As posted earlier, I’m on the verge of finishing Sons of Anarchy and will need a new bingewatching series soon.
Is The Vikings worth a watch? I’m down for some violence, so long as it’s not propagated by a motorcycle gang with AK-47s and KG-9s . . .
It’s decent-to-good, at least enough that I’ve stuck with it. The main criticism I’ve had is that after the titular Vikings visited England and Paris, that the show has spent time on the English/French characters (without the Vikings) and they’re dreadfully boring. The Parisian court plotlines last season were really bad. Didn’t care for the weird plotline of the Wanderer either, come to think of it. But when the show concentrates on the main Vikings like Ragnar and company, it’s a lot better.
I can agree with magnusblitz. For me, each season is less enjoyable than the one before it. OP, if you’re looking for violence, you’ll probably feel the same way, but you should be aware that it’s never primarily an action-oriented show. There are battles, but it always includes the political angle and becomes increasingly political as time goes on.
I liked the first 2 seasons. Not so much when they invaded Paris or since they:
Killed off Athelstan (or however you spell the English Monk’s name).
Apple Stand
It’s great, especially the latest set of 10 episodes, which comprised the first half of season 4(but ended up being their own season in a way).
I’d rank it like this:
Season 1 was great
Season 2 was also great
Season 3 was OK, but disappointing - bit of a meandering story here
Season 4 has been awesome, the best so far.
The first season is.
Since then, they’ve kind of lost their way and while the performances are still very good (even the some of the absolutely useless English & French characters are performed well), the writing has faltered in quality. Still, it’s solid enough tv.
First show I’ve watched since Babylon 5 that is written by one person.
I like it a lot. I agree that the French court politics aren’t very good, but King Ecbert of Wessex is fantastic - it’s an interesting contrast between him and Ragnar.
Apparently Adam Copeland (previously known as Edge from WWE) is signed to play a part in the next season. He got a one-off appearance on Haven years back and ended up turning that into a recurring role, so he is a decent enough actor.
I think it’s very good- Ragnar’s wife, Lagertha and Aethelstan the priest are my two favorite characters. Ragnar gets a bit off the rails and that can get tedious but for the most part, we can’t wait for each episode. Paris goes on too long but I do like what happens with Rollo.
All of the Wessex scenes are very interesting, especially when Aethelstan is torn between the two worlds. I do think the first two seasons are strongest but still entertaining.
Speaking as a historian, it’s kind of unbalancing. They get a lot of stuff so very right I want to kiss them, then a lot of stuff so wrong it’s not even funny. Watching the show is a jarring, seesaw feeling for me :).
As a TV show, it’s good I think. A little slow at times, perhaps. But then, that’s true for the past seasons which one can binge on in one go, so 
I love the show, though I agree with the general sentiment that it’s not been as good recently. I thought the first season was a little rocky to start with (but not bad by any stretch), but that’s largely because of the world building, but it really caught it’s footing about halfway through. Some of what I really loved about the first season that they’ve gotten away from was all of that world building, teaching us about their religion and culture, especially dispelling a lot of the common misconceptions most people have about them as just savages.
The second season was easily my favorite though. The character that was essentially the “villain” of that season was great and I loved the rivalry there. The third and fourth seasons have been weaker, but a lot of that is just diluting the story too much. We have Ragnar and company, whatever is going on in Kattegat, Wessex, Paris. They’ve introduced too many major characters and don’t have enough for all of them to keep doing things and stay relevant, so we end up with some kind of boring side plots that don’t go anywhere. That said, I do still find King Ecbert to be fascinating, but he’s probably the only one outside the main cast I find interesting.
Going forward, I’m glad to see we’re finally going to get to see his sons, other than Bjorn, in action. So, even though I think the first half of season 4 was kind of weak, I’m looking forward to the second half.
While I like the show, they could do without Ragnar being… weird, even by Viking standards. Seems like for the past season and a half, he’s been a sort of weirdo and loose cannon even by the standards of the society.