Vikings - Série 4

Serie 4 ist wieder sehr schmackhaft, diesmal keine besonderen Innovationen, vielleicht nur eine kleine Faszination für China. Aber alles Gute bleibt beim Alten, und unsere alten Bekannten im Norden, im Frankenreich und in den britischen Königreichen sind bei uns. Und der Märtyrertod Athelstans erhält eine neue Dimension. Nach mdseason werden die Vikings zu einer etwas anderen Serie, sie ändern sich, was die Generationen betrifft, stark, aber so ist das Leben... Königinnen wechseln, Ivar gewinnt, wer hätte das gedacht? (08.01.2019)

The fourth season is hands down the weakest yet. It’s also 20 episodes long and the emotional level and narrative grip, as well as its drive are questionable. Yes, there's "that thing" that happens in the middle, which is sort of important, and it should be noted that it's pretty faithful to the source material, but a lot of the characters are there just to make something cool happen (e.g. Rollo) and some of the middle episodes are downright drawn-out boredom without much going on. Technically speaking, Vikings isn’t going anywhere either. This is the most significant difference with, for instance, GoT, which became a high-budget spectacle from the third season on. That said, still above-par entertainment. (15.01.2020)

I consider Season 4 the weakest one so far. I was quite glad when Ragnar finally said goodbye. It was excruciating to watch his character disintegrate. Plus, it awfully slowed down the pace of the story. After the writer got out of this major crisis, the story started working again, only to bring more disappointment in the final episode. Twice the number of episodes apparently wasn’t a good move. (18.05.2018)