Vikings

Series Similar to Vikings

If you enjoyed Vikings, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Spartacus: Gods of the Arena

   2011 · Drama, Action, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / History profile, highly rated (8.4).

   The mini-series features the bloody history of the House of Batiatus and the city of Capua before the arrival of Spartacus. Quintus Lentulus Batiatus becomes a lanista (manager) when he takes over his father's ludus of gladiators. He has ambitions of stepping out of his father's shadow by seeking recognition for his own name and achieving further greatness for his house. By his side stands his beautiful wife Lucretia who will help her husband achieve his ambitions, whatever the cost. Batiatus puts all his fortunes on the man who will gain him fame and glory. That would be his best gladiator, the Celt, Gannicus, a skilled warrior who wields dual swords with deadly purpose. Those who oppose Batiatus and his future champion(s) of Capua do so at their own peril.Purchased as an undisciplined and disheveled recruit in the first episode, Crixus the Gaul endures mockery and threats of death to become the champion after Gannicus. As Batiatus fends off repeated attempts by his professional rival Tullius to obtain Gannicus, his relationships with his father Titus and friend Solonius begin to suffer the strain of his relentless ambition. Former champion, Oenomaus, reluctantly becomes Doctore, while Syrian recruits Ashur and Dagan try to prove themselves worthy of being gladiators. Veteran gladiators Barca and Gannicus note the rising star of Crixus, as the machinations of Batiatus and Lucretia end in tragedy for several members of the household. Against all of this, the city's splendid new arena nears completion and with it the opening games that will make slaves into gods. When the arena opens, Batiatus' gladiators prevail in the contest. Gannicus again proves himself to be the champion of Capua and a god of the arena. By virtue of his win against Solonius' gladiators, he gains his freedom and Crixus becomes the new champion.

2. The Last Kingdom

   2015 · Drama, Action, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / History profile, highly rated (8.2).

   The Last Kingdom is a show of heroic deeds and epic battles but with a thematic depth that embraces politics, religion, warfare, courage, love, loyalty and our universal search for identity. Combining real historical figures and events with fictional characters, it is the story of how a people combined their strength under one of the most iconic kings of history in order to reclaim their land for themselves and build a place they call home.

3. Spartacus

   2010 · Drama, Action, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / History profile, highly rated (8.5).

   Betrayed by his country. Beaten into slavery. Reborn as a warrior. Spartacus is a graphic and visceral account of Rome's most famous gladiator. When he is separated from the love of his life, Spartacus is forced into the gruesome and bloodthirsty arena, where a grisly death is primetime entertainment. Spartacus must fight for survival, befriend his enemies and play politics in this new world of corruption, violence, sex and fame. He will be seduced by power and tormented by vengeance. But his passion will give him the strength to prevail over every obstacle, in this modern and uninhibited tale of death, honour and endurance.

4. Home Fires

   2015 · Drama, Action, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / History profile, highly rated (8).

   In 1939 life for the women of Great Paxford changed forever. Suddenly parted from their men, they must rely on each other to get through the hard times ahead in the midst of a world war.

5. The Tudors

   2007 · Drama, History · ended

   Recommended for similar History profile, highly rated (8).

   Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars in this original, history-based drama series as the young, vibrant King Henry VIII, a competitive and lustful monarch who navigates the intrigues of the English court and the human heart with equal vigor and justifiable suspicion.

6. The Pillars of the Earth

   2010 · Drama, Romance, History · ended

   Recommended for similar History profile.

   The Pillars of the Earth is a sweeping epic of good and evil, treachery and intrigue, violence and beauty. This sensuous, spirited and passionate story is set against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles which tears lives and families apart. In that time, there rises a magnificent Cathedral in Kingsbridge.

7. Chernobyl

   2019 · Drama, History · ended

   Recommended for similar History profile, highly rated (8.9).

   Chernobyl dramatizes the true story of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history and tells of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster. The miniseries focuses on the heartbreaking scope of the nuclear plant disaster that occurred in Ukraine in April 1986, revealing how and why it happened and telling the shocking, remarkable stories of the heroes who fought and fell.

8. Victoria

   2016 · Drama, History · ended

   Recommended for similar History profile, highly rated (8.3).

   Victoria comes to the throne at a time of great economic turbulence and resurgent republicanism – and died 64 years later the head of the largest empire the world had ever seen, having revitalised the throne's public image and become ‘grandmother of Europe'. The first series of Victoria, will tell the story of the first years of the reign, beginning with the moment of the Queen's accession in 1837, following her first faltering steps from capricious, hormonal teenager with a weak grasp on her duties and responsibilities to her marriage to Albert. The show is a saga of interlocking circles – the circuits of power in Buckingham Palace and Westminster, the intermarrying royal houses of Europe and the scandals of the below-stairs palace staff. At the centre stands the new Queen – a spirited, passionate woman who must, somehow, become an enduring icon of stability and strength.

9. Versailles

   2015 · Drama, History · ended

   Recommended for similar History profile, hidden gem.

   Versailles, 1667. Louis XIV was 28 years old. To rise to the heights of the nobility and wield its absolute power, he launched the construction of Versailles... it proved to be a snare. Louis XIV is a young King haunted by childhood trauma, the Fronde civil, a rebellion of the nobility against his father, Louis XIII... It will prove be a strategic policy out of the ordinary, manipulative, Machiavellian, and he will "invent" Versailles for the nobles of Paris, to keep them under control, and gradually transform the castle into a golden prison. But how will Louis live as the greatest King in the world?Historical fiction of the court figures and the more humble villagers, guiding us in a world of betrayals and secrets, politicking and declarations of love.

10. John Adams

    2008 · Drama, History · ended

    Recommended for similar History profile, highly rated (8).

    This seven-part epic miniseries event explores American history through one of its greatest founding fathers, a fiercely independent spirit whose unwavering vision steered America through a tumultuous period.