You have to love a channel like The History Channel. Once famed for actually bringing history to the masses, much like Music Television brought actual music videos to the masses, the History Channel is now to history what MTV was to music in the ’90s: it still has it but is transitioning away from its first function. The History Channel is now better know for reality TV fare like Pawn Stars and pseudo-conspiracy shows like Ancient Aliens than it is for its actual historical content.
Slowly but surely it’s been dipping its fingers in fictional content and the first season of Vikings is perhaps one of the signs that eventually the History Channel won’t have anything to do with history.
Following the tales Ragnar Lodbrok (Travis Fimmel), a Norseman from Scandinavia of historical note, the show is another in a sort of pseudo-historical tales of history. It shares a lot in common with Spartacus in that it’s not exactly historically accurate … but it’s a stylized conversation starter when it comes to the time period.
This is basically the History Channel aping Starz for content; this is a dirtier looking imitation of Spartacus, nothing more.
Select commentaries on a number of episodes are included. Some generic making of and historical pieces are included as well as a pair of interactive pieces exclusive to the Blu-Ray release.
20th Century Fox presents Vikings (Season 1). Starring Travis Fimmel, Katheryn Winnick, Nathan O’Toole, Clive Standen, Gustaf Skarsgaard. Running time: 398 minutes. Not Rated. Released: October 15, 2013.
