You might be confused by the double rating bar at the top. There’s a reason for that. Surely you won’t be surprised by the revelation that this series is about Viking Gods and the coming apocalyptic moment prophesied about them.

This series is on Netflix as an original to them. Norwegian in production, of course, but with an English audio option. I tend to watch with the subtitles on anyway, and there are certainly moments where the translation is a bit askew. But in an entertaining way, nothing crazy. The show went for three seasons, but apparently that was the plan for the show from the start. But let’s get to details. And oh yes, there will be spoilers.

Season one of this show starts with teenagers Magne and Laurits being relocated to Edda by their mom after their dad having passed away. This town has a rich family that seemingly rules things, the Jutul family. After arriving, Magne has a run in with an old lady who graces him a boon. Just a little thing. Awakening the God Thor within Magne. He begins getting stronger and faster and more powerful in all things. Not being very social, he befriends the also not very social girl Isolde, who is also an environmental activist. Magne is enamored with her and follows her lead in the activism. Well, until she dies.

There is tension between the Jutul family and Magne, leading to the revelation that they are Giants. The eternal enemies of the Gods. The Giants are destined to bring about Ragnarok, and Magne is the first line of defense against it happening.

The first season of this is really good. As we experience Magne learning about himself and the Giants. Even him tossing a normal hammer about a mile. And maybe even being able to summon lightning! The Jutuls though, in addition to being rich (and the father, Vidar, running the main industry in the town that is poisoning the local water), have a massive presence in the high school. The mom, Ran, is the principal. Saxa and Fjor are both students there.

There is mystery here and things that seek to be explored.

But there are also really inconsistent things and major plotting problems. A huge one to me is the idea that Saxa and Fjor are in high school. This prominent family has lived here for centuries. So how do they explain that their children never get out of high school? Oh wait, they just don’t bother trying to explain it. Old World weapons are shown and talked about, mainly by the Jutuls, who seem to own several of them.

Season one culminates in a fight between Vidar and Magne. A fight which actually could have been a decent ending to the series. But a bit more isn’t a terrible thing. Unless it is done terribly.

Which brings us to season 2. Magne is still in high school. I didn’t mention that in season 1 his brother, Laurits, had found out that he was actually a Jutul. And is very obviously Loki. Laurits is a pretty good Loki, I really enjoyed his performance throughout this. Unlike Magne after season 1. Tension between Magne and Laurits shifts like the tides, as Laurits never really seems to care who he aligns with. The last one he talks with is who he is currently siding with.

Magne gets an ally in Iman, a Goddess with powers that don’t really seem to be helpful to someone engaging in a war for the fate of the world. But she does help him get a “Mjolnir” by having a mechanic forge a hammer that looks like it. Unfortunately, when he throws it, it just goes far away and never returns to his hand. As they say in Monty Python and the Holy Grail about Camelot….”It’s just a model.” No matter what he tries, he can’t get the hammer to “power up.”

Magne and Vidar wind up fighting over Laurits and Vidar dies. This causes Magne to renounce his powers because he is sad he killed Vidar. And the Gods (or Fate or whatever) happily oblige him, stripping him of his power. Which was just silly. “You there. Be THOR!… Wait, you are having uncertainty about the role that is vague as hell which you have been bequethed? Nevermind, we’re taking the power back, even though it means the Giants have free reign.” And then Laurits goes a step further by having a tape worm that he gives birth to, which is really the Serpent of Midgard, instrumental in the mythos of Ragnarok. Magne is sad he has no powers and still wants to fight the Giants. Sometimes through activism. Laurits finds a way to fulfill a prophecy and injects Odin blood into himself. Which was a cool as hell moment! That they then did nothing with. Matter of fact, Laurits gets roughed up by Giants a time or two and almost killed (possibly more times than he is roughed up.) Which made me wonder what the point of the God blood power up was for.

There are a few moments where Magne has residual power. And I really wanted him to call down lightning, reigniting his powers as Thor and turning his prop Mjolnir into the real thing.

Instead, things happen. Blah blah blah. He has a few more allies and they go to the Eternal Flame in the basement of a Jutul warehouse. Here the dwarf they brought along to forge Mjolnir… stands idly watching as the mechanic (who is now a God) and Magne work on forging the hammer. A process they accomplish within just a few minutes while Iman uses her combat skills to be a punching bag for Fjor.

They escape. And by they, I mean only Magne. He runs away while they all get caught. And then later he calls down lightning, getting his powers back and Mjolnir gaining power.

So much in this season I felt undermined the strong season one they had given us. But fear not, perhaps it is all just setting the stage for a season 3 that will get everything back on track.

Yeah…. I wish.

It does nothing of the sort. Instead we get a season 3 that focuses on Magne being a jackass. Because apparently the hammer is a bad influence on him. He breaks up with his girlfriend, becomes the sexual boy toy of the Giant Saxa, and just all around is a douche. Even further isolating the allies he has.

Oh wait, before he becomes Saxa’s personal sex toy, he comes to her aid unexpectedly. She has been enslaved by Fjor and Ran. Magne bursts into their home and threatens them with Mjolnir. Which they are petrified of. And they are actively trying to kill him! But he just waves the hammer around uselessly. I wanted to see Thor bust some caps here. Kneecaps would have been fine. He has the most powerful weapon. And his enemies are at his mercy. He is still a bit averse to killing. But why not cripple the Giants that want him dead? A love tap to the knees of Fjor and Ran would either put them in crutches for life or a wheelchair. Either way, they would be a lot less of a threat to him. And I would think it would prevent Ragnarok from happening.

But no, instead we get him and Saxa sitting in a tree… k i s s i n g…

And the other Gods prepare to go to war without Magne since he is being a little bitch. Magne takes the hammer with him everywhere and threatens Fjor and Ran at every opportunity. Making them do things like pay for meals and apologize to students. Magne is now the bad guy. But then Fjor tricks him into a boat race. And disables Magne’s boat mid race leaving him susceptible to an attack from the tapeworm of Midgard! Awesome. Let’s get some battle happening, because this whole “Days of Our Lives: Ragnarok special episode” is just silly. Magne throws the hammer! and misses. But it is now in the water, and the Serpent of Midgard eats it.

ummmm….

The super powerful weapon. Thet thing he can throw and will “always” return to him…. Is eaten. And the Serpent just swims away with it.

So Magne begins to spiral out of control (well, he was already out of control, but now he has lost his bully mallet and is worried that the Giants will find out.)

The Serpent shows up to the spot “mommy” Laurits feeds and talks to it. It then spits the hammer out at Laurits feet. Deciding that the best plan for their safety is to give the ultimate weapon to Fjor in exchange for leaving them alone, he does just that. Because Frodo giving Sauron the One Ring would have been the better path to peace in Middle Earth, right? This eventually leads to a convoluted chase scene that feels like an 80s sitcom montage in which the Laurits dresses like a man to trick the Gods into not following the hammer, but then the Giants lose the hammer to Saxa who skips and frolics her way off to whatever plan she has only to be ambushed by Odin and cartoon style knocked out (I feel like I saw little birds flying around her head and her tongue hanging out of her mouth as she laid on the ground.) Rejoice! The weapon is reacquired and the Gods can now deal with the naughty Giants. But when Odin shows the hammer to Magne, he snatches it and begins talking to it like Gollum, as he wanders off into the horizon. Leaving the Gods without a weapon once again.

Then there is a discussion where Magne talks them into the idea of “What if we just don’t fight, then there will be no Ragnarok.” So a truce is established. And graduation happens.

And at graduation, Magne sees Ragnarok happening. Fights playing out. People dying. But it isn’t real. And we then see Magne going through his old comics about Young Thor. And each one of them is showing events as they happened to him. But we are expected to now believe the whole thing was in his head.

And that’s a wrap on Ragnarok. Just the fantasies of a seemingly 30 something little boy believing his comics are real.

Terrible ending.

As you can tell, I went into a lot of detail here. I also glossed over a lot of stuff. Each season is only 6 episodes. Which is the only reason I finished it. Season 1 was great, 8 stars. Season 2 was lacking in such a massive way that it felt like the only reason for it was to get to season 3, and therefore season 2 gets 5 stars. Setting up for a big finish, where they are gonna stick the landing and wow us all. Then we get to Season 3 and I gave it a generous 2 stars. My honest suggestion is watch Season 1 and pretend that is the end of it. Call it cancelled by Covid. But don’t get drawn into the other two seasons. It will spoil your faith in humanity. And that is one spoiler that I don’t feel like saddling you with.