Kaka

Apart from Bjorn's rage and one blatant infidelity, this episode is actually pretty pointless. Like one of many. Moreover, the group is splitting up quite incomprehensibly. Basically, we're just waiting for Russia to show up.

A tribute piece to one of the best TV characters of all time. Well deserved, but perhaps too long and overly poetic.

A clear return to the roots. It's as if the Vikings from season three came flying in. Although the finale is a bit predictable, it's still emotionally powerful and the concept fits together just fine. An excellent duel between Lagertha and a bandit and of course the vote for the King of Norway. Thoroughbred, thrilling and probably the best episode of the last series in a long time. If they cut it down to ten episodes, with every other as good as this one, fans would cheer.

The story is not moving forward in any significant way, it is currently in the phase of a quagmire of sorts. The Freydis doppelganger is interesting, we can enjoy that the writers can actually let their creative intellect loose at will. The vote for the king could also be a good supporting storyline for upcoming episodes. Hvitserk, however, deserves to die.

The series has absolutely lost its grip and almost all of the reasons to like it. The main characters are unused and difficult to work with, the secondary characters are redundant and too much to work with. The tension and unpredictability are gone. They’ve moved from Norway to the whole world and that doesn’t benefit the episodes. The same goes for this one, which lasts 50 minutes but nothing really happens in it, except for the whole Lagertha situation, which is contrived from the beginning just so something can happen aside from the main line.

The misery continues with shoddy sets in Russia, poor makeup work, and annoying supporting characters. I miss gold old Kattegatt and Ragnar vs Rollo. Fortunately, at least there’s some action by the end.

In the shadow of the brutal carnage of the first three seasons. The actors are stagnant and the script and scenes in Russia are downright annoying. Likewise with the several WTF characters that sometimes turn the show into almost a parody. Also, the make-up work is awful, especially with Lagertha. They do need to get better.

The production design is good overall, but the scenes from Rus are not what we probably expected. They feel contrived and unrealistic, a plot in the style of “only so something can happen”. The Nordic storyline is a lot more entertaining. Lagertha and Bjorn are keeping Vikings literally above water.

Mixed feelings. At times a dark romp, an atmospheric chivalric epic, a visually captivating show. At times a confusing mess of characters, cardboard sets and boring side-quests in the script. A viewer unfamiliar with the source material will sometimes be terribly confused, or even completely unable to grasp the new characters and locations. Praise for the imaginative concept of separate mini-episodes, which in many ways are not very related and yet in individual details systematically bring each character to the point where their fates intersect at expected moments, even in unpredictable situations. The first bold episode, which, by the way, is the only one that offers absolutely every reason the viewer should give Witcher a chance, is followed by others where those unfamiliar with the source material already feel a certain decline in the way the story is presented and conceived. The action in Blaviken in the opening episode remains by far the best moment of the entire season.

The final episode doesn’t look at all like the last. There are many things left unexplained, or at most only in hints. The final battle is imaginative in terms of direction, but not technically proficient, lacking the budget that would have ensured a proper epic.