Critic Reviews

From start to finish, Vikings: Valhalla Season 2 is a non-stop, breathtaking, utterly relentless foray, following beloved characters into the unknown as they seek their destinies. It is both utterly satisfying and so rich and packed with even more to come down the line that the wait for Season 3 now feels longer than ever.

Rooted in history but not beholden to it, the show might provoke one or two viewers to crack a book seeing if this is how it actually unfolded, which isn't a bad thing. Yet nor is that really necessary, with "Vikings: Valhalla" working plenty well simply as escapist drama, covering a great deal of story in a season that still leaves room for battles and brawls to come.

So, sure, the show can sometimes feel like a montage of strapping, bearded men introducing themselves to each other before beating each other up. But “Valhalla” also demonstrates enough ambition and handle on its characters and pivotal time period to justify diving into its world, no matter how much you may have known about it before taking the plunge.

Vikings: Valhalla is rich with history, the gore and glory of battle, and lusty romance. But its ensemble cast is also uniformly strong, with characters on all sides of the geopolitical and religious struggles at the heart of Valhalla having gained some valuable perspective.

History tells us what will become of the three of them, but as far as future story potential, Vikings: Valhalla's finale leaves plenty of space for the storytellers to bring it all to the same vivid, heartbreaking, emotional life as the rest of the series did.

If anything, “Valhalla’s” eight-episode first season improves on the original show — as it should, since it takes place in more interesting times.

The vast audience for Vikings is clearly the target for Valhalla, and those viewers won’t be disappointed, but they also won’t be blown away; the show takes a while to find its way.

To view Vikings: Valhalla as targeting the spirit of the times rather than to-the-letter of the times is to enjoy on its own terms, and its own terms are ultimately fair. Maybe they keep the show from being truly great, but in terms of pure entertainment and getting you to click that “next episode” button, everything here works perfectly.

It stays consistently entertaining even as it fails some of its best ideas. The production values are very high, resulting in a show that’s confidently made, and the cast is uniformly charismatic.

I watched the second half of the eight-episode season being relieved that even if Valhalla never quite reaches the heights of the Vikings mothership, the show it settles into becoming is pretty strong and satisfying on its own.