Vikings

Ragnar Lothbrok wants to sail beyond the routes his community already knows. Vikings begins with that ambition and turns it into a saga of family, leadership and competing ideas of what a successful life should be.

Travis Fimmel gives Ragnar curiosity as well as force, which makes him more interesting than a warrior defined only by winning. Katheryn Winnick's Lagertha provides another strong centre of judgement. The household relationships matter because expeditions and ambitions do not remain separate from the people left to live with their consequences.

The series blends historical material and legend rather than offering a dependable chronology. Its battles have scale, but the personalities are the better reason to invest in the long story. The Last Kingdom explores a related period from another position, with its own loyalties and disputes.