Dear friends,
In recent years English-language shows like Vikings or The Last Kingdom have dominated Nordic storytelling. The Norwegian answer? A comedy, also in English but with an all-Norwegian cast, about the less heroic and more mundane aspects of a Viking’s life.
Norsemen
Season 3 is new on Netflix today. In English.
Being a Viking is “the easiest job in the world” a villager tells the town’s most feared fighter: “sit on a boat, stab people with swords — it’s as basic as it can possibly get”.
In Norsemen, a variety of characters try to fight this basicness. They take fashion risks like putting horns on a helmet for the first time, try to be more culturally diverse by interacting with a Roman slave, fall in love and raid tribes (often at the same time), and so on - you know, every day Viking stuff.
Norsemen’s first season was viewed by more than a million people in Norway, a country of five million.
Alternatives you might like
Patriot on Amazon Prime is an excellent parody of CIA work where the most consistent enemy of an agent is bureaucratic incompetence.
The Last Kingdom on Netflix, mentioned in the introduction, is an action show that takes place during the Danish invasion of modern-day England.
Talk on Friday,
Bilal
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