• Sat, Dec 14, 24
  • 1:53:12 pm
Search
Close this search box.

vikings

28 Jan

Vikings: Valhalla – What The Timeline Reveals

Netflix, New DVD release, , ,
This article contains spoilers for the final season of Vikings. In its final season Vikings tied up the story of Ragnar and his sons, and ended with a pitch-perfect, almost poetic, coda. Ragnar, however, was just the beginning of the Vikings’ story. Later this year, Netflix will bring us the saga’s concluding chapter, Vikings: Valhalla. Set more than 150 years after the events of its parent show, Vikings: Valhalla charts the Vikings’ last glorious push as a cultural force with which to be reckoned, while chronicling some of the early 11th century’s most intrepid, influential and powerful figures. Based on…
Read More
13 Jan

Vikings Season 6: Where in the (New) World are Ubbe and Floki?

New DVD release, , , ,
This article contains spoilers for Vikings season 6. Vikings bowed out on a beautiful scene that evoked both the quiet victory of love and friendship over savage human nature, and the endless, rolling seas of the uncharted future. Floki and Ubbe sat together on a far-flung New World beach – as westward as any two Vikings had ever travelled – reflecting on their lives and lots. They basked in the warmth of each other as much in the glow of the sun, and then watched in enraptured silence as the sun slowly set in the… east? But… they sailed west…
Read More
03 Jan

Vikings Season 6 Episode 20 Review: The Last Act

New DVD release, , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 20 “I left when the sadness became too much.” There’s a certain sadness that accompanies the moment we must say goodbye to the beloved characters of a television series that captivates so much of our emotional capital and also demands we examine our own spirituality and moral principles. Vikings has reached the end of its run, and while some may find the conclusion somewhat dissatisfying, the acknowledgement that the past must be left behind resonates powerfully not only throughout the series finale, but the entire back half of the season as…
Read More
03 Jan

Vikings Season 6 Episode 19 Review: The Lord Giveth . . .

New DVD release, , , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 19 “We all have a duty to preserve the old ways.” Nearing the end of its six season run, the series penultimate episode “The Lord Giveth . . .” sets up a fascinating dynamic for the final chapter in Michael Hirst’s history based drama Vikings, but it’s the return of an old friend that brings an emotional close to an episode that otherwise finds warring sides in Wessex and Kattegat jockeying for position. Yes, Floki’s back and will hopefully have many stories to tell. The cold open picks up where the…
Read More
02 Jan

Vikings Season 6 Episode 17 Review: The Raft of Medusa

New DVD release, , , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 17 “Of course I do not trust them; they lie about everything.” While there’s little question it’s King Harald’s mission to conquer Wessex that garners the bulk of our attention in this episode, it’s the final gasp of Ubbe and the Greenland survivors that captures the indomitable spirit of the Vikings. During Vikings six year run, we’ve witnessed unspeakably horrific acts both on the battlefield and behind closed doors, but “The Raft of Medusa” demands we glimpse another dark side of the human condition that transcends the physical plane and puts…
Read More
02 Jan

Vikings Season 6: How Lagertha’s Legacy Lives On

New DVD release, , , ,
This article contains Vikings season 6 spoilers. With the release of season 6 part two on Dec. 30, Vikings has come to an end. While the spinoff Vikings: Vahalla is set to premiere on Netflix sometime in 2021, it will pick up the story of the Viking and Anglo-Saxon conflict 100 years after the last events depicted in the original series. Thus the series finale of Vikings means we are saying goodbye to all the characters whose exploits viewers have enjoyed these last seven years. Whether in the flesh or in flashbacks, this is the final farewell. And no character…
Read More
02 Jan

Vikings Season 6 Episode 18 Review: It’s Only Magic

New DVD release, , , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 18 “Here is the grave of the most famous Viking who ever lived.” There’s an element of truth to the well-known axiom that says it’s always calm before the storm, and as we near the end of the saga, Vikings allows its characters a moment to catch their collective breaths before taking steps that will drastically alter their respective political and personal landscapes. “It’s Only Magic” delivers a series of emotional interiors that lays the groundwork for resolutions in Kattegat and France and provides a fresh beginning in a wondrous new…
Read More
01 Jan

Vikings Season 6 Episode 16 Review: The Final Straw

New DVD release, , , , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 16 “The gods work in mysterious ways.” Amidst a plethora of intense soul searching, Vikings finds itself weighted down in a morass of despair, self-loathing, and regret.  And while introspection and personal assessment are necessary growth elements for both characters and storylines, “The Final Straw” plods along before finally revealing the next move for Ivar the Boneless. With Kjetill and the other Greenlanders in the rear view mirror, Vikings leaves that thread behind, at least for the time being, and hopefully brings some closure to Floki’s Icelandic debacle. Of all the…
Read More
01 Jan

Vikings Ending Explained

New DVD release, ,
The following contains spoilers for Vikings season 6 part two. Vikings has always been concerned with legacy: that of the Vikings themselves, and of Ragnar and his sons. It’s clear from the show’s coda – Ubbe and Floki side by side on a distant beach, contemplating existence as the sun glows down upon the endless stretch of ocean before them –  that the two ultimately are inseparable. Bound up in this spider’s web of myth and mayhem, too, is the fate and legacy of the show itself. How will it be remembered now that it is gone? In a word:…
Read More
01 Jan

Vikings Season 6 Episode 15 Review: All At Sea

New DVD release, , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 15 “I have other ambitions, unfinished business.” Vikings continues to deftly interweave the multiple story threads that have long been a staple of the series, and whether these connections are driven by characters, action, or visuals, they provide a deeper layer of meaning within this elaborate saga. From the images of Katia and Gunnhild wearing all white to the emotionally disturbed actions of Kjetill Flatnose and Prince Oleg, “All At Sea” maintains these exquisitely subtle narrative touches as one set of conflicts are put to rest and new ones begin to…
Read More
31 Dec

Vikings Season 6 Episode 14 Review: Lost Souls

New DVD release, , , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 14 “We should never forget our past. Ever.” Perhaps Gunnhild says it best when she confides in her dead husband Bjorn that “the time for great heroes is over,” a statement that speaks to the loss of direction so many of the characters now experience as the Viking age reaches a crossroads. “Lost Souls” journeys through a complicated tangle of feelings that focus on the leadership vacuums a new world order sets into motion. Despite all of the upheaval, Vikings continues its string of solid episodes and deftly previews the impending…
Read More
31 Dec

Vikings Season 6 Episode 13 Review: The Signal

New DVD release, , , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 13 “If anyone kills him, it should be me. A brother’s privilege.” Like most shows, Vikings is at its best when the action and dialogue flow easily, and the seemingly disparate storylines offer some measure of cohesion. Even though there’s still significant physical and narrative distance among them, “The Signal” presents highly satisfying developments in Kiev, Kattegat, and aboard Ubbe’s ill fated voyage.  It’s never easy to understand the Lothbrok brothers, and the circuitous route that eventually reunites Ivar and Hvitserk provides an opportunity for both to confess their true feelings…
Read More
30 Dec

Vikings Season 6 Episode 12 Review: All Change

New DVD release, , , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 12 “We were defeated by a dead man.” Three different lands; three different political situations. The natural heir to Kattegat’s throne doesn’t want it. Prince Igor is still too young to take the crown that is rightfully his to wear, and the presumptive favorite in Iceland rose to prominence by savagely slaughtering his opposition. The desire for power remains a potent aspect of the human condition, and like so many before him, Michael Hirst examines the motivations these men and women possess and the depths to which they’ll go to seize…
Read More
30 Dec

Vikings Season 6 Episode 11 Review: King of Kings

New DVD release, , , ,
This Vikings review contains spoilers. Vikings Season 6 Episode 11 “The man who could not die is buried here.” It’s been nearly eleven months since Vikings closed out the first half of its sixth and final season, but the Michael Hirst historical drama wastes no time seamlessly dropping viewers smack in the middle of the Rus effort to overtake Norway and further Prince Oleg’s ruthless power grab. Nevertheless, for a series that has often faced unrealistic fan expectations, there’s no way to ignore the realization that with the death of Lagertha, Vikings has finally become, for better or worse, the…
Read More
23 Dec

Vikings Season 6 Part Two Review (Spoiler-Free)

New DVD release, , ,
This Vikings season 6 part two review is based on all 10 episodes and contains no spoilers. Vikings has always been Ragnar Lothbrok’s (Travis Fimmel) story. First, we witnessed the rise of the man himself from farmer to visionary to earl to king to legend. Post-Ragnar, the show became an exploration of how Ragnar’s legend suffused and inhabited his sons, and the consequences of its interpretation upon enemies, frenemies, kith, kin and Kings the world over. And, now, the saga comes to an end with the second half of Vikings swansong sixth season, ten episodes that drip with all the…
Read More
22 Dec

Vikings Season 6 Part One Recap: Making Kings, a Kattegat Killing, and the Rus Threat

New DVD release, , , , , ,
This article contains spoilers for Vikings season 6 part one. Season five of Vikings saw Ivar’s dreams of rule, romance, and Godhood collapse around him like a volcano on Floki’s head. Defeated by his band of brothers, betrayed by his wife, Freydis, the tyrant was forced to disguise himself as a peasant and smuggle himself out of Kattegat in the back of a merchant’s cart.  We left our heroes (a relative term in the topsy-turvy, strifey-knifey world of Vikings, admittedly) ready to begin the task of rebuilding their lives and their stronghold of Kattegat, all the while standing in the…
Read More
06 Dec

Why Vikings Is Ending

New DVD release,
Vikings season 6 returns for its second half on December 30 to conclude the series, but rather than airing weekly on the History channel, all ten episodes will drop on Amazon Prime Video. Those without a subscription will still be able to watch the final season on History, but not until 2021, begging the question: has the haphazard manner in which Vikings has aired contributed to its cancellation, or is there another reason? Even before the deal with Amazon, some may have wondered if the separation of the later seasons into two halves, each with large gaps in between, alienated…
Read More
29 Oct

Netflix’s Barbarians: Here to Fill The Last Kingdom and Vikings-Shaped Hole in Your Life

New DVD release, , , ,
Just because Netflix viewers don’t live in a world where it’s acceptable to strip to the waist, smear ourself in blood and send a spear whistling through the neck of our enemy, doesn’t mean that we don’t want to watch other people doing it. We very much do.  Brutal historical TV drama is a holiday from our small lives. Olden-days mud and guts are an antidote to hours spent worrying about whether we offended Justin in accounts with that .gif, or if our dog is eating a sufficiently iron-rich diet. To the modern person, the life of a warrior has an attractive…
Read More
21 Aug

The Northman Vikings Drama Begins Production in Ireland, Adds Björk to Cast

New DVD release, , , , , ,
Robert Eggers’ new Northern European thriller just added some Icelandic authenticity to its credentials with singer and songwriter Björk joining the cast in an unspecified role. This puts Björk in a company of performers that includes Bill Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgård, and Willem Dafoe, just in time as the movie begins its production in Ireland this week. Beginning filming after the coronavirus pandemic delayed filming earlier in the year, The Northman marks the third historical drama from Robert Eggers after he made two of the most interesting horror movies of the last decade in The Witch (2016)…
Read More
25 Jul

Vikings Season 6: Showrunner Teases “Fates Decided”

New DVD release, , , , ,
Fans of History’s Nordic drama Vikings are used to waiting patiently for the series to return for its next installment, but with Covid-19 raging globally, any news of a return for the final ten episodes is certainly welcome. And while creator, writer, and showrunner Michael Hirst didn’t reveal anything concrete about the conclusion of season six, his appearance on a Comic-Con@Home 2020 panel gave the show’s followers a chance to reminisce along with past and present cast members Travis Fimmel (Ragnar), Katheryn Winnick (Lagertha), Alex Ludwig (Bjorn), Jordan Patrick Smith (Ubbe), and Clive Standen (Rollo). Senior writer with TV Guide…
Read More

DVD Guide reviews current dvd releases of movies and TV shows. The reviews of these dvd releases are my thoughts and understandings of the movie, dvd releases or TV show and not be taken as fact.

Movie Shop

Categories

Other Blogs