Up until now, though, they've been trading off saga and legend more than history. There's no historical attestation to Ragnar, but there is plenty of actual documentation of the men who claimed to be his sons, in particular the Viking invasions of England in the time of Aethelwulf and Alfred.

If they're following history closely, Egbert of Wessex isn't alive at the time the Great Heathen Army invades Northumbria and Essex. It's little Al who ends up fighting Ivar and Halfdan in 868.

OMG SPOILERS

Depends on how close they stick to the source material.

Right. The books are not adventure or action (although they have that, but mostly to deconstruct the trope, a la Janet's experience in the desert in the third book). The books are literary, intelligent, and require the reader to give something. I think that can be translated to the screen, but simply not by these…

I want Bobbi Draper on screen ASAP.

It would appear as if that is true, which I did not know prior to last night.

If they did not/do not love "Jose Chung's From Outer Space," they are bad people and you shouldn't associate with them because it might be catching.

Daggoo is also a Melville reference.

I feel so bad, but as a big fan of the books… I kinda hate the show. It's not the set pieces or the production values, it's how… wrong… it all feels. Only Janet and Eliot seem to respect the characterizations in the books. Quentin is wrong. Penny is WAAAY wrong. Alice is wrong. Fillory is downplayed, when in the…

SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIILERS

Is the show a terrible mishmash of bland, generic fantasy and CW-esque teeny-bopper madness? Yes. Yes it is. WHY CAN'T I LOOK AWAY, THEN?

Hell, I'd watch it.

I mean, they're not wrong.

I hope he did, but it is never mentioned directly. I hope random scenes in the background of every episode tell a side story about a crashed UFO and government operatives covering it up. Nothing ever made explicit, mind you, just Easter eggs for the eagle-eyed viewers.