What is it? Vikings, Season 1, nine episodes on three discs from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

When? Now

How much? $59.99 (Blu-ray)

Vikings as in the Nordic folks who plundered and pillaged their way through Northern Europe in the Dark Ages? The very same, although this History channel series fleshes them out a bit.

The year is 793 A.D. and Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) is preparing for another season of plundering. He’s tired of raiding the east. He wants to see what’s in the west and what people, gods and treasures might lie there.

But the local chieftain, Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne), is not keen to risk his vessels on sailing into the unknown.So Ragnar devises a new navigation technique and gets his eccentric ship-building pal Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard) to build a new type of longboat. With his brother Rollo (Clive Standen), he recruits a few warriors and makes a profitable raid on the coast of England.

That’s the start of all sorts of treachery, power plays and warfare. Haraldson isn’t too pleased with Ragnar’s ingenuity and disobedience. Likewise, Rollo starts to chafe at being in his brother’s shadow. And Haraldson’s Lady Macbeth-ish wife Siggy (Jessalyn Gilsig) has a few things to say about the way the men in her life handle Ragnar’s rise.

Ragnar’s relationship with his warrior wife Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) becomes increasingly complicated as his power, and his desire for more male heirs beyond their 12-year-old son Bjorn (Nathan O’Toole), grow. Her own frustrations at staying at home while he has all the excitement don’t help matters.

And of course, the raids in the west open them up to a new group of enemies, as the English aren’t going to exactly sit back and let the Vikings do what they want.

Watching it all is Athelstan (George Blagden), a young monk Ragnar enslaves during his raid on the Lindisfarne monastery.

What’s it like? A bit like Game of Thrones, but with fewer characters, less intrigue and less complexity of character and story.

Some of the events and characters depicted in the series are based in reality. Ragnar himself, a figure from Norse sagas, is a source of some debate. He may have been real. He may have been a myth. He may have been a combination of the two.

What the series does do is spend quite a bit of time showing the traditions, customs and religions of the Viking culture, going beyond the “raping and pillaging marauders” stereotype. Yes, they’re brutal plunderers and we see them doing plenty of violent, awful things, but they also have a complex society and a great love of storytelling.

It isn’t quite as engrossing as Game of Thrones, but it is compelling in its own, slower-moving way.

Is it historically accurate? Not completely. Most fictionalized history stories twist the facts and the Dark Ages are somewhat mysterious to us anyway. But if nothing else, it might inspire viewers to learn more.

Are there extras? Yep. The Blu-ray discs have interactive features about the journeys and weapons of the Vikings with commentary by historian Jochen Burgtorf. The 20-minute “A Warrior Society” delves into Viking culture, while two other features discuss the creation of the series and the filming of battle sequences.

New this week: Doc Martin, Series 6; Futurama, Volume 8; The Game, Season 6; The Gene Autry Show, Complete Series; In the Heat of the Night, Seasons 4-5.

Next week: Burn Notice, Season 7; Family Guy, Volume 12; Justified, Season 4; Shameless, Season 3.

Style, Pages 44 on 12/08/2013