Vikings Season 6 Part 1 Review

The History Channel’s Vikings is close to its endgame with the first part of it sixth season.

Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) has overthrown Ivar the Boneless (Alex Høgh Andersen) to become king of Kattegat. But being a king gives Bjorn a new set of challenges. His mother, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) plans to retire from politics and set up her own farm. Ivar has ended up in Rus and becomes a guest of Prince Oleg (Danila Kozlovsky), the power-hungry ruler of Kyiv.

Out of all the shows that tried to follow on Game of Thrones’ coattails, Vikings was one of the best. Vikings has lavish production values, great battle sequences, and the politicking and family drama that made Game of Thrones so popular. The first part of Season Six featured numerous storylines like the election for the first King of Norway, Oleg killing off one of his family members so he can become the guardian of his nephew, Oleg and Ivar preparing an invasion of Norway, Lagertha’s new home getting attacked by bandits, and Ivar being troubled by his host.

Bjorn has risen to his rightful position as king of Kattegat. But being a king means he has to make hard decisions. Bjorn has proven himself to be a great warrior and a competent commander, but his desire to be seen as a fair ruler which leads to him making some big mistakes. One of Bjorn’s acts was exile Ivar’s followers instead of executing them, which has unintended consequences for Lagertha’s settlement. During the election to become King of Norway, Bjorn seems like he was the frontrunner, but he was unable to do the political deals a candidate needs to. His greatest virtue as a king was his people loved him and he had their support.

Lagertha’s story was more like a Western or Samurai film. She had moved to the countryside so she can have a quiet life but forced to take up the sword again due to the bandits. Her force was made up of women, children, and old men. “Death and the Serpent” was the episode Lagertha and her forces fight back against the bandits. Lagertha leads the bandits into traps and the battle would have fitted in an Akira Kurosawa film.

In the fourth and fifth season, Ivar was shown to be an intelligent but cruel man who was insecure about his disability. These traits drove both his rise to and fall from power. But in Kyiv Ivar was the receiving end of a cruel ruler. Oleg was shown to be a ruthless figure and Ivar at times seemed was disgusted by some of his actions. Oleg’s new wife, Katia (Alice Agneson), looked like Ivar’s deceased wife, and Oleg used her to torment his guest. In Rus, Ivar did show a softer side through his relationship with Igor (Oran Glynn O’Donovan), Oleg’s nephew. Ivar takes the young prince under his wing and acts as a mentor to the boy.

The first part sixth season does set up some future plotlines. Early in the few episodes of Season Six Kjetill Flatnose (Adam Copeland) has returned to Kattegat and says that Floki has disappeared, leading to the question, what happened to Floki? The character of Othere (Ray Stevenson) was introduced for one episode and tells of a new, unexplored land, so either Part 2 or the spin-off series is going to show the settlement of Greenland or Vinland.

This season sees the death of a major character and they had their funeral in the seventh episode. This was the best episode of the season, so far. That episode focused on finding out who killed that character, the impact the death on their family, and the funeral itself. The funeral was a grand and epic affair and that character got the send-off they deserved.

The election was also a showcase of Vikings’ production values. The money was spent on the set, with a floating platform being built in the middle of a harbour.  A lot of actors and extras were brought in for this scene and a number of drummers were performing. All this gave the election a great sense of pageantry. The battle in the final episode was of the high standard that fans have come to expect from Vikings, even if it’s ahistorical because it played like the medieval version of the D-Day landings. As well as having stabby action, there was a focus on tactics. The Vikings had to prepare defences whilst the Rus look for ways to outflank them.

I think of Vikings simply as a fun show and the first half of Season Six continues in that vein. It supplies all the emotion and court intrigue with a decent amount of action.