When you decide to make a seasons-long series based on a God made beloved by a franchise (Marvel), the minimum requirement is for it to be interesting. This comparison was inevitable, despite Marvel’s Thor and the universe of Ragnarok having nothing to do with each other. That is because the name is undoubtedly a very clever marketing tactic that produces just enough curiosity for one to check out the series due to the commonality. While the marketing works, the content does not. It is absolutely abhorrent that the entire first season was only about the introduction of characters, while Ragnarok Season 2 was about one plot, the forging of the hammer, which was so uninteresting in its execution because the audience was not even deemed intelligent enough.
Now that the third and final season of Ragnarok is in our lives, we can’t help but question why the standards of this show are so low. It is weird because it is not unwatchable, but it is also unable to rank highly in our estimation. For a show based on gods and giants, where is the mythology at all? Why are human affairs dominating the narrative of the show when we can get that from a newspaper itself? The lack of mythology was the first mistake in Ragnarok. The second was to kill Vidar, and the third was to make its protagonist, Magne, aka Thor, so boring. It took him three seasons to show a hint of personality, and even that turned out to be everything he had been against in Ragnarok Season 2.
Frankly, if we remember it right, even Thor of Marvel was not that interesting, but he had the other Avengers to compensate for that. There was no such thing in Ragnarok, even though it is the third season of the show, and it is sad because it just shows how the writers have not been able to utilize Loki aka Laurits well, who is the most intriguing in the entire narrative. But the writing has been just dull and full of loopholes to begin with, right from season 1. The one question that dominates our minds when we see these gods and giants on screen is that at no point are both of them equally matched in the narrative. Then why are they just not killing each other? Where are the attempts on each other’s lives? Magne had a problem with taking human life, so let us assume that he is refraining for that sake. But then, what about the giants? Why didn’t bloodthirsty Ran ever do anything substantial, or even Fjor, who took such a sharp 180 turn with his personality? We are saying once again that Ragnarok is entirely watchable, but humans shouldn’t be able to look at the fights between demons and gods and decide that they are stupid. The writing should be better than that.
As for the rest, Ragnarok Season 3 looks beautiful, though we are not fond of the makeovers of Magne and Laurits. While they both look good, we took the latter’s name in this context as a matter of personal preference for their dark hair. But with Magne, we would have liked to remember that he may be the reincarnated Thor, but he is still a teenager. Then again, this show is only set among teenagers without taking into account how any of them really behave. Maybe they had no space for it in the six-episode narrative.
The reason we are wondering about what this could have been and not what it has managed to be is because neither is anything new. There are other and better shows that have already told the stories of supernatural beings caught up with humans, be it Good Omens, The Umbrella Academy, American Gods, and whatnot. Assuming that Ragnarok wanted to bring human affairs to the forefront, which we are on board with as an idea, it did not make sense to push mythology into the background or just introduce it as a definition or brief before each episode. The reason people have been interested in Ragnarok is because of its possible exploration of mythology and not to see how someone is going to fight a polluting industry. That should have been a different show if the writers couldn’t find the balance with this one. But since we are not getting that, we just watch it because it has an ‘alright’ quality to it. None of the seasons of Ragnarok have been boring despite being underwhelming. This means that with the right context and frame of mind, Season 3 is its most interesting.
A chunk of the narrative of Ragnarok Season 3 is about how Magne’s power gets to his head, and we always find it interesting when the well-behaved and balanced protagonist has left the ground. It is always surprising to see how they justify their methods with their intentions. Even in the case where they don’t cross the line, there is the matter of their power motivating them rather than a need for things to be right. It strangely humanizes them. Magne hasn’t felt like a god so far because he hasn’t behaved like one, nor has he been able to pull in the charisma of one. He takes on a somewhat different personality in Season 3, but it just doesn’t feel organic.
Ragnarok remains one of those pieces of content that you can criticize a lot but don’t really hate because it stays stubbornly average. Maybe they needed a bigger budget or just some inventive writing. At this moment, the only factor that motivates us to watch Ragnarok season 3 is that we have watched seasons 1 and 2 and would like to know what happens next. If you are going in with your expectations managed, which would be the case if you have seen the first two seasons, then season 3 is nice and engaging. The key is to keep your expectations in check right from the beginning. This is not the kind of show based on gods that makes you take a deep dive into mythology or hooks you into it. It is just something else on the internet and is a little higher in quality, making it worth spending time on.
