Vikings Valhalla: TV Review-Episode 1
"The Greenlanders" offers a decent start to the much-anticipated Vikings sequel series on Netflix.
Vikings: Valhalla
Season One, Episode One: “The Greenlanders”
Plotting to avenge a massacre in England, Viking armies converge in Kattegat - but siblings Leif and Freydis exact a different kind of retribution.
Stepping into the big boots of the original Vikings series on History Channel, Vikings: Valhalla has arrived on Netflix. Helmed by Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, The Fugitive), we’d expect some fast-moving, polished action and plot and we get it. Though Valhalla is something of an heir/sequel to its predecessor, it takes place one hundred (or so) years later in the 11th century as the Viking Age gradually comes to an end. Let’s dive in.
(BEWARE—MEDIUM SPOILER WARNING)
“The Greenlanders” opens with a nice Norse score and graphics and, as we’d expect from Stuart, wastes no time in whipping up action. English King Aethelred II (Bosco Hogan) attacks all Viking settlements in England, slaughtering the inhabitants. Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter), the great-grandson of Harald Finehair, has just left the island and escapes the ambush.
Infuriated, King Canute of Denmark (Bradley Freegard) calls for all Vikings to assemble in Kattegat (the main location of the original series, built up and more cosmopolitan but still familiar) to form an invasion force hell-bent on revenge. Despite losses due to sea storms, the boat with Greenlanders Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett) and his sister Freydis Eriksdotter (Frida Gustavsson) arrives not to join Canute but to pursue a vendetta.
The man Leif and Freydis seek is apparently Olaf Haraldsson (Game of Thrones alumni Johannes Haukur Johanesson), a Christian Viking who once brutally violated Freydis and carved a cross on her back. Olaf is Harald Sigurdsson’s older half-brother, which might complicate things, considering Harald and Freydis have already hooked up earlier in the episode. Olaf, his lieutenant Magnus Gunnarson (Leifur Sigurdarson) and his company are welcomed into Canute’s growing army but the devout Olaf refuses to fight alongside pagans.
Freydis eventually strikes her target in full view of the celebration party in the great hall of Kattegat and she and Leif are imprisoned. The episode ends with the fates of the Greenlanders hanging in the balance.
Gorgeous to look at and full of well-executed action and special effects, Vikings: Valhalla rachets up the plot tensions rapidly: tension between Olaf and Canute, tension between new Christianity and traditional paganism and tension between Freydis and her Greenlander company. But in the hurry to get their story rolling, the writers spilled some beans too fast: it would’ve been more effective dramatically to let the mystery of Freydis’ revenge go unexplained for a while, which would have made her character more enigmatic.
There is a lot of interesting stuff here. It’s surprising to see how severely the Viking culture has been split by Christian conversion since the first series. Canute and Harald must overcome this conflict of faith as they assemble their Army by torchlight, and this produces one of the best scenes of the first episode. The Greenlanders, coming from a sparsely populated pagan island, are truly strangers among their own people, separated by religion and overwhelmed by the bustling urban environment of Kattegat.
Also interesting is the character of the widowed Jarl Estrid Hakkon (Caroline Henderson) the black female Chieftan of Kattegat whose presence further establishes how much more worldly the town is in this era. I hope Jarl emerges as a major character because her story is surely quite striking.
Like many first series episodes “The Greenlanders” is guilty of trying to introduce too many characters at once, each with a dash of backstory, in the midst of plotlines being piled on top of each other. It’s likely that the Valhalla producers, determined to snag the loyal hordes of Vikings fans tuning in, felt they needed as many hooks as possible.
Overall, Vikings: Valhalla turns in a good first episode with “The Greenlanders.” The drama is a bit too broad and ham-handed but that is more ‘first episode-itis’ and will quickly pass. And while the treacheries lacing Vikings was usually hidden and subtly executed, the conspiracies in the first installment of Vikings: Valhalla mostly explode in the open.
But Vikings: Valhalla also has a lot to like. The main characters are distinct and well-motivated and every actor looks comfortable in their role. The plot rockets along and the environment feels natural and lived-in. This is the new generation, just as pretty if not more so than the last, and the memory of Ragnar Lothbrok is alive and well, his story now a part of Viking legend.
And that’s the thing. Travis Fimmel’s intense, charismatic and unpredictable portrayal of the wild Ragnar, paired with Katheryn Winnick’s powerful and wise Lagertha, was the beating heart of the original Vikings: when their characters left the show the remaining ensemble-oriented seasons suffered for it.
Perhaps it is unfair to try to identify characters as strong as Ragnar and Lagertha and Loki in the first episode of Vikings: Valhalla but I didn’t see one, though Gustavsson’s Freydis seems primed to emerge if handled well. Of course, I’ll give the writers a chance to develop the show—the whole first season—before I wail about such things.
But of one thing I am certain: the beloved characters were the reason for the success of Vikings and the makers of Vikings: Valhalla must at least come close to building equally engaging protagonists/anti-heroes or they’ll surely lose the loyal horde.
EPISODE RANK: 7.3 out of 10
(All eight Vikings: Valhalla season one episodes are currently streaming on Netflix. I’ll be reviewing one episode per day.)
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