Vikings - Rites of Passage (Pilot)

[JD]

The first episode of History's new dramatic series, Vikings, premiers tonight. I'm really looking forward to this, so far everything I've watched for it looks good. And most of the reviews on Metacritic are good.

[Forbin]

'Twas awesome.

[Star Wolf]

It really was the History Channel. I was surprised we didn't see the new TV standard of the head flying off, the poetic blood splatter and the naked couple pumping and grinding.

[Greg Cox]

I'm intrigued enough to check out the next ep.

[Mutenroshi]

Hopefully it won't have the same fate as Camelot...

[Temis the Vorta]

Havent seen word on ratings yet, but here's History Channels' strategy:

In this, its first scripted episodic regular series, History is following up on the spectacular ratings success of its scripted “Hatfields & McCoys” mini-series last spring and at the same time reaching out to an action-oriented young male demographic weaned on spectacular, sophisticated gaming.

“We’re putting everything behind it that we possibly can,” said Nancy Dubuc, president for entertainment and media for History’s parent, A&E Networks. “This is a topic that has always resonated with our viewers through our historical documentaries. Hopefully it’s very appealing to a core young male audience — I think there are some parallels to some of the video games that are being played today by young men.”

Hmm. i still think that of the History Channel wants a license to print money, they shold figure out how to do a Civil War series without breaking the budget.

[Owain Taggart]

It was quite interesting. It holds promise, unfortunately I won't be able to keep following it as I'll be on the road and away from TV most of the time this month, but I hope it will be as successful, if not more so than the Hatfields & McCoys. This is going in the right direction as far as I can see. I was just thinking about future scripted series/miniseries that they could do and Lewis & Clark popped into my head.

[JD]

I really enjoyed it. I thought it was cool getting to see this kind of a story from the Viking perspective. In most of the stuff like this that I've watched in the past, the Vikings are the savage other coming to slaughter the heroes, I've never really seen anything like this from their perspective.
Apparently the critics got to see more episodes, because a lot of them said that it gets better as it goes along.

[Greg Cox]

My one complaint is that I think they should've gone with a two-hour premiere. This ep was mostly setup; it felt like the story was just getting rolling when the episode ended. "Wait, it's over already?"

[Shurik]

I loved the first episode.

It's an interesting time period that's not frequently addressed and vikings rarely presented as more than nameless savages who's only after pillage and rape.

[propita]

We dvr'd it but haven't had the chance to watch. I have read that it starts slow and builds. If people here are liking the start, if it only improves, it'll be a great ride.

[Temis the Vorta]

Vikings are very popular, but only half as popular as the Bible.

It was a big night for History, whose 10-hour miniseries The Bible opened with 13.1 million viewers and 4.6 million adults 25-54 to rank as the No.1 cable entertainment telecast of the year. It was followed by the debut of the network’s first original scripted series, The Vikings, which rode The Bible‘s coattails to draw 6.2 million viewers, 2.5 million Adults 18-49 and 2.7 million Adults 25-54, beating the broadcast networks in the hour in the 18-49 demo. The rollout is part of a new strategy by male-skewing History which is launching the bulk of its programming after the end of football season this year.

[Guy Gardener]

Christians don't like late nights, it's easier to pretend the world is without sin if you're out to it, when everybody else in the first world is three sheets to the wind looking for a an orgy.