TV Reviews: The Bible / Vikings

By Nathan Young on March 10, 2013

Let’s face it; The Walking Dead has ruled Sunday Nights when it’s on. You knew one network would do something to challenge the ratings monster. And History Channel has taken a bite out of The Walking Dead ratings with The Bible and Vikings. Both premiered last Sunday and are airing new episodes every Sunday night. For now, I still get my Walking Dead fix and DVR both shows on History. So let’s talk about these two shows!

The Bible

Mark Burnett‘s mini series depicting the Holy Book had great ratings last Sunday! Around 13.1 million viewers tuned in to part one of the mini-series. Although it did not beat The Walking Dead, it drew great numbers! Burnett considers the scripted 10-hour series to be the “most important” project he has undertaken. The project was conceived by Burnett and Downey, who are married, after watching Cecil B. DeMille’s version of The Ten Commandments for the first time since childhood. This series is Mark Burnett’s first scripted project he has ever done!

The series covers “Genesis to Revelation” in “one grand narrative,” within five two-hour parts, each containing two or three biblical stories told through live action and computer-generated imagery. According to Burnett, it included “obvious” stories such as Noah’s Ark, the Exodus, and the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Five hours are taken from the Old Testament, and five from the New. The series is based on the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

Burnett and Downey even consulted a wide range of pastors and academics to make sure this series would be accurate. And after watching the first part of the series, I thought it was told very well. There is a lot of violence in The Bible and it was shown in the series. The beginning where you see the people and animals in Noah’s Ark was special. All of the fighting in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim was graphic and almost real! By the way, the Ninja moves were awesome!

In the second story; all the slavery in Egypt was hard to watch but this is the story. Moses gets to free the slaves and parts the Red Sea to escape. The Red Sea scenes were computer animated very well! And to top it; Moses receives the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai. I hope you know what The Ten Commandments are! Sure, this series did skip a couple of parts from The Bible. And some people have commented online saying this series is wrong and is a waste of time. But overall, I thought this series did a good job describing the Holy Book! I will be DVR’ing this series!

Vikings

This is a show I have looked forward too! Vikings is a nine-part series created by Michael Hirst and co-produced by Irish and Canadian film companies for History. The entire series was filmed in Ireland, and the series is inspired by the tales about the Viking king Ragnar Lodbrok, one of the best-known Norse heroes and notorious as the scourge of France and Britain. This show portrays Ragnar as a Viking farmer who pioneers the first daring raids into North eastern Britain with the support of fellow warriors, his brother and his wife, the shieldmaiden Lagertha.

I thought this series was wonderful! The backgrounds make you think you are living in their time period. Seeing the guy’s head being chopped off for punishment was graphic but this is what they did back then. There was plenty of blood and gore and the storytelling was great! I thought the cast members did a good job in their roles as well! I recommend you watch this series as well!

The Bible airs at 8 pm / 7 central. Vikings airs at 10 pm / 9 central on History Channel!

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