I've been experiencing difficulty finding a good series to watch lately on Netflix. I chose Ragnarok because I was hopeful the Norwegians had some sort of secret formula to story-telling the way the Koreans do.
I liked some aspects of the show and didn't like others. I have tried to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers but if you want to go in blind, know that overall I recommend this one
Pro: The location choices are stunning
The story takes place in a fictional town of Edda but was actually filmed primarily in the very real town of "Odda." The massive, snow peaked cliffs and the fjord below is incredibly beautiful and now after watching this series I really feel as though I would like to travel to Norway one day. Even if you don't end up liking the story, you will almost certainly marvel and the amazing landscape.
Con: The story moves a bit slow
This was surprising to me because episode 1 is done really well and tons of stuff happens without the action seeming rushed at all.
The first episode ends in a manner that almost forces you to watch episode 2 immediately (I did), and then it does the ol' switcheroo and basically nothing happens for 80% of all the middle episodes and then everything happens all at once in the finale.
Instead of progressing the story in a similar fashion to episode one, 2-5 treats us to a ton of irritating teenage situations, with irritating teenage drama dialogue, all about crap that in the end, doesn't have much bearing on the overall story.
I actually ended up skipping a lot of this.
Pro: An interesting take on a superhero story
I'll be the first person to say that there are entirely too many superhero stories out there and this is due primarily to DC and Marvel. This story is a bit different though, because it doesn't use any source material, but you can kind of see which particular hero it is attempting to show a "development story" for.
This might sound like a spoiler but would only be one if you have never heard the word "Ragnarok" before and it is pretty much spelled out in the trailer. Shoot me.
Con: Some bad casting decisions
I say this not because they are bad actors but because of the fact that they are clearly not the age that they are meant to be in the show. What group of high-school teens have rather developed crows feet wrinkles?
source
Obviously, this is not from the series
I suppose it doesn't matter that much and perhaps they didn't have access to a great many actors to choose from who could speak Norwegian. I don't know their reasoning, but it started to get on my nerves when these "teens" were clearly in their 30's.
Pro: Short episodes, short season
Although I did state that the series lulls in the middle and introduces a rather high level of unnecessary content, at least the episodes come in under 40 minutes for the most part, and the entire season is only 6 episodes long. One of the things that really irks me about many series is the fact that they have to adhere to some sort of network definition of a season, and then the entire thing ends up being way too friggin' long. This was a big problem with me as far as The Punisher was concerned.
Basically, Ragnarok is just as long as it needs to be and therefore encourages you to keep watching.
Con: Some really poorly written character arcs
Take these two for example: One is Magne, who is the center of the overall story - his character arc is actually fantastic. Then we have his brother, Laurits, who really could not be in the story at all and nothing would change.
That's ok that his presence is useless but what isn't ok is that he spends the entire season behaving one way, only to do a complete 180 degree change in the final 20 minutes or so without any indication in the story as to what his motivation for doing so could possibly be. Several other characters do exactly the same thing and there is no good reason why this would happen except to "wrap things up" and end the season.
While the overall story is pretty good, this seemed amateurish and rushed. I think there is a season 2 on the way and I hope they can learn from what I considered to be the biggest problem with the whole thing. The build-up episodes get completely negated in a very convenient sequence of events that take place literally in the final 15 minutes of the entire season.
For fans of superheros but who are not fans of the way that most superhero stories are told these days, this could be a winner for you.
Overall rating? 6.5 / 10
I realize that a big part of the reason why I am rating it so high might actually be because most of the superhero series that are on Netflix that are made by DC and Marvel (as well as most of the movies) are just plain awful. Even if that is a subconscious bias on my part, I still recommend this series. Or at least check out the first episode and see where that takes you.