I knew going in that this was going to be pretty good so I figured I'd watch a couple of episodes before bed. Next thing I know, it's 3am and I'm finally at the end. I did NOT expect it to be as good as it was, obviously!
The animation is awesome and suits the tone of the story perfectly; it has blood and gore and violence and sex and gore and more gore! What more can you ask for?
Oh yeah, you can ask for a good cast. Well...that's not this cast. This cast is INCREDIBLE. Sylvia Hoeks does a fantastic job as Sylvia, our main lead, as does Stuart Martin as Leif - Sylvia's lover and almost-husband but for the interruption of Pilou Asbæk's Thor (he does an awesome job as a slightly-unhinged Lord of Storms here). Joining them on Sigrid's quest for vengeance over the murders of her entire family are Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Hervor - Sigrid's shield-sister, the iconic Rahul Kohli as Leif's thrall Egill, the goddess that is Jamie Clayton as The Seid-Kona - a witch-woman, and Peter Stormare as Ulfr - The Seid-Kona's wolf-hide-dressed pet (for lack of a better word). They're soon joined by Andvari (Kristofer Hivju) - a dwarf smith - and eventually by Thyra (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) - a human archer loyal to the Vanir. All this aided by Loki (Paterson Joseph) for his own ends, of course. Then there's the supporting cast, including the likes of John Noble, Corey Stoll, Lauren Cohan, Tove Lo, Jessica Henwick, and Jamie Chung...
The story itself is great, too. Wedding Interruptus + Family Murdered = vengeance quest with a slight Ragnarok feel due to the attempted deicide of Thor, and they do a decent job of making us care about these characters in the relatively limited time they have, what with having all the violence and gore and sex sprinkled throughout.
I REALLY hope we get a second season of this, now!
