TV Tuesday: Norsemen

Hi, I'm back! Sorry for the quiet blog, but I was away for most of the past 10 days, first on a rare mini vacation to Florida with my husband and two sons and then up to my hometown, Rochester, NY, for a busy Thanksgiving weekend filled with big family gatherings. It was great to see everyone but completely exhausting, of course. My husband said too bad we couldn't do it in the reverse order and end the week with the quiet, relaxing (and warm) part at the beach!

So, catching up and getting back to business here on the blog...it's Tuesday, so that means a TV review! And our 19-year old son introduced us all to a very funny show while we were on vacation: Norsemen, a parody about Vikings in 790 AD Norway.

My older son and husband, who love the TV drama The Vikings, said that Norsemen is a perfect parody of it - even certain scenes they said seemed pulled right out of the dramatic series and played here for laughs. The show focuses on a small Norwegian village, where the strongest males (and one female) of the clan (including their Chief, Olav) go out on raids and return home victorious with the spoils of their adventures. Back at home, Orm, the hapless and wimpy brother of Olav, takes over as temporary Chief. In the very first episode, the Viking crew is returning home from a raid with some new slaves in tow, including a Roman named Rufus, who is not at all happy to discover how this cruise ends! Rufus creates plenty of problems in the small village and is intent on bringing live theater to this remote region.

The laughs come frequently on this very silly but engaging show. What makes it extra-funny are the glimpses of modern life and language woven into the Viking tale. If you look at the actors' names listed on imdb, you'll see it's an entirely Norwegian cast, but we recognized several of our favorites from other Norwegian shows we enjoy, Occupied and Lilyhammer. Think of Norsemen as a cross between Monty Python and The Vikings - very funny, clever, and often just plain silly. It certainly had my husband and sons quoting entire swaths of dialogue over and over all week and laughing hysterically (much in the way that Monty Python and the Holy Grail affects them!) - and, I admit it, I was laughing along with them.  This show is just plain fun and perfect if you need some mindless escape. Note that there is sex and violence in the show - these are Vikings, after all.

Norsemen is available on Netflix, with two short seasons of six episodes each currently available. We hope there are more to come!

I'm not sure this trailer does the show justice, but at least it isn't giving away all the best lines - there are a lot of laughs in this show: