Vikings continues with cryptic premonition, alliance forging and a few new significant characters. Its usual tone of gray and blue remain with emphasis on disparity of cold wintry Scandinavia and warmer bountiful Wessex. It's apparent that the series has branched as more subplots are created beside Ragnar's perspective, there's a shift with more focus given to the political weather of British as well. Production value has also increased, and if Vikings can continue this pace, it will definitely harvest success.
First episode opens as Ragnar, Lagertha and slew of other eager men and women sail to collect their part from the pact made with King Ecbert. Travis Kimmel as Ragnar is ever bizarrely charismatic. The plot creates many opportunity to interact with other unique characters as Vikings is always centered on this man. His family also enjoys more screen time, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick)is now more involved in the dealing with King Ecbert. It's refreshing change of tone since Ragnar has done most of the banter since last season. This is a good opportunity to establish more range to her character and Winnick delivers a lighter tone for the character.
Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) is still troubled by his lover, Ludwig does a convincing job as Ragnar's son with speech pattern and body language, but I'm worried that the character will be trapped in an unnecessarily romance subplot. He has spent half of last season wooing a girl, it'd be nice to see more depth to his character. The other cast perform fittingly, both old and new faces show good potential. Floki is as strange and captivating as ever, the new princess looks good in slightly mad ambitious role. She reminds me of Eva Green.
A brief touch of occult and faith clashing is welcomed, it creates ground for more social rift in the future. Scale of the battles or events has been increased, now numbering in hundreds of men fighting at the same time. Villages, towns and castles seem considerably grand. Little details on the costume or weaponry add value to the authenticity. The series evolved in rapidly, in one episode alone it delivers hefty content and set foundations for latter episodes. This is a definite confident intro for any season.
