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Blu-ray Review: VIKINGS Season 3

Oct 19, 2015 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

In its third season, Vikings proves that bigger can be better by amping up the size and scope of the action and drama. This season picks up right where the previous one left off. Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) is now King, and plans to take his warriors back to Wessex to claim the farm land King Ecbert (Linus Roache) promised them as part of the treaty. Upon his arrival, Ragnar is reunited with monk/friend Athelstan (George Blagden), who has been staying at the castle. Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) has never liked Ragnar’s friendship with Athelstan, and grows more and more suspicious that he is trying to poison his friend with thoughts of his Christian god.

King Ecbert informs Ragnar that Princess Kwenthrith’s brother and uncle are trying to steal her claim to the throne in Mercia, and asks him to help her fight these men. The Vikings don’t need much convincing, never ones to pass up the opportunity for a good raid. Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) stays back with a small group to start preparing their new farm land. However, she is unaware that the Ecbert’s decision to give them land still doesn’t sit well with the King, or a portion of his subjects.

Meanwhile, across the sea, the wives of the Norse warriors are still back home tending to the children. Queen Aslaud (Alyssa Sutherland), Siggy (Jessalyn Gilsig) and Helga (Maude Hirst) all start having the same ominous dream, and wonder how to interpret it. When a mysterious wanderer (Kevin Durand) shows up at their door looking for shelter, Siggy fears the worst, but the other women see no problem with welcoming the stranger.

 

The first half of the season focuses on Ragnar and his warriors doing battle around Mercia, the behind-the-scenes politics of the kingdom, and what’s happening with the women and children back on the homefront. There is also some discord amongst some of the Norse men, which comes to a head in the second half of the season. This is where things get really exciting as Ragnar sets his sights on the mysterious and “impenetrable” city of Paris. The season culminates in a spectacular raid on the city that is bigger in scope than anything else the series has ever done.

Overall, the third season of the series continues to develop these characters we’ve become invested in, and explores their struggles to balance their home life with their desires to expand their world. Ragnar is a really interesting character—while on the surface he may seem like a brute, he is constantly playing this mental game of chess, plotting his next move and getting all the pieces lined up before he makes his attack.

Vikings is well-acted, well-written and contains some amazing fight scenes. The series is visually stunning at all times—just look at the photos below—but the raid on Paris looks particularly epic and amazing on screen. It rivals scenes from feature films as well as some og Game of Thrones‘ big battles.

The Blu-ray presentation is top notch. The video is crisp and clear and the battle scenes look realistic and grand. You would think there really were thousands of men and ships at these battles—the special effects are blended in seamlessly. The audio track is also spectacular, with booming bass and excellent use of the surround channels to bring the viewer into the action. The dialogue is clear, though the series has an odd way of having characters first speak in their native tongues before switching to English once we are aware they are not really speaking English.

The Blu-ray provides each episode both as it originally aired as well as in an extended cut that inserts a few minutes seamlessly back into the episode. There is a Season Play option that allows you to go through the entire season, pausing at any time and resume right where you left off—it will prompt you if you’ve inserted the wrong disc into your player. The Season Play mode uses the extended cuts, which don’t include the “previously on” before each episode, which makes it great for binging! The Blu-ray is also loaded with bonus material, including two audio commentaries, over 45 minutes of webisodes, 11 minutes of deleted scenes, 2 behind-the-scenes featurettes and an interactive guide to the Norse gods.



What’s Included:

Episodes: (7:39:10)

  • All 10 Episodes of the third season:
    “Mercenary”, “The Wanderer”, “Warrior’s Fate”, “Scarred”, “The Usurper” , “Born Again”, “Paris”, “To the Gates!”, “Breaking Point”, “The Dead”
  • 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
  • Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1, French DTS 5.1, Castillan DTS 5.1, Portuguese DTS 5.1
  • Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Castilian, Portuguese

Extras:

  • Includes both the Original and the Extended Version of all 10 Episodes
    It’s a little difficult to compare the runtimes to see exactly how much more footage is included—the original version includes the “Previously On” while the Extended does not—but the extended episodes felt seamless as I watched them in Season Play mode.
  • Athelstan’s Journal Part 1 (36:51)
    This series of webisodes finds Athelstan recounting his journey since joining the pagans. These serve as a recap of the previous seasons to get folks up to speed for the third season “Athelstan’s Journal” is broken into 8 chapters: “Gods”, “Honor”, “Loyalty”, “Sin”, “Blood”, “Family”, “Savagery” and “Gods and Men”.
  • Athelstan’s Journal Part 2 (9:28)
    This series of webisodes is titled “Stones & Bones”, and finds Athelstan having one-on-one discussions with the Seer. This is broken into 5 chapters: “Vows”, “Death”, “Love”, “Harvest” and “The Choice”, which were originally released online immediately following each of the season’s first five episodes.
  • Deleted Scenes (11:05)
    A nice collection of fully-completed deleted scenes, though most scenes are only around 30 seconds or less. There are a total of 18 scenes spread across the three discs.
  • The Guide to the Gods – Interactive Exploration
    Series creator/writer/executive producer Michael Hirst provides an intro to this interactive look at the various Gods in Nordic mythological lore. Select the logo of one of the gods (Odin, Thor, Loki, Frigg, Baldr, Hel, Freyja, Freyr or Njordr) to see a video in which scholars explain the mythology surrounding that god. There is also a Play All option.
  • Heavy is the Head: The Politics of King Ragnar’s Rule (11:43)
    Series creator/writer/executive producer Michael Hirst talks about giving a truthful account of the reign of King Ragnar and his motivations. Includes behind-the-scenes-footage and interviews with stars Travis Fimmel (“Ragnar Lothbrok”), Katheryn Winnick (“Lagertha”), Gustaf Skarsgård (“Floki”), Alexander Ludwig (“Bjorn Lothbrok”) and Linus Roache (“King Ecbert”).
  • A City Under Siege: Creating and Attacking Paris (14:35)
    A discussion of the historical accounts of the Viking siege of Paris and how it compares to the depiction on-screen, and what it took to bring Paris and the armies to life. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with series creator/writer/executive producer Michael Hirst, author Danielle Turner (“Change in Northern Winds: A Modern Review of the Viking Siege of Paris 845”), professor of Medieval History Dr. Jochen Burgtorf, production designer Mark Geraghty, production armorer John McKenna, costume designer Joan Bergin, stunt action designers Franklin Henson and Richard Ryan, and stars Travis Fimmel, Alexander Ludwig, Clive Standen (“Rollo”) and Gustaf Skarsgård.
  • Audio Commentaries
    Series creator/writer/executive producer Michael Hirst and actor Linus Roache (“King Ecbert”) provide interesting audio commentaries on the extended versions of two of the season’s episodes. They discuss the sets, characters and actors as well as what’s going on in the episodes, the historical nature of the events and Viking culture.

    • “Born Again” (47:18)
    • “Breaking Point” (44:49)

 


Final Thoughts:

My Rating
Episodes:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Highly Recommended

Vikings is a well-written, visually-stunning, series with great acting and spectacular action sequences. The Blu-ray presentation contains top-notch audio and video presentation and comes loaded with extended episodes and a lot of interesting supplemental material. This series just keeps getting better and better each season, and the creators keep increasing the quality and scope. I can’t recommend this series highly enough.