Yeah, the Walking Dead season finale was terrible. The writers must be totally oblivious to survival situations and human behavior to make all the characters' actions so unbelievable. In Vikings on the other hand the characterization of the Norsemen is impressive. Especially considering the actors are mostly Canadian, Irish and Australian. The one Swedish actor is perhaps the most memorable as the eccentric shipwright. However... There are a number of problems with this "History Channel" presentation of the Vikings and Norse culture: Under Earl Haraldson the Norse society is presented as being a feudal dictatorship, when it was in essence a democracy. The existence and location of the English kingdoms and Ireland was not unknown to the Vikings at the time; it was common knowledge since Roman times. It is perhaps the dictatorial Earl and his frequent use of executions and torture that bother me most with the show. Norsemen didn't execute criminals, they were outlawed/outcast (which usually resulted in death by someone's hand later on, or by nature, but it's still not the same). Also the name of "Earl Haraldson" is wrong; he would be addressed by his first name (only name). "Haraldson" means "son of Harald" and would only be used after first uttering his actual name. Also Ragnar himself would not go by the name Lodbrok ("Lothbroc") at this time as it was a nickname he got later on. The character of Earl Haraldson and his antics are almost certainly completely fictional.
