Good season but not great. Im with you guys, I feel like they tried to cover to much story in 10 episodes. I feel like this was a transition season, where the show is becoming about his sons. Story goes that his sons were greater than he was, Ivar being the greatest, and Ragnars jealousy ends up being his undoing. It looks to me like they started down that road, it will be interesting to see how it plays out though. This season should have been at least 16 episodes though, maybe even broken up into two seasons.
I wish they could have found a way to have kept Athelstan in the show. The relationship between Ragnar and Athelstan was the most interesting part of the series for me. I'm guessing that the producers are sticking closely to the books, and that is was simply Athelstan's time to go. I've always thought that the stories of the vikings were more legend than historic fact, so I don't know they they couldn't have just re-written the story to improve the show (imo). The story is told at a fast pace, with time jumps, which I liked at first, but now I wish that Ragnar's ascent to the throne would have developed more slowly and that they had kept Athelstan around longer. Also, the original kid that played Bjorn was really good, I wish he could have hung around the show longer too. There are very few sympathetic characters left to care about at this point. Ragnar is a mess and impossible to feel sympathy for. It's hard to care weather he defeats Rollo or not really. Lagertha and Bjorn and his wife and Flokis wife are the only characters remaining that you can feel any sympathy for. I don't think the actor that plays Bjorn is strong enough to center the show around. I kind of expect the show to go down hill hard once Ragnar dies which everyone seems to be hinting at. I haven't read the source material.
It would be epic! But I don't know if any of the characters could carry the show like Ragnar has. They've already given some of what Bjorn did to Ragnar. Bjorn led the expedition to the Mediterranean with his brother (maybe) Hastein. It was Hastein in Italy who pretended to be dying/dead, wanting conversion to Christianity, and used this to gain access to the city.
Everyone dies eventually. You may have already seen the death of Ragnar, and not realise it. Spoiler Yes, this Ragnar is based on the same semi-historical figure. Spoiler The guy giving the order to push Ragnar into the pit is King Aella of Northumbria. Which is why Ragnar's sons invade Northumbria, and try to conquer Englaland. Which lead us to the events in The Last Kingdom.
Will King Alfred grow up and be a factor in the Vikings show before the series wraps up? Will Ivar the Boneless grow up and kick some ass?
When they made the time jump, there were too many new characters introduced in one show, without proper character development. They could have made the transition slower; writing more shows that only introduced one or two at a time, and made it work. As of now, this looks like a new show with a handful of left over characters, some that maybe gone soon.
3 Huge Reasons The Last Kingdom is Actually a Sequel to Vikings 1. Wessex is still a major feature 2. Some characters appear in both series 3. The story continues
This year there are 20 episodes. We are half way through. I heard there would be 20 then 16, but IMDB has them at 10 more for a total of 20 episodes this year. I heard there will be 20 episodes next season too!
You can but the whole first season on dvd for about $15 on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...g_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=
Or you can go to your local library, and read the whole book series, and go even further than the TV show has. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saxon_Stories
