Vikings review: Brutal start and a poetic end

Vikings review: Brutal start and a poetic end

A group of fearsome bearded invaders barges into a church in an English coastal town to kill and plunder barbarians. A terrified Catholic priest screams: "In the name of God, who are you?"

The Vikings - pagan intruders across the seas from the Scandinavian north - despite being heavily outnumbered in battle, cut down their horrified victims with swords, knives and

especially, their unstoppable axes - they have absolutely no fear of death since they actually relish it.

"Last night, I dreamt you were giving me blood pudding," says the lead Nordic dude, Ragnar Lothbrok (Australian actor Travis Fimmel), to his housewife-missus, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), herself a formidable shieldmaiden-warrior.

You know, I Googled this guy. Ragnar Lothbrok really did exist in old Norse tales as the brutal scourge of England and France in the 8th century.

Facts like this explain why Vikings - an action-ready, saga- strong series as splendid as Lothbrok's raider boat - is History Channel's first foray into serialised historical fiction.

I do not have a red beard or a horned helmet, so I am not sure how much of this series is accurate.

But, man, this is as fun as Game Of Thrones mixed with Gladiator, with a big dose of football hooligans on a rampage thrown in.

Can a small Band Of Very Violent Brothers really cross over to England just like this and take whatever untold riches they wish from the helpless Anglo owners as though they were looting a shopping mall?

Creator Michael Hirst (The Tudors) presumably understands that tucked between the regality of The Tudors and the fantasy of Thrones is a nice spot for these unwashed, animal fur-lined Chronicles Of The Klingon Empire. All the Viking stereotypes of a crude, bawdy and lusty species are here and there is a fair amount of primal sex.

But the show goes further, working the behaviour, customs, mythology and folklore effectively into its main driving tale - the tussle for power as Lothbrok defies his sinister local chieftain, Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne, looking grandly weary), by sailing west to pillage new lands. This turns the series into an interesting story about discovery - spiritual, cultural, geographical.

You probably have heard of the Viking funeral boat but, I tell you, one episode about an elaborate human sacrifice ritual turned into some kind of frenzied, early-Woodstock orgy just blew me away.

Do not be put off by the bestial beards and brutality. There is an order of a remote society here that is guarded by regulation and propelled by superstition. Subsequent episodes, as Lothbrok ascends to the top, display an intriguing power play of politics, greed and betrayal which will lead to Season 2.

My problem with Game Of Thrones is that it is just too convoluted. Vikings operates on a much simpler principle of SWT - See, Want, Take.

Meanwhile, I am taking in everything in Dexter right now. It is ending with this final Season 8 and I am feeling really sad.

Has Dexter run its course? Of course, just like any serial killer would eventually get caught, turn himself in or die of natural causes.

It is now no longer about the serial killer hiding in plain sight with Dexter Morgan (the inimitable Michael C. Hall), a blood spatter analyst of the Miami police who moonlights as an avenging angel to slay the evil.

In the previous season, his beloved cop-sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), found out about his alter-ego and killed her police chief to protect him.

Now, she is going bonkers (Carpenter essays "jittery basket case" as a fine art) from the heinous discovery. She quits the police force to become a drugged- out private investigator.

A shrink, Dr Evelyn Vogel (the always pristine Charlotte Rampling), enters the picture as the new counsellor to their happy family torture.

Dr Vogel is a "psychopath whisperer", a confidant and throwback to Dexter's murky past who knows more about his homicidal origins than even Dexter himself.

"You are perfect as a psychopath. All this talk about helping Debra and loving her is like you're Michelangelo trying to play the banjo," she reasons.

The psychiatrist needs Dexter to eliminate a threatening killer called the Brain Surgeon who has a penchant for lopping off the tops of his victims' heads.

That is the primary murder arc here. I am not concerned. The best Dexter villain popped up long ago in Season 4 when Dexter confronted the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow) and discovered that the psycho was an ordinary family man just like him.

In this final act, Dexter's basic meaning of family within the American Dream will become as unhinged as his sister. While this last season seems too rushed, too disruptive and too unfamiliar from previous seasons, the ending is poetic.

It is the best way to finish the finisher who is Dexter, and the saddest.

stlife@sph.com.sg


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