VIKINGS Sets to Return in December

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to The History Channel on December 4th is the long awaited return of one of the channels most stunning and epic series to date is VIKINGS.

The last season ended with a battle between Ivar the Boneless (Alex Hogh Andersen) and brother Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig). Now Ivar has escaped with his life and Bjorn has taken the throne of Kattegat. Immediately the new king lets his people know that he wants to expand the city becoming an important route for trade. This will help all the people of Kattegat prosper.

On the road, Ivar travels on The Silk Road discovering things he didn't know existed. While on the road he is captured and taken to the Russian leader and proclaimed old Viking Kievan Rus Prince Oleg (Danila Kozlovsky). Discovering he has Ivar the Boneless, the Prince makes it clear from the onset that he is more merciless than Ivar ever thought he was. When the Prince asks what it is that Ivar wants, the name Kattegat is uttered and Ivar is assured that his vengeance will come but first, the royal has his own family problems to deal with.

In Kattegat, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) tells Bjorn that she no longer wants to be a figurehead of his reign. Instead, she is tired and wants nothing more than to go back to where she had a life with Ragnar and farm in peace leaving the life of a shield-maiden in the past. The women of the village come to see the famous Lagertha and tells her that most of the men have been killed in wars and attacks. The attacks aren't over as a new, formidable and the recognizable leader wants nothing more than to hurt everyone in his path and he has Lagertha in his sights.

Ivar in Kiev is beginning to understand what it is that motivates Oleg and his viciousness. Proving with ease that the Prince will destroy anyone who gets in his way, he takes young nephew Igor to raise. Ivar makes slow moves in order to place himself in a position that allows him to outwardly seem afraid but behind those eyes is a game that the Prince might not be prepared to play.

In Kattegat, Bjorn receives a message of help from a prior enemy and feels the need to do the right thing. Before leaving, he asks about Floki and what has happened to him. Not getting the answer he wants, Bjorn makes it clear that he will discover the truth and if anything has happened to Floki, someone will be held accountable. Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) and Torvi (Georgia Hirst) are sent to the place now called Iceland to find answers.

The message of help turns out to be something totally different as Bjorn, Harald and Olaf come to a meeting of the minds and the suggestion that a vote be taken to find a King of Norway. Olaf believes that the ruler should be Bjorn Ironside but there are others who might have a different opinion.

What happens at that vote might change everything as the leaders know it.

Ludwig as Bjorn Ironside has taken the helm of Kattegat just as his father Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) did in the Vikings series. From the beginning, Ludwig has always been in the shadows as we have watched him grow into a storyline that is harsh but the reality of history in the Dark Ages. The character of Bjorn has grown slow and steady rising further into the storyline and Ludwig has given us every reason to remain curious as to how his story will end. The character of Bjorn tries everything possible to not be like the leaders that have gone before, including his father, mistakes are made but Ludwig's Bjorn leans quickly.

Winnick as Lagertha has been through the wringer and back again. Starting as a farmer with husband Ragnar, becoming Queen, not Queen and then Queen somewhere else and back to Kattegat taking out enemies along the way has just worn this lady out. Winnick has returned season after season giving her character strength, courage and eventually the ability to weed out those who are trying to destroy her. In all of this she has kept her sense of family, even children that are Ragnar's she has tried to embrace. 

Andersen as Ivar continues to intrigue audiences with the duality of his insane brutality and moments where we all think he might have a chance to be human after all. He believes himself to be a god but certainly discovers that shouting it from the rooftops brings about unsavory characters who don't care about his divinity. Andersen continues to surprise with his performance and with this final season I am truly interested where this character will be taken.

Franzen as Harald is another Viking who has ideas of his own about how things should be done and who should do them. Always with the slight of hand in his planning I am keeping an eye on him. Smith and Hirst are the couple who are trying to help find answers in Floki's Iceland. That is a part of the storyline that I am so interested in and partly because I think Floki has been through just as much as the Lothbrok line.

Shout out to Marco llso as Hvitserk for what he is about to put everyone through!

This historical drama created by Michael Hirst began with the story of Norse hero Ragnar Lothbrok. We have seen almost everything possible with love, family, deception, intrigue and battles that hold nothing back. This is the final season and Viking fans, like myself, know that all good things come to an end but we aren't happy about it at all.

In just the first few episodes, the stage is set for changes that all of this has been leading up to. The cast is doing a wonderful job of taking us on this final leg of the journey.

Hirst created another of my favorite shows from Showtime with The Tudors followed with Camelot for Starz. Back to Showtime for the series The Borgias and MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS with Saoirse Ronan, ELIZABETH and ELIZABETH: The Golden Age. Hirst has such an amazing ability to bring a richness to the stories he tells but some outstanding actors to bring it all to the screen.

The History Channel brings Vikings back on December 4th so get through turkey day safely because once you are back at Kattegat, the ride will have begun and there is no turning back. Everything that we have come to embrace about each character is going to keep us coming back until the very last scene.

As salve to our open wound, it has been announced that Hirst is creating a series called Vikings: Vahalla that will be seen on Netflix. Said to be set one hundred years later there will be a new group of famous Vikings and their fight for survival in an ever-changing world.

Even with that, we all can agree that our excitement about Vikings came from Ragnar Lothbrok and all the intrigue that followed. Prepare to see how it all plays out with the return of Vikings on the History Channel December 4th!

The Most Successful Norseman Series Brings its Fourth Season to Bluray with VIKINGS

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to Bluray from 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the series that has fans coming back for more with VIKINGS Season 4 Volume 2.

Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) wastes no time upon his return to Kattegat challenging his sons if one of them wants to be King. The one to step forward is Ubbe (Jordan Smith) but for a completely different challenge. Wanting his sons to return to England with him, he is surprised when Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) tells Ragnar that he has his own plans with Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard), Harald (Peter Franzen) and Hvitserk (Marco Llso) to take the Mediterranean.

Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) also has no intention of going to England with Ragnar even after he apologizes to her for everything that has happened. Thinking that his time might be up in this world, the ravens have other plans for Ragnar. When he returns to Kattegat it is to ask Ivar (Alex Hogh) to go to England. Before anyone leaves, Ragnar wants Bjorn to find peace with Rollo while Lagertha refuses to find peace with Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland).

Before he leaves, Aslaug reveals a vision she’s had but Ragnar and Ivar won’t be stopped from going to England. When a storm capsizes the boat, Ragnar and Ivar get to shore and King Ecbert (Linus Roache) is told. Trying to find peace with Rollo (Clive Standen), Bjorn ends up in jail with his companions but safe passage isn’t far away.

Lagertha decides it’s time to reclaim what is hers and takes Ubbe and Sigurd captive with every intent on removing Aslaug from the throne. Proclaiming herself queen, Lagertha hears from Aslaug that she will tell her sons not to fight back if she can leave free. Of course the new queen has a plan of her own with Astrid keeping Ubbe and Sigurd in check.

In Aethelwulf, Ecbert promises that nothing will happen to either Ragnar or Ivar and introduces them to Magnus. Ragnar makes a claim about Kwenthrith and Ecbert admits a few truths of his own. After a few drinks the two reminisce about Athelstan and Ecbert is surprised when Ragnar asks him for death. Refusing to take part in it, he instead agrees to take Ragnar to King Aelle so that Ivar can go home. In the same agreement, he tells Ecbert that Wessex will not be the focus of his son’s revenge.

Before returning home, Ivar learns from Ragnar of his plan and when Ivar lashes out promising revenge before he is taken to a ship going home. Ragnar sees Alfred and gives him a gift of his father before a journey where he has time to rethink all that has happened. Ecbert can not stay away and when the time comes, he knows that he has lost a friend.

Ivar returns to Kattegat to find Lagertha on the throne and his mother gone. When he challenges the new Queen she ignores it and focuses on building Kattegat’s back up. But a longship brings a mysterious stranger and more challenges begin. Bjorn reaches the Mediterranean and along with Rollo they attack Algeciras. Coming in contact with praying men in the mosque, Floki wants their lives spared. The news of what has happened to Ragnar reaches Spain and Bjorn and Lagertha is told by a mystic that a son of Ragnar is planning to take her down.

A return to England is on the minds of Ubbe, Sigurd and Ivar as a way to revenge Ragnar. Help is also on the way when Earl Jorgensen brings his ships to help the Lothbroks. Floki knows that Ivar will stop at nothing to go to war and so he builds him a chariot and now he had the ability to be a true leader of the troops.

Ivar wants total leadership of the armies but Bjorn has something to say about it. As the Viking troops advance, Athelwulf knows he needs more help and turns to Ecbert and in Northumbria, King Aelle is taken and his fate is sealed.

A surprise attack on Kattegat brings the capture of Egil who lets it be known that it is King Harald that ordered the attack. The Viking army is still on the move and Prince Aethelwulf tries everything to stop them. When he is forced back to Wessex, he tells Ecbert to retreat which he will not do. Instead, turning his crown over to his son, Bjorn then allows him to decide his own fate.

As the brothers decide where they will go next, it is Ivar that stands out with an action that brings even Bjorn into shock.

Fimmel as Ragnar has taken this character to depths that are absolutely amazing. He is not a vocal character by any means but when he does speak, the clan better listen. As Ragnar has grown season by season, it is clear that both the good and bad choices of his life are coming to a decision that had the viewing audiences’ jaws dropping. I can not think of one actor that could have done what Fimmel has for the role of Ragnar.

Winnick as Lagertha has also gone to hell and back as a woman in a world where wielding a weapon and shield is equally as important as having a family. Lagertha has also made good and bad choices but is solid and strong even when she is wrong. I have to give props to a bad ass chick who can give a look that says ‘yea, I was wrong – what about it?’ Winnick is powerful and she’s back on the throne!

Ludwig as Bjorn has grown out of his father’s shadow. Wanting to get back to the sea and do what Vikings do is now his motivation. Making a name and life for himself, Bjorn also begins to understand Ragnar more and more. Standen as Rollo grabs onto the creed of ‘once a Viking always a Viking’ and it’s good to see him back with the axe of nightmares.

Andersen as Ivar is one crazy individual who doesn’t have a problem being without legs. His mind is sharp and his decisions are sharper. Being the son of both Ragnar and Aslaug means he isn’t someone to be toyed with as he can mix plotting, war and revenge in a wine cup and swallow in one breath. Sutherland as Aslaug doesn’t fair as well with Lagertha this time around as her own plotting just doesn’t have the umph that hers does.

Roache as King Ecbert has played the game with Ragnar to the point that they are both played out.  

 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.

 VIKINGS Season 4 Volume 2 also contains the special features of The Queen and the Shield Maiden, Vikings – Valhalla and the Legacy of Ragnar Lothbrok, Creator’s Audio Commentary with Michael Hirst and Linus Roache on Selected Episodes, The Journeys of Bjorn Ironside and Deleted Scenes. There are ten unrated episodes with extended and deleted scenes not shown on television.

The episodes include: The Outsider, The Vision, Two Journeys, In the Uncertain Hour Before the Morning, All His Angels, Crossings, The Great Army, Revenge, On the Eve and The Reckoning.

The History Channel has brought a magnificent series to television and it just gets better and better. Yes I hate when the show loses characters but I know that means more room for the story to go in another direction as it should. There is so much more to come and I, for one, will be there when it happens.

Of course if you have ever been to San Diego Comic Con International you know that fans wait in ridiculously long lines to see the actors from the series. They want to know as much as can possibly be shared and share their own costumes of proud VIKINGS. Of course I have my own drinking horn that is always used when watching VIKINGS.

If you are looking for action, adventure, intrigue, fantastic costuming, intense story lines and all wrapped up with actors who have made VIKINGS a smash, then this is the show for you. Catch up on all the prior season of VIKINGS and look for VIKINGS Season 4 Volume to on Bluray!

In the end – heavy is the head that wears the Viking crown!

THE DARK TOWER

Jeri Jacquin

In theatres this Friday from director Nikolaj Arcel and Columbia Pictures is a novel to screen with the highly anticipated THE DARK TOWER.

Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) is a young man dealing with the loss of his father. Continuing to have bad dreams, he tries to explain them to his mother Laurie (Katheryn Winnick). She and Jake’s step-father have been sending the young man for professional help but only he knows that it’s not needed.

He dreams about the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) and a world that includes a gunslinger named Roland Deschain (Idris Elba). The Man in Black named Walter is looking for a way to take down the Dark Tower and cause an apocalypse that reverberates into several worlds in the service of the Crimson King.

Jake holds the key with his ability known as ‘the shine’ and Walter wants it badly because it’s the only way to bring down the tower. Constantly fighting to stop it, Roland loses his father causing him to only focus on revenge in Mid-World.

When Jake puts together the pieces from his dreams, he finds his way to into Roland’s world. Roland takes the boy to a seer to discover what his dreams and drawings mean and if they can lead them to Walter. Instead, the two need to run into Jake’s world or as Roland calls it Keystone Earth to think of a plan that will get them swiftly to the Man in Black and stop his plan.

But the shine is calling out to Walter making it easier to find the two leading to a showdown where the two worlds work together to survive!

Taylor as Jakes gives the performance of a young man who is torn about the death of his father and the nightmares that plague him. There isn’t anyone who truly believes what he is drawing and even his therapist isn’t on board. Taylor’s character is withdrawn and sullen looking for answers but I think I saw him smile once.

Elba as Roland plays the troubled gunslinger that is angry about what is happening in his world. When revenge takes over, others begin to wonder if he is the gunslinger after all being the only one left. Elba says little except when reciting a creed taught to him by his father and keeps a brooding feel throughout the film which kind of bums me out because there isn’t ‘acting’ in his act.

McConaughey as the Man in Black is pretty much evil down to his core yet keeps his cool every moment. There is something between he and Roland that keeps his ‘magiks’ from penetrating the gunslingers mind. McConaughey has the perfect ensembles and hair while performing his evil deeds and Walter doesn’t mince words but that’s about it.

Winnick as Laurie wants to believe her son but with the pressure from hubby she believes that sending him away for the weekend could help things. Jackie Earle Haley as Sayre is the yes-man for Walter having one of the portals between worlds.

Other cast includes Jackie Earle Haley as Sayre, Abbey Lee as Tirana, Nicholas Hamilton as Lucas Hanson, Dennis Haysbert as Steven Deschain, Michael Barbieri as Timmy, Claudia Kim as Arra, Fran Kranz as Pimli and Joe Suniga as Dr. Hotchkiss.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give THE DARK TOWER three tubs of popcorn five. It is definitely an adventure and I can see how there could be more to it all which means I might have to read the books. Elba and Taylor work so well together even though that means the basically brood together. They are the yin and yang of each other which plays out.

I suppose my only problem with the film is that I expected so, so, so much more. The running time is about 90 minutes yet there was nothing that really wow’d me, made me giggle a few times but no wow at all. They called Jake’s gift ‘shine’ which is a nice homage to the young boy Danny from 1980 film THE SHINING and the tower looks much like the tall residence of both Saruman and the Eye of Sauron from LORD OF THE RINGS.

There is also reference to Excalibur which made my head do a questioning shake of “whaaaaa?” Maybe it’s that I had the film figured out from start to finish the moment Jake ran away which is irritating since I haven’t read the books.

Okay, perhaps I’m just getting cranky wanting more from Hollywood in general and THE DARK TOWER is a prime example of why. Lets be honest, there is no character development really which would have been nice for those of us who haven’t had the time to delve into the printed page.

There are so many references to other Stephen King films that if I wanted to see them I’d just stay home and watch – well – Stephen King films! I really hate it too because I’m a King fan (not to be confused with the Crimson King like I know who that is) from years and years of reading so it sucks to write a so-so review. Then again, it’s not like he’s going to lose a dime over this person’s opinion of the film.

A far more interesting tidbit is that THE DARK TOWER began with a book written by Stephen King based on a poem by Robert Browning called Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.

In the end – in a world of superheroes there is only one gunslinger!