: The Viking infighting spurred on by spiritual variations? The waning affect in Europe? The ever-expanding empire Vikings have carved out and rule with an iron, usually bloodied, fist?

Who’s behind Vikings: Valhalla?

Vikings creator Michael Hirst stepped apart as showrunner for this one, however he’s nonetheless on board as one of many govt producers. In his place is Jeb Stuart, the creator and showrunner of Valhalla. Stuart has a background in blockbusters, penning the scripts for classics like Die Laborious and The Fugitive.

Additionally of significant significance to the present is Richard Ryan, a stunt coordinator who helped choreograph the fights of Valhalla, in addition to Troy, Sherlock Holmes, The Darkish Knight, and the unique Vikings.

What’s the pilot about?

Picture: Bernard Walsh: Netflix

Valhalla being a Vikings present, issues begin off with a little bit of bloodshed: the St. Brice’s Day bloodbath, when the British killed the Viking communities on their shores. Barely escaping together with his life is Harald Hardrada (Leo Suter), who has designs on sometime being the King of Norway. A 12 months later, he joins the remainder of the Vikings summoned to Kattegat by King Canute (Bradley Freegard) to launch a counter assault on the English.

Amongst these arriving within the bustling port metropolis are Leif Erickson (Sam Corlett) and his sister Freydís (Frida Gustavsson), who’ve an ulterior motive for attending the Viking get-together. However whereas they present up with different missions in thoughts, they will’t resist getting caught up within the glory of Viking life within the 1000s.

What’s it actually about?

Whereas Vikings: Valhalla has gotten lots of ink for being in regards to the finish of an period, the present’s first season investigates the waning days of a tradition on a a lot quieter stage. The extra issues change, the extra they keep the identical. For as a lot because the Christian and pagan Vikings disagree with one another, they act and raid almost identically. They share clothes, hairstyles, even philosophies. Either side might mount its assaults towards the opposite, however the unhealthy man, an Murderer’s Creed-style Christian Viking named Jarl Kåre (Asbjørn Krogh), nonetheless calls his troopers “berserkers.”

And so Valhalla’s guiding ethos because it strikes ahead is about methods to take care of a mammoth cultural shift that’s taking its time. There’s no sense that the Vikings will cease participating in behaviors they’ve finished for tons of of years. However the Norse/Viking id is undeniably altering, both because of the broader web of non secular idolatry or geographic location.

When Leif and his firm of Greenlanders arrive in Kattegat, they really feel like a throwback to an earlier period of Viking tradition, extra fascinated with doing their enterprise and returning to a quiet life. What we all know of Leif’s future means the shifts in Viking tradition will push them additional and additional into the frontier, till they lastly attain a realm they as soon as thought legendary: North America. However their sense of Viking id might be challenged well-before they make it to the New World.

Is Vikings: Valhalla good?

Picture: Bernard Walsh/Netflix

Valhalla will ship, significantly for individuals who largely simply crave good Viking battle. Battles are bloody, and the troopers berserk.

In its greatest moments, the primary season lets sophisticated beliefs relaxation simply subsequent to one another. These beats present a softer have a look at the cultural divides which can be usually misrepresented as a dichotomy within the eyes of historical past; individuals can maintain totally different views throughout the similar tradition and it’s not really a mirrored image of their morality as an individual. Freydís, a Pagan, is brutal and vengeful, however not pointlessly merciless. Olaf Haraldsson (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) is a dick, and likewise a believer in merciful Jesus Christ.

Finally the toughest half for the sequence might be stepping out from below the shadow of the unique. The arc of Valhalla’s first season is broadly similar to that of the unique Vikings: You’ve received totally different Vikings factions scheming towards one another. Finally they make their strategy to England, the place the interior politics of the English begin interweaving and complicating the scenario. Even the spiritual undercurrents aren’t that far off of Ragnar’s early flirtations with Christianity. It’s not that there aren’t fascinating moments inside these conflicts or gripping battle sequences, however there’s a sense of getting seen it earlier than.

Plus, it’s not fairly as distinctive because it as soon as was. The place Vikings felt like little else on TV on the time — the apparent comparability to Recreation of Thrones leaves out a stage of broodiness that felt extra akin to Hannibal — Valhalla feels completely like TV of the second. There’s a sheen to the entire affair, actually brighter on the display than its forebearer. Vikings had extra of a indifferent artfulness guiding the tone and elegance, permitting it to really feel a bit unusual; Valhalla is extra propulsive, however loses a few of the weirdness of the unique.

Maybe the most effective instance of their variations comes from the opening credit: Set to the otherworldly “If I Had a Coronary heart” by Fever Ray, Vikings’ was all moody ephemeralism, portending doom and conquest abruptly. Valhalla’s — when it performs in full within the pilot episode — is winding string devices and chanting performed over closeups of silver runes flying towards a nondescript background. It’s nearly precisely the template Netflix used for The Witcher.

The selection appears consultant of how a lot TV has moved throughout the few years since Vikings left us. Fantasy epics, historic or in any other case, aren’t as distinctive as they as soon as had been. In just some weeks, Netflix will launch the fifth and closing season of The Final Kingdom (one other Netflix rescue). Outlander remains to be going, as is Kingdom and Britannia, and that’s all earlier than Home of the Dragon or Witcher comes again. Valhalla isn’t horrible. But it surely feels largely like extra of the identical, with out having a lot of an id to itself. In a crowded panorama, that doesn’t give it so much to struggle for.

When and the place can I watch Vikings: Valhalla?

All eight episodes of Vikings: Valhalla are actually streaming on Netflix.