Vikings: Valhalla: The Reckoning (2023)
Season 2, Episode 8
7/10
Season Two Review
7 April 2023
I enjoyed the original "Vikings" series and the first season of the spin off that appeared last year. I'd say I felt positively about this second run, rather than actively enjoyed it and I'll get into why.

Harald (Leo Suter) and Leif (Sam Corlett) head to Novgorod, hoping to gather forces to install Harald as King of Norway. Unable to buy an army, Prince Yaroslav (Marcin Dorocinski) Harald's Uncle, offers him a chance to earn more gold, by escorting precious cargo to Constantinople, which he agrees too. Freydis (Frida Gustavsson) heads to Jomsborg, a near mythical Viking stronghold still holding fast to the ancient pagan ways.

I think my problem with this series, over the first, is that I'm not exactly sure what any of our characters are working towards. The first season was easy, revenge for the massacre and to establish a new Danish King in England. This has three main storylines, the two detailed above and another one in London, regarding just how loyal, or not, Earl Godwin is to his Queen. None of the three stories really progress all that much over the entire run and only really Harald's has a clear objective that facilities a wider aim. It's not that these other stories are bad, it's more that - particularly with the London storyline, it felt to me like it only featured because we've already established these characters and we might want to use them again.

Let's not go overboard, with the criticism. The series is still good and I'll be around for season three, I just wish that it was a little more focused.
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