Vikings Season 4

Check out my reviews for seasons 1-3: Season 1, which I enjoyed, and Season 2, which I found weak and uninteresting, and Season 3, which was uneven, but picked up near the end.

Overall, and without spoilers I want to say that I found Season 4 much stronger than the previous 2 seasons. It was different, the characters have by this point grown and changed with new characters coming into the storyline, but overall, I found it a strong, interesting season. It also helped that I completely skipped all the pornographic sex scenes - it seems like they have a quota of a certain number of these per episode and these do nothing to the storyline, of course. But it's kind of easy to see it coming at this point so it's easy to skip them.

This season was longer than the other three seasons and I felt that the pace was much better. They took time to develop some characters this time and to show us some of the plots that they were making so their actions don't come completely by surprise. It also helped to take it a bit slower, because you could feel from the beginning of the season that some of the old characters were going to fade into the background or get killed and the show would now focus on new characters so we kind of got eased into it and got to spend a little time with these new characters before they became prominent. Ragnar's son take a greater prominence and, even though I was worried about it, the second half of season 4 actually does better as a result!

We get to see more of the Viking raids as they not only return to Paris, but also seek other, new lands to raid. And we finally have some closure on some storylines that were stretched for far too long.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

The first half of the season picked up where season 3 had left off with the Paris story-line and with Lagertha's Earldom power-struggles. What I enjoyed the most in this first half was the second attempt at invading Paris and watching them deal with Rollo's defenses and face off against him. Even though he spent the majority of this half of the season stupidly wandering around in a drugged state he still managed to pull off a completely insane plane, showing that he could still be the same adventurous, daring character from season 1. And to be honest, by this time I was starting to grow tired of Ragnar so I didn't really mind that Rollo succeeded in his new life and allegiances. I just wish he hadn't needed to slaughter his people in order to make that change.

The second half of the season shifts the focus even more away from Ragnar by having him go away for a while and having a time-skip and then spending some time introducing his now-grown sons. And while I wasn't so sure about this change at first, especially since they spent far too much time on gratuitous sex-scenes, the action quickly picked up and showed that my fears were unfounded. The focus on Bjorn's own journey was kind of a reminder of that first journey Ragnar took in season 1. Watching Aslaug finally get killed was, I will admit, satisfying, as she always irritated me as a character. And then Ragnar's end, while it could easily have spelled the end for the show, came as a new life for the show, giving his sons the drive for revenge that would move the show forward for the next few episodes.

I haven't commented on Ivar, but I have to say that his story is compelling. Even though he's completely psychotic (or maybe because of it) I found him interesting as he struggled with being crippled, with wanting to go with his father on a raid, and with wanting to lead the army. It was interesting stuff.

I also enjoyed Helga and Floki's characters in this second half of the season. They're both still grieving the loss of their daughter, despite the time that has passed, and both starting to question the point of their lives and what it means to have a meaningful life. Helga's completely insane decision to kidnap the girl from Spain was a shock, but it was interesting, and watching Floki deal with it was also interesting, and then the shock at the end when the girl decided to kill Helga... the show, and Floki, won't be the same again without Helga.

I also sensed that Floki was starting to question the brutality that he had previously embraced. The looks on his face sometimes, as they attacked someone or killed someone were different. Nothing like Ivar's maddened enjoyment of the slaughter. He seemed to be having second thoughts about the whole thing. Or maybe it's just me. Anyway, he's gone off to find a new path now and I wonder what that will mean for him.

The character I hate the most, though, has to be Eckbert and I am oh so glad to be rid of him, but there was one really strong scene when his son Athelwulf confronted him that I really enjoyed watching.



Anyway, as I said, I found this season quite strong and I'm wondering if they can manage to keep this up in season 5. I also really hope they ease up on the relationship drama and betrayals and stick to what makes the show interesting.