Jeri Jacquin
On Bluray from 20th Century Fox Home
Entertainment is the epic and successful series that has brought a long
forgotten culture to the forefront again with VIKINGS Season Five Volume 1.
Ubbe (Jordan Smith) and Hvitserk (Marco Llso) are now ruling
over East Anglia York
Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard) has other ideas wanting to get as
far away as he can to find something else in dealing with the loss of his wife.
He lands on an island he believes belongs to the Gods and wants to bring others
to share his vision of this new land.
Lagertha is holding Harald in prison but all he wants is to
make an alliance through marriage. Of course the Queen of Kattegat isn’t about
to share the throne after working so hard to get it back. What the Queen
doesn’t see coming is a rescue and taking Astrid with an offer for her as well
– become a queen herself.
Discovering the Vikings may be coming to York
Bjorn arrives in the Mediterranean and Sindric (Frankie
McCafferty) thinks it might be advantageous to hide who they truly are. It will
allow them to travel with a caravan meeting Emir Ziyadat Allah who greets them
as a friend. When one of his men vanishes, the Emir explains about what happens
to people who are disloyal or untrustworthy. Bjorn, Halfdan and Sindric find
themselves in a precarious position at best.
Ivan continues to break the brothers even further apart
after winning the battle against King Aethelwulf (Moe Dunford). Ubbe and
Hvitserk want peace but Ivar, well Ivar wants blood and to be the new and only
leader of their army. Ubbe decides it is time to return to Kattegat
but Hvitserk stays behind.
Floki returns to Kattegat
trying to explain what he has found and Lagertha isn’t listening to any thought
of him taking her people. Once several of them have made clear that they intend
to leave, she allows it with misgivings. What is even worse is that everyone on
the ship is disheartened by what they see once arriving to Floki’s island.
Ivar and Heahmund (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) make plans to once
again attack Kattegat and Lagertha attempts to
make ready. Margrethe (Ida Nielsen) also has a plan of attack and that is to
make Ubbe betray her from the inside so that a war is avoided and he can become
King. She clearly doesn’t know Ivar that well does she?
Ivar and Heahmund believe that their plan is flawless and
they too have underestimated their opponent. Bjorn is back in Kattegat
to help his mother but there is another army that has also sided with the
Queen. First they try peace and it is rejected by both men and as the battle
begins.
Heahmund finds Lagertha interesting and pledges loyalty to
her but the battle is hardly over. Hvitserk turns to Rollo (Clive Standen) for
help and Bjorn tries once again to find peace with Ivar and Harald but Ivar
only sees blood.
Floki is discovering that being a leader of a new settlement
is far more difficult than he could ever have imagined. When arson and murder
are the first infractions on their new home island, Floki tries to find middle
ground with a sacrifice to the gods.
Ivan and Harald once again strike Kattegat
and this time it is friend against friend, brother against brother and loved
one against loved one as they all come falling down. Bjorn and Lagertha retreat
waiting for a miracle – and they don’t have to wait long.
Winnick as Lagertha continues to be as much of a bad ass
queen as she wants to be. She certainly looks lovely in gowns and a crown but
man does she wear armor well. Continuing her refusal to surrender Kattegat , especially to the likes of the blood thirsty
Ivar, Winnick gives her character so many depths and dimension. I absolutely
love waiting to see what she will do next.
Ludwig as Bjorn is trying to avoid confrontation at all
fronts but finds that being away from home only brings different ones. Wanting
to be the explorer of the family, he does dare to push the limits of being in a
foreign land – until this latest outing. Skarsgard as Floki can’t get over the
loss of his wife and knows that perhaps its time to start over somewhere else
where the memories aren’t so painful. I think he learns a painful lesson about
what it takes to lead people and might even give him an insight to all those
years with Ragnar and now Lagertha.
Smith as Ubbe isn’t weak strength wise but he certainly can
be when it comes to women. Brothers aren’t easy either for him but he chooses
to walk away from Ivar. Llso as Hvitserk on the other hand makes a last minute
choice that might come back to cut him deeply.
Franzen as Harald isn’t happy that his suggestion to
Lagertha isn’t accepted or appreciated. So if he can’t have one queen, he will
certainly hurt her by creating another from someone she cares about.
The two characters that stand out this season are Hogh as
Ivar the Boneless who proves that there is nothing to the name. Not afraid to
fight or to take anyone out who tries to stop him, Hogh has made this role so
deliciously evil and I can’t imagine anyone else who could pull it off. He does
a credit to the role and makes Ragnar look pretty tame in some cases. Well
done!
The other is Meyers as Bishop Heahmund who started out with
the opposite side with his plots and plans – of course all in the name of the
church. Seeing Lagertha might have changed things for him and, as we have seen
with many Vikings, loyalty can change as swift as a sharp swinging blade! I
have always loved Meyers in these types of era pieces, he is just a master with
them and in VIKINGS its no exception.
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment brings
award-winning global product and new entertainment to DVD, Bluray, and Digital
HD. There amazing collection offers fans an opportunity to expand their own
home libraries with the best films. To discover what other titles they have
please visit www.fox.com.
The 3-disc set includes the episodes The Departed – Part 1, The Departed – Part II, Homeland, The Plan, The
Prisoner, The Message, Full Moon, The Joke, A Simple Story and Moments of Vision.
There are also Special Features including Deleted Scenes and Extended Versions of All
Episodes, The Creator’s Audio Commentary with Michael Hirst, I am Boneless, and Bringing the Invisible People to Life: The
Sami.
What can be said about VIKINGS that hasn’t already been said?
Words like epic, amazing, astounding, original, bloody, intrigue, twists,
turns, character driven, treachery, back stabbing, family and so much more.
So how does the creator of VIKINGS Michael Hirst tell us it
all started? “Many years ago I was writing a film script about Alfred the
Great, who fought against the Vikings. I was fascinated to discover that a lot
of what I thought I knew about the Vikings was wrong. I knew nothing about
their attitude towards women, which was much more progressive than most other
societies.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve fallen head over heels for
something Hirst has written. He is behind the 1998 Oscar winning film ELIZABETH
He found Ragnar Lothbrok in Norse history and discovered he
was a warrior. What Hirst also discovered was a history about women, family and
battle that have become the series VIKINGS that has made it into its fifth
season (with a sixth not far behind).
So until that day arrives, 20th Century Fox Home
Entertainment invites you to revisit the set up of a battle for the one thing
they all want – revenge, the crown and Kattegat !
In the end – drawing blood has nothing to do with family!
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