Vikings was a popular show that spanned many seasons and had a great cast of actors. The set pieces were well done and the story, though at times it took historical liberties, it was well written. Vikings Valhalla, a spin off set a hundred years after the first series brought a new geopolitical climate, new characters and a familiar yet new world to explore. I fell in love with the new characters and their plight in season 1 and I was super excited for season 2. I will say right off the bat, Season 2 surpassed season 1 for me. The three story arcs were interesting and really emphasised the three different genres the show is good at capturing. Freydis’ adventures exploring ancient Norse religion and culture as well as exposing corruption and dealing with zealots from all sides so I’d say her story is more of a mystery/detective thriller story?
Then comes Harald and Leif’s story as they and a ragtag bunch of adventurers sail down to Constantinople, this is classic adventure and this was my favourite story arc in the season that left me with watering eyes as it reached its conclusion. Then the story set in England is full on cloak & dagger and the amount of conspiracy and double crossing had me concentrating on who was outplaying who. So without going into spoilers, you can see there is a lot of things going on in this show which kept every episode fresh and has built up what can only be an exciting season 3. The set pieces, costumes and action was all top notch and brutal (just how I like it) and while some parts of the writing was characters doing silly things to push the plot along (or not doing things that would have made sense) the story still left me wanting more when the final credits rolled, which is a good thing!
