Norsemen
Created by Jon Iver Helgaker & Jonas Torgersen
Developed by Viafilm, NRK
Written by Jon Iver Helgaker & Jonas Torgersen
Starring
Henrik Mestad as Chieftain Olav, the leader of the village. He found a route to sail west, and from this has a much-coveted map.
Marian Saastad Ottesen as Hildur, Olav’s wife
Nils Jørgen Kaalstad [Wikidata] as Arvid, the chieftain’s second-in-command. He loves to go on raids but he also wants to settle in the village.
Kåre Conradi as Orm, husband of Frøya and acting chieftain while his brother Olav, the chieftain is on a raid
Silje Torp as Frøya, Orm’s unhappy wife and a shield-maiden who rapes men on raids
Trond Fausa Aurvåg as Rufus, an enslaved actor from Rome who befriends Orm and plans to modernize the village
Øystein Martinsen as Kark, a freed slave who has voluntarily returned to his life as a slave
Jon Øigarden as Jarl Varg, a rival chieftain, who desires the map to the west
Kristine Riis as Liv, a farmer’s wife whose husband is killed by Arvid in a duel, so that Arvid can marry her and own the farm
Bjørn Myrene as Torstein Hund, Varg’s literal right-hand man.
The first thing to know about Norsemen, which the Guardian described as “Game of Thrones meets Monty Python” is that it’s very goofy. These aren’t just Vikings from the Norwegian village of Norheim in 790 ADE; these are WOKE Vikings from the Norwegian village of Norheim in 790 ADE. Along with the usual pillage and ravishing on raids (the wife of the Chieftain’s brother wears a necklace of penises of English monks she has ravished, seen in promo image at the top) there are earnest discussions about becoming a cultural center that would put Rome to shame, and even a book club, Disputes are polite, mindful of the boundaries and rights of the other party until one of them decides, “Right, Sod This.” and cuts the other in half with a sword. (There’s an example in the first episode in which one of the disputants is cleaved completely in half, head to anus.) While there isn’t much to remind anyone of GoT (budget, and a sad lack of dragons, dwarves and Daenerys) the Python sensibility shows up frequently. The disputations amongst the dissident Jewish groups in Life of Brian, for instance, or the Python game show featuring leading philosophers of history as contestants, asked to state who won the FA cup in 1956.
The cast and crew are all Norwegian, and the show (two seasons, total of 12 episodes) was phenomenally popular in Norway, with some 80% of households tuning in to watch each episode. It is as entirely Norwegian as you can get, complete with a startlingly historically accurate of depiction of life in the northlands at the end of the 8th century. The humor is purely Norwegian, and they are as bad a pack of sick fucks as we Scots are. You’ll frequently find yourself cringing even as you’re laughing your head off—it’s that type of show.
So if it’s so purely Norwegian, why is it in English? Everyone sounds like they were extras in the movie Fargo. It’s simple. Sensing they had a potential major hit on their hands that might attract viewers outside of Norway (Finland? Who knows? Perhaps Sweden?) they shot every scene twice; once in Norwegian, and then in English. The fact that it has broken out as Norway’s first comedic international hit suggests their instincts were sound.
The characters are engaging, but don’t get too emotionally attached—this is one way in which the show is like Game of Thrones in that there is a certain attrition rate amongst the cast. (The first chief dies in the opening show, and after a debate over whether they should send him out in a floating pyre using an actual ship or just a small floating raft, they get the body, along with prized personal possessions (except the chief’s wife, who can’t quite see the logic in committing suttee) the raft is launched, and they stop to bicker while it floats out of arrow range so the inept new chief can’t launch a flaming arrow into it, but he does try about 10 times, each more painful than the last. So off the old chief floats, unburnt and not headed for Valhalla.
But it’s OK. Turned out there were several items on the raft they decided, upon reflection they shouldn’t burn, and so they cruise out the next day to retrieve them, including an item that turns out to be the show’s MacGuffin.
There is going to be a “Season Zero” this summer, one that predates the first two seasons, so many of the faces you came to love to watch with piteous amused horror in the first two seasons shall return.
Now on Netflix.