Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Episodes: 10
Duration: 42 minutes (per episode)
Vikings: Season 5, Volume 1 (DVD) – Series Review
Vikings has been going strong for over four seasons now, and they even doubled the number of episodes for the fourth and previous season. At the beginning of the journey, we didn’t know what to expect and how the story would evolve, but we immediately fell in love with the character Ragnar Lothbrok. The farmer who rose to the ranks of a Viking king was an inspiration to many, especially because he was a rather peaceful character, even though he was a formidable and brutal fighter as well. Sadly, this season is the first season without Ragnar in the lead, and we were somewhat worried if the series would still be as strong. Luckily we were quickly proven wrong for worrying too much about the lack of Ragnar in the series.
The story of the fifth season, or at least the first half of it, is somewhat of a clusterfuck. You’ll have the younger Ragnar siblings who remain back in York, as they made the city theirs, and try to claim the land that was promised to them. This slowly turns into a fight between brothers as Ivar (Alex Høgh Andersen) wants to follow a path of violence, while Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) opts for a more gentle and peaceful approach. Somewhere in the middle, we find Hvitserk (Marco Ilsø) struggling to decide which brother to follow.
In the meantime, Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) wants to further explore the world to see what else there is outside of the known Viking world. In Kattegat things aren’t looking all too bright for Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) as her grip on power is slowly loosening, and there’s also a possible takeover lurking around the corner. We also see snippets about Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) finding the promised land.
The flow of this season is actually quite hard to judge. There is a lot going on at the same time. You’ll find the sons of Ragnar creating their own conflict, which will escalate to a very personal war, while you also have the situation back in England, which shows us the new regime, a new key character, bishop Heahmund (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) but also the legacy of Athelstan (George Blagden), namely his son Alfred (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). All of this makes for a hectic and action-packed season that throws a lot of information your way. Add to that Floki’s escapades, and you’ll have more than enough content to go around. Again this season has twenty episodes, with ten episodes being released physically now. It feels like these ten episodes stand tall on their own, and are pretty much a separate season like it was before the fourth season where every season was only ten episodes.
While the cast still has many familiar faces, this season is the first one without Travis Fimmel playing the legendary Ragnar Lothbrok. It’s strange to have the series, which originally revolved around this character, continue after his death. Nonetheless, the acting performances are once again superb with Alex Høgh Andersen getting a lot more screen time as the somewhat sinister Ivar. He plays the cripple, yet ambitious character very well, striking a bit of fear into everyone as he slowly descends into his own personal madness. Familiar faces such as Katheryn Winnick and Alexander Ludwig strengthen the already great cast and there are many others who either become a bit more important this season or are slowly saying their goodbyes.
The special features on this DVD edition of the first part of Season 5 include deleted scenes, commentaries, a part about Ivar and how they introduced the Sami, a rather strange tribe of people. There isn’t too much content to be found this time, but what’s there is quite interesting. We would have loved to see more about certain aspects of the Vikings’ lifestyle.
Conclusion
Vikings: Season 5, Volume 1 is an interesting continuation of the series, which for the first time doesn’t include the performance of Travis Fimmel. Alex Høgh Andersen picks up where Travis left off, albeit with a totally different perspective on things. You’ll get plenty of action this season, and many intertwining storylines, to make sure you’ll know what is going on at all times. It’s rare to see a series that remains as qualitative as this after five seasons, even when the original main character no longer appears in it.
Vikings: Season 5, Volume 1 (DVD) – Series Review,
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