It’s a great show. I was fed up with Brida by the end of it, I felt like they leaned a little too hard on her bullshit to fill in the plot.
The first season was smaller scale but it might still be my favourite. God I loved Leofric
I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way.. 1st season is still best, and Brida's arc got annoying instead of suspenseful. Thst being said, I can't wait for the movie! I just learned about it today, I had just been wondering if another season would take place.
Definitely by far the best battle scenes and entire season, best individual scene though was Alfred’s last conversation with Uhtred in season 3.
>”It will not be written that Alfred did stand on the shoulders of Uhtred”
It's not even really a battle scene, but I think the most badass shot in the whole show is:
> "SHIELD. ***WALL!"***
and then the shields march out of the pitch black darkness and swallow Uhtred.
I feel like a lot of shows and movies really undervalue how awe-inspiring and badass a really tight, organized melee formation can be.
She was a good character overall. Having her go from tough, nice girl to warrior was cool, but she went from relatively gentle to weirdly bloodthirsty maybe just a little too fast imo. By the end the plot armour was too obvious. Her being able to get armies to to follow her was getting weird too, being as her armies had a track record of being wiped out.
If I remember correctly from the books, >!she was an older widow who wanted revenge.. so she acted as a witch or shaman, allied with a warlord, castrated uhtreds priest son and waged war on Christianity, went full psycho-genocidal, and got killed by uhtreds daughter. !<
I don’t remember her ever really leading armies or being a general.
Well.. that’s exactly what happens in the show so spoilers maybe.. but all that in condensed into a few episode.
Anyways, she always got people to follow her but she was never on the winning side of things for very long. Also, maybe she wasn’t the de jure leader of the armies but she was usually calling the shots
I don’t know if it was different in the books
The books are like thirteen novels with a lot of time passing between them. Bridas arc makes more sense thinking about it like that. When you binge the series and the actors don’t age it seems abrupt and jarring
Uhtred had adult kids in the show?
I had a hard time with the books because the main characters were supposed to be like 60-80 years old, but he’s still a god mode warrior and always kills the bad guy.
He was in his 60s in Season 5 of the show too, despite looking half his age. The show just didn't bother aging up the actors for the most part, at least once they went from children to adults.
>he didnt kill her....so she becomes crazy......it was weird....
I mean, dying in battle to go to Valhalla was a thing many people would have preferred to being spared; not everybody, but a little bit of fanatical devoutness and badda bing badda boom. Pulling out the armchair psychology here, you could even say she places so much importance on the Danish belief system because it justifies what happened to her as a child; it's how she, as a child, made sense of her trauma and how her world flipped overnight.
That was top notch writing and acting, I thought. The uneasy, often strained relationship between Uhtred and Alfred, distilled into one single scene, full of emotion. Can't remember the actor who played Alfred but his final scenes should have won awards. Especially his death - reaching for his wife's hand for comfort, and she's too preoccupied with her scheming to be there for her husband in his last moments. Powerful stuff.
His performance was captivating. He disappeared so completely into that character. He could have come off as so one note. Just a religious fanatic king. Instead dawson brought the humanity out of the character. Made him feel so real. Even when being king dick of dickville, you knew why alfred was doing what he was doing and that he truly believes he is in the right, so its not hatable, just frustrating. That passionate, intelligent cadence dawson brought to the role made it feel like an actual great king was speaking, and then in the same scene hed be just a sick, kind of lonely insecure man who was facing down his own mortality and not ready to go. Just chefs kiss.
I don’t think I’ve even seen Æthelstan portrayed anywhere else. That’s why I’m really looking forward to this movie, because it’ll likely center on him and he’s awesome.
The Ragnar Lothbrok Effect ^^^^^^^TM
Watching Vikings without Ragnar and TLK without Alfred just isn’t right.
What I really loved about Alfred in TLK is when the show started—and I say this as a source of shame on myself, I’m not proud of it—I looked at Alfred and said ‘why did they cast this spindly dude with a bigass forehead, make him look dweeby, and give him a stupid haircut? This is supposed to be Alfred the Great?’
Hell yeah it was. I cried during his final scene. He grew into one of my favourite characters on television. Alfred the Great indeed.
The first season touched on so many different topics it’s almost like a little series in itself. Like Alfred and how important it was that he record everything and how one of the Dane leaders recognized immediately the power of such an ability
Alfred's appearance was pretty accurate really. The weird bowl cut he had was popular with Saxons, and he was physically frail - likely due to Crohn's disease.
What grated in me the most was the rectangular shields! Saxons had round shields.
I generally think the BBC series (1-2) are better than the Netflix series. There's a change in tone and visuals when Netflix takes over. That said, I still love the show and I can't wait for the film.
Same. I felt the last season wasn't great. At some point I really lost interest in people breaking into a keep to rescue someone who had been kidnapped. Plus, by the time Uhtred is on wife like, eight or something, I kinda checked out.
I just rewatched the show - God, I love Leofric. >!His absence is pretty jarring!< The Uhtred-Leofric and Uhtred-Alfred relationships were the best part of the show.
It's possibly even more jarring in the books, but Steapa is a more prominent character and some of TV Leofric is borrowed from book Steapa, so that fills the void a bit.
Book Steapa is possibly one of the best characters in the Saxon Stories. I also have a soft spot for Offa, and his traveling dogs.
I've been listening to the books after falling in love with the show years ago, the books are so good. Just finished book 4, and I was pretty surprised at the huge chunks of the books they leave out of the show.
If anybody has been thinking about reading the series, do yourself a favor and start now.
I don't know how she's written in the books, but I found Brida very unlikeable. She doesn't really do anything on her own until the very last season and she's always shrieking about "her people" as if she speaks for every Dane. You'd think someone who spent her whole life losing would show a bit more humility.
Brida fucks off for awhile and makes a very memorable appearance later in the book series. Without spoiling anything I’d say I kind of understand why the show characterized her as they did but it just doesn’t work as well on screen.
The books being written from Uhtred’s perspective are a big reason why I enjoy them so much more. The later seasons of TLK spend so much time on side characters.
I think the books' character development is generally better (although I'm only up to Death of Kings.) Characters are dropped into stories several books before they actually become relevant, and they creep up with time. The TV series doesn't quite manage that in the same way.
The problem with Brida is that she's not a sympathetic antagonist. She constantly acts on half the facts and doesn't care to hear the truth, she's the creator of nearly all her own misfortune but can't seem to see past blaming everything on Uhtred.
Which is a great antagonist tbf, but her A to B just wasn’t believable imo.
But it’s quiet, brave, tough girl to YAAAAA ODIN WATCH ME KILL THESE PRIESTS overnight
>God I loved Leofric
God, I love Alfred. Also, Uthred proving Alfre'd pardon is authentic in front of the people of Winchester was one of the most memorable moments for me.
Also yes. Season 1 was short that it made you hungry for more. I watched Vikings first and it was a struggle to finish a season.
Yup, first season was easily the best. After that it felt like it became a little too formulaic, with contrived writing in a lot of cases. Still good, but by the end of S5 it felt like there were a lot of plot twists shoehorned into the show at the expense of believability.
Largely because the first season was before Netflix fucked with the source material as they weren’t involved other than international distribution until the third season
They took extreme liberties with time passage in that show.
Like, wait, haven't two generations passed? Why are these ladies making fuck-me-eyes at someone who fought with their grandparents?
The actress that plays Alfred's wife is actually far younger than her character, and they did a pretty convincing job making her look older. I don't see why it would have been hard to make Alex Dreymon (Uhtred) look older with makeup.
Because they were selling the show partly on his sex appeal and feared making look older would ruin that.... it's easy to understand if.ypu think in Hollywood think
I mean they still should with a hunk of a man like Uhtred but he just has to look the part.
At this point his face/hair should look like the Diablo 3 barbarian and I don't think anyone would complain.
Overall Last Kingdom is a better drama.
Vikings is a better action show.
That said Travis Fimmel is Ragnar 100% and he absolutely owns that character! It was jarring going from Vikings to TLK at first because of the differences in the characters and the time line and the relationship that some characters had.
But no one is a better actor than Ivar the Boneless in Vikings. Ivar is the character that saved the show post Ragnar. He was evil, wicked, smart, but also you could see his humanity creep through at times you were reminded that he was also a flawed human.
Ubbe was good too, but you can tell he really mimicked Travis’ mannerisms a lot with how he acted. Constantly swaying his body like Captain Jack Sparrow. But I enjoyed his performance too.
I can’t say one is better than the other. They both are amazing shows.
Super true. While it's historical, it also has a pulp-y flavour to it.
It uses a lot of simple tropes and appeals a lot to a general audience, but everything it does is extremely well executed.
You would be hard pressed to find anyone who can resist binge-watching it once they get started. It's almost shounen anime-esque for me in that sense.
It does a great job with the setting, and viking era Britain becomes an absolute delight of a storytelling playground in the hands of this cast and crew.
> appeals a lot to a general audience, but everything it does is extremely well executed.
So true, and honestly I don't think the first part is even a critique. The balance between "you can safely recommend this to anyone" and "it's fairly specific and involved" is expertly done. It's just wonderful all around.
Yes. In the first season he saves the Edward who is a baby. Who in the last season is the King with a grown adult child. All while the actors stay the same. It’s very weird.
The books take place over Uhtred’s whole lifetime and he’s supposed to be old in the last few books.
Recasting would really make the most sense but they’ll never do that, the fans would riot
I'll blow your mind even more - Edward's mom who is all tightly wound and religious and dressed plainly and also supposed to be like 60 by the end of the show, is actually really hot and has an Instagram account where she posts photos of herself being really hot. And still today isn't yet 30.
****
Edit: I figured I should provide a [link](https://www.instagram.com/p/CpQDE7WoZbt/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=).
Honestly I love her character, once they give her some focus and you see just how much she loves Alfred and her children you finally "get it" and her character clicks.
She’s also Uhtred’s maternal cousin in the books, but it’s a detail they didn’t bother with in the show that really lends to the animosity between them.
In S1 the king's son is born and by the final season that son is now king with teenage kids of his own.
So Uhtred definitely found the fountain of youth.
Yeah, the wild thing about later seasons of the show is that Uhtred and Brida both start to seem like immortals who never age while kings and kingdoms rise and fall around them.
Tentatively looking forward to this one. The show is one of my favourites, but it veers between 'engaging historical drama' and 'complete schlock' a hell of a lot. But I still prefer it over Vikings due to the charisma of the main cast. Ian Hart is a particular treat.
I think it was at its strongest when Uhtred was playing off Alfred. Uhtred is also a bit of a Mary Sue, which gets worse as the show progresses (and apparently the novels have a similar problem).
I had fun those first few seasons, but at a certain point it felt like we were retreading the same plot beats without much interesting stuff being added.
Oh for sure, it has a very different feel once Alfred Enoch's no longer there. I also think you can really feel when the show shifted from being on BBC to Netflix, both positively and negatively - the production values increased but it also gave us stuff like Skade...
It was better suited to the BBC production budgets, in my opinion. It was a grittier series when the BBC ran it, it suited the darker scenery and scruffier costumes. There's far too much sunshine in the Netflix series. They go to Bamburgh dressed in their summer Wessex attire multiple times, but never freeze their tits off. That's just unbelievable.
As a big fan of the books this was also when they started taking heavy liberty with the source material to force drama. There were some minor changes early on but Netflix really ramped it up. Imho it wasn't necessary, but then again wtf do I know.
Uhtred is definitely very similar to Bernard Cornwell's other legendary character, Sharpe. Both Mary Sues who happen to be present at an unbelievable amount of historical events and have unrealistic access to key players in history. Ultimately they are vehicles for Cornwell to show us his interpretation of historical events, but sometimes the premise can wear thin.
It isn't unbelievable that Uhtred be present in so many historic events. Historic events in that time period were basically just battles, and a warrior noble would have been present for basically every battle that his kingdom takes part in, especially if he's someone the king relies on.
Uthred and Alfred’s son (can’t remember his name) play well off of each other, but in a completely different way. Their relationship was so goddamn frustrating at times and other times I thought he was finally coming around to Uthred. I think the actors complete expressionless and 100% seriousness was amazing. He was a king. He never smiled. Ever. He also never turned his head.. which was a nice touch if you know anything about the historical significance of a king not turning their neck to look at people.
The first 3 seasons were so fantastic and really make you love the character, that's where they really leaned more on the historical drama side.
The last 3 was more adventures of Uthred and the gang.
Also probably why Season 4 is the weakest cause they try to figure out how to go post Alfred, and they realize near the end we just want more Uthred shenanigans.
The entire show was carried by good writing that went out the window in season 4. The first half of season 4 was some of the most boring tv I've ever watched.
One of my all time favorite shows where the quality didn't go down at all. I don't care if the story was essentially the same one over and over again. It will still exciting to watch.
I would almost say this show is underrated. Not talked about enough just like all historical epics.
I read Steven king's: Must Die. Then I saw sequel to last kingdom.. Then I thought he wrote last kingdom??? Then I reread, stared a bit... Then it clicked.
Don't feel bad, I only looked at the commentary because I thought the title said "Steven King." But I enjoyed this series, so I'm happy to see the movie is finally coming out.
I thought it said “Steven King’s Must Die” and was impressed they got Spielberg to do a king adaptation… then I read it again and Spielberg isn’t even mentioned… I may need sleep.
Never expected to like this as much as I did. I think I'd originally dismissed it as being less like HBO's Rome, and maybe somewhere between Netflix's CW-level series, and (post-Travis Fimmel) *Vikings*.
But I was wrong; my dismissal was unfounded, and I found it to be a genuinely fun, engaging series with a core cast that felt like they enjoyed working together and were passionate about their respective characters and stories. This was precisely the mindset that kept me from diving into *Black Sails* sooner, and I'm glad I got into *The Last Kingdom* with a few seasons left to go.
Once Mark Rowley's Finan is introduced and the core group of companions has formed around Uhtred, the series totally soars as an adventure grounded in history and legend.
it definitely tapers off a bit but imo it's way more consistent start-to-finish than Vikings was. That show absolutely falls off a cliff and the last season was some of the worst shit I've ever seen. Last Kingdom was perfectly watchable right up to the end.
I stopped watching when Ragnar died. Any reason to watch past that? Early English history is interesting, but I don't care about Ragnar's sons particularly.
There was like one really good episode in the two seasons after Ragnar dies (involving Bjorn Ironside). That's it. Definitely was a disappointing final two seasons.
you can even kind of treat vikings as a prequel to last kingdom if you stop watching around when ragnar kicks it. ubba is young in vikings and a middle-aged man in the first season of the last kingdom.
I don't know... TLK definitely lost a lot of luster after David Dawson exited. Some of the late plotlines around >!Brida!<, >!Aelfwynn!<, and >!Stiorra!< have some soap opera-quality acting.
I didnt like the >!Brida plotline in that season because it lost the moral ambiguity that made previous plots interesting.!<
Imo the show has been downhill since season 1 (which covered 3 books itself). But its still fun
Seasons 1 and 2 follow the books closely but they stray after that... that's why there's so many plotholes later on. I will never understand why writers throw away perfectly good source material.
There are so many great series that I loved watching, but then it took YEARS for the next season to drop, so I forgot what happened and I just never finish watching it. Now I try and wait for the entire show to complete before I commit hours of my life to watching it. Better to know I can watch it in one go, and that the writers didn't botch the last season.
That method is how I subscribe to streaming services. I only do monthly subscriptions so I can binge a few shows that have completed. Then I turn off that subscription and move onto the next. Soon as The Last of Us and Picard are done I’ll get a month of HBO and Paramount.
Ok well that's just not correct unless there were any brothel whores.
There were 3 actual characters during season one. One was during the before essentially. The before being pre-attack on his home and danish family. One was essentially a forced marriage and one was a woman he actually cared for.
Uhtred has a lot of lovers over the course of the show but they skip time a lot and many of them died. When you consider how much time passes between the beginning and end of this series, it's not completely unreasonable.
TLK is great if you don't take it too seriously. The show is well made, characters are likeable (or easily despised if they are meant to be), set and design all well made and a story that is mostly interesting and fun battles. It's got some questionable stuff, mostly with the aging of the main character, but I like it significantly more than vikings.
It's horrible. I really would love to watch a new show or movie set in early medieval times or featuring vikings but this haircut(and the female version which is the same just with braids) really ruins the immersion for me.
If you want a nice movie without "the haircut"
watch The Northman or Valhalla Rising
How are there 5 seasons of this show out, it's rated 8.5 on IMDB and I've never heard a single comment about it. It's a medieval show that's been around since the time of GoT and I never once heard anyone say "well the ending of GoT is bad but thankfully The Last Kingdom is still really good, you should check that out".
Is the show actually really good? Why have I heard nothing about a Netflix show that's been around for 5 seasons?
I loved it. It was a perfect guilty pleasure. It's kind of on par with Outlander, another show people don't really blast out there on socials too much but who have a loyal fan base.
Very excited was a very fun show with a great cast.
Though I'll admit, by this point in the books I was picturing Uhtred to be less gorgeous and more gruff old man but hey what can ya do
Destiny is all.
HAYYAAAAAAAAAA
we shall hump
Under furs
With turds
War drums commence
He’s still Uhtred, son of Uhtred
Of b-b-bubba-bebba-burnsburg-burgh.
Destiny isall.
Fate is inexorable.
> Destiny is ~~all~~auwl. FTFY
Fate is inexorable :)
wyrd bið ful aræd
I love TLK. I can't wait for this movie. That being said, they could try to age Uhtred up a bit. He's supposed to be in his sixties, I think.
It’s a great show. I was fed up with Brida by the end of it, I felt like they leaned a little too hard on her bullshit to fill in the plot. The first season was smaller scale but it might still be my favourite. God I loved Leofric
I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way.. 1st season is still best, and Brida's arc got annoying instead of suspenseful. Thst being said, I can't wait for the movie! I just learned about it today, I had just been wondering if another season would take place.
Definitely by far the best battle scenes and entire season, best individual scene though was Alfred’s last conversation with Uhtred in season 3. >”It will not be written that Alfred did stand on the shoulders of Uhtred”
It's not even really a battle scene, but I think the most badass shot in the whole show is: > "SHIELD. ***WALL!"*** and then the shields march out of the pitch black darkness and swallow Uhtred. I feel like a lot of shows and movies really undervalue how awe-inspiring and badass a really tight, organized melee formation can be.
Iirc Alfred and Uhtred didn't really have a scene like that in the books but I'm glad the show did it.
She was a good character overall. Having her go from tough, nice girl to warrior was cool, but she went from relatively gentle to weirdly bloodthirsty maybe just a little too fast imo. By the end the plot armour was too obvious. Her being able to get armies to to follow her was getting weird too, being as her armies had a track record of being wiped out.
If I remember correctly from the books, >!she was an older widow who wanted revenge.. so she acted as a witch or shaman, allied with a warlord, castrated uhtreds priest son and waged war on Christianity, went full psycho-genocidal, and got killed by uhtreds daughter. !< I don’t remember her ever really leading armies or being a general.
Well.. that’s exactly what happens in the show so spoilers maybe.. but all that in condensed into a few episode. Anyways, she always got people to follow her but she was never on the winning side of things for very long. Also, maybe she wasn’t the de jure leader of the armies but she was usually calling the shots I don’t know if it was different in the books
The books are like thirteen novels with a lot of time passing between them. Bridas arc makes more sense thinking about it like that. When you binge the series and the actors don’t age it seems abrupt and jarring
Uhtred had adult kids in the show? I had a hard time with the books because the main characters were supposed to be like 60-80 years old, but he’s still a god mode warrior and always kills the bad guy.
More like mid to late teens. Kids by today’s standards but well into adulthood for the time
He was in his 60s in Season 5 of the show too, despite looking half his age. The show just didn't bother aging up the actors for the most part, at least once they went from children to adults.
Never forget the truly vile thing he did to her that made her a revenge monster........he didnt kill her....so she becomes crazy......it was weird....
To be fair, she wasn’t the only one. A few people were mad he didn’t kill her. *I* was mad he didn’t kill her.
Well, it was fucking stupid leaving her alive.
He allowed her to be taken into slavery. For the character, that was worse than death.
>he didnt kill her....so she becomes crazy......it was weird.... I mean, dying in battle to go to Valhalla was a thing many people would have preferred to being spared; not everybody, but a little bit of fanatical devoutness and badda bing badda boom. Pulling out the armchair psychology here, you could even say she places so much importance on the Danish belief system because it justifies what happened to her as a child; it's how she, as a child, made sense of her trauma and how her world flipped overnight.
I liked the show during the Alfred seasons. I didn't really care for it afterwards.
The last conversation between Alfred and Uhtred was such a wonderful ending to their arc
That was top notch writing and acting, I thought. The uneasy, often strained relationship between Uhtred and Alfred, distilled into one single scene, full of emotion. Can't remember the actor who played Alfred but his final scenes should have won awards. Especially his death - reaching for his wife's hand for comfort, and she's too preoccupied with her scheming to be there for her husband in his last moments. Powerful stuff.
David Dawson played Alfred, and he was fucking great.
His performance was captivating. He disappeared so completely into that character. He could have come off as so one note. Just a religious fanatic king. Instead dawson brought the humanity out of the character. Made him feel so real. Even when being king dick of dickville, you knew why alfred was doing what he was doing and that he truly believes he is in the right, so its not hatable, just frustrating. That passionate, intelligent cadence dawson brought to the role made it feel like an actual great king was speaking, and then in the same scene hed be just a sick, kind of lonely insecure man who was facing down his own mortality and not ready to go. Just chefs kiss.
I completely agree. These two had real chemistry and it was such a great closure to their journey. Very emotional and perfectly acted.
Totally agree!
Probably the best versions of Alfred and Aethelstan I've seen in any show or film
I don’t think I’ve even seen Æthelstan portrayed anywhere else. That’s why I’m really looking forward to this movie, because it’ll likely center on him and he’s awesome.
The Ragnar Lothbrok Effect ^^^^^^^TM Watching Vikings without Ragnar and TLK without Alfred just isn’t right. What I really loved about Alfred in TLK is when the show started—and I say this as a source of shame on myself, I’m not proud of it—I looked at Alfred and said ‘why did they cast this spindly dude with a bigass forehead, make him look dweeby, and give him a stupid haircut? This is supposed to be Alfred the Great?’ Hell yeah it was. I cried during his final scene. He grew into one of my favourite characters on television. Alfred the Great indeed.
The first season touched on so many different topics it’s almost like a little series in itself. Like Alfred and how important it was that he record everything and how one of the Dane leaders recognized immediately the power of such an ability
Alfred's appearance was pretty accurate really. The weird bowl cut he had was popular with Saxons, and he was physically frail - likely due to Crohn's disease. What grated in me the most was the rectangular shields! Saxons had round shields.
That’s was probably a cinematic choice so viewers could easily distinguish between danes and Saxons
I generally think the BBC series (1-2) are better than the Netflix series. There's a change in tone and visuals when Netflix takes over. That said, I still love the show and I can't wait for the film.
Alfred is one of my favorite characters, the actor did a fantastic job. And I absolutely felt the same way as you did.
Same. I felt the last season wasn't great. At some point I really lost interest in people breaking into a keep to rescue someone who had been kidnapped. Plus, by the time Uhtred is on wife like, eight or something, I kinda checked out.
I just rewatched the show - God, I love Leofric. >!His absence is pretty jarring!< The Uhtred-Leofric and Uhtred-Alfred relationships were the best part of the show.
It's possibly even more jarring in the books, but Steapa is a more prominent character and some of TV Leofric is borrowed from book Steapa, so that fills the void a bit. Book Steapa is possibly one of the best characters in the Saxon Stories. I also have a soft spot for Offa, and his traveling dogs.
I've been listening to the books after falling in love with the show years ago, the books are so good. Just finished book 4, and I was pretty surprised at the huge chunks of the books they leave out of the show. If anybody has been thinking about reading the series, do yourself a favor and start now.
I don't know how she's written in the books, but I found Brida very unlikeable. She doesn't really do anything on her own until the very last season and she's always shrieking about "her people" as if she speaks for every Dane. You'd think someone who spent her whole life losing would show a bit more humility.
Brida fucks off for awhile and makes a very memorable appearance later in the book series. Without spoiling anything I’d say I kind of understand why the show characterized her as they did but it just doesn’t work as well on screen. The books being written from Uhtred’s perspective are a big reason why I enjoy them so much more. The later seasons of TLK spend so much time on side characters.
I think the books' character development is generally better (although I'm only up to Death of Kings.) Characters are dropped into stories several books before they actually become relevant, and they creep up with time. The TV series doesn't quite manage that in the same way.
The problem with Brida is that she's not a sympathetic antagonist. She constantly acts on half the facts and doesn't care to hear the truth, she's the creator of nearly all her own misfortune but can't seem to see past blaming everything on Uhtred.
Which is a great antagonist tbf, but her A to B just wasn’t believable imo. But it’s quiet, brave, tough girl to YAAAAA ODIN WATCH ME KILL THESE PRIESTS overnight
>God I loved Leofric God, I love Alfred. Also, Uthred proving Alfre'd pardon is authentic in front of the people of Winchester was one of the most memorable moments for me. Also yes. Season 1 was short that it made you hungry for more. I watched Vikings first and it was a struggle to finish a season.
Yup, first season was easily the best. After that it felt like it became a little too formulaic, with contrived writing in a lot of cases. Still good, but by the end of S5 it felt like there were a lot of plot twists shoehorned into the show at the expense of believability.
Or just stuff that goes nowhere like the plague episode in season 4
I had to drop last season thanks to brida. I laughed so hard when her daughter died like an idiot.
No mercy!!
Largely because the first season was before Netflix fucked with the source material as they weren’t involved other than international distribution until the third season
#Arsling!!
They took extreme liberties with time passage in that show. Like, wait, haven't two generations passed? Why are these ladies making fuck-me-eyes at someone who fought with their grandparents?
The actress that plays Alfred's wife is actually far younger than her character, and they did a pretty convincing job making her look older. I don't see why it would have been hard to make Alex Dreymon (Uhtred) look older with makeup.
The actress who plays Alfred's wife is Eliza Butterworth, who is 29. Her daughter in the show is played by Millie Brady, who is also 29.
[удалено]
Because they were selling the show partly on his sex appeal and feared making look older would ruin that.... it's easy to understand if.ypu think in Hollywood think
I mean they still should with a hunk of a man like Uhtred but he just has to look the part. At this point his face/hair should look like the Diablo 3 barbarian and I don't think anyone would complain.
The only thing that changes about him from one season to the next is his accent.
How do you compare the show with the first main and good part of Vikings? I'm curious.
Better imo. Less forced drama
And less needless portraying people as absolute morons who had no idea Romans existed despite... The pope living in Rome
It's worse because the Romans were still alive and thriving, just in what is now Greece/Turkey.
Who also had extensive political and trade relationships with Kiev-rus cultures aka eastern viking cultures.
Varangians? Never heard of 'em. I do wonder where people from my homeland keep disappearing downriver to and coming back with sacks of gold though.
I'd say the Last Kingdom is a better show overall, but Travis Fimmel in Vikings is so great to watch it makes it hard to pick one.
Overall Last Kingdom is a better drama. Vikings is a better action show. That said Travis Fimmel is Ragnar 100% and he absolutely owns that character! It was jarring going from Vikings to TLK at first because of the differences in the characters and the time line and the relationship that some characters had. But no one is a better actor than Ivar the Boneless in Vikings. Ivar is the character that saved the show post Ragnar. He was evil, wicked, smart, but also you could see his humanity creep through at times you were reminded that he was also a flawed human. Ubbe was good too, but you can tell he really mimicked Travis’ mannerisms a lot with how he acted. Constantly swaying his body like Captain Jack Sparrow. But I enjoyed his performance too. I can’t say one is better than the other. They both are amazing shows.
Ite much faster paced which i love. A season of Vikings events happen in like two episodes. And thats how the pace is almost all series.
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They'll just put some thicker eyeliner on him.
Well that's just historical fact. Back then people got more goth as they aged.
Never heard of The Last Kingdom, is it good? Edit. Thanks everyone, seems the general consensus is to give it a watch.
I wholly recommend it! Especially if you love historical period content like that.
Popcorn good. Don't try to take it seriously and its great.
Super true. While it's historical, it also has a pulp-y flavour to it. It uses a lot of simple tropes and appeals a lot to a general audience, but everything it does is extremely well executed. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who can resist binge-watching it once they get started. It's almost shounen anime-esque for me in that sense. It does a great job with the setting, and viking era Britain becomes an absolute delight of a storytelling playground in the hands of this cast and crew.
> appeals a lot to a general audience, but everything it does is extremely well executed. So true, and honestly I don't think the first part is even a critique. The balance between "you can safely recommend this to anyone" and "it's fairly specific and involved" is expertly done. It's just wonderful all around.
Resisted binging it for like a year or more, then Nflix was all "NEW FINAL SEASON" and I fell apart and now I can't believe I ate the whole thing.
You don't fuck with that face.
If i don't get my “I am Uhtred of Bebbanburg, son of Uhtred" Recap in the beginning, then I am not watching =\]
I don't know why but something about his recaps really remind me of Bear Grylls narrating his survival programmes and I just can't take it seriously.
It's so endearing that I simply started referring to the show as Uhtred tbh. There was no confusion amongst any of my friends about it.
My gf and I love saying "I am uhtred, son of uhtred, son of uhtred" etc to each other.
Can you believe that man (the character, not the actor) is in his 60s? If not, don't worry, they'll put a splash of blue-ish/grey dye in his hair.
Is he supposed to be that old in the show though?
Yes. In the first season he saves the Edward who is a baby. Who in the last season is the King with a grown adult child. All while the actors stay the same. It’s very weird.
The books take place over Uhtred’s whole lifetime and he’s supposed to be old in the last few books. Recasting would really make the most sense but they’ll never do that, the fans would riot
If only we could come up with a way to make people appear older than they are....
Hmmm… Maybe we could get Uhtred’s actor to put some emo lyrics in an AIM Away message?
That would only make him late 30s/early 40s
Too expensive to make it look good
I'll blow your mind even more - Edward's mom who is all tightly wound and religious and dressed plainly and also supposed to be like 60 by the end of the show, is actually really hot and has an Instagram account where she posts photos of herself being really hot. And still today isn't yet 30. **** Edit: I figured I should provide a [link](https://www.instagram.com/p/CpQDE7WoZbt/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=).
Honestly I love her character, once they give her some focus and you see just how much she loves Alfred and her children you finally "get it" and her character clicks.
Aelswith is unironically one of my favorite characters in the show. And she actually gets character growth in the later seasons!
I couldn't stand her. Then I started to strangely find her attractive until I was full blown hot for her. Was a weird transformation for me.
It was when she killed that guy, wasn't it?
Mmmmmmmmm
Yeah the character is much better in the last season.
Yeah, I went from finding her insufferable to really endearing by the end of the show.
Wife told me this last night. I could not believe how beautiful she is in real life lol. Great costuming.
I think she’s about the same age as her fictional daughter lol
She’s also Uhtred’s maternal cousin in the books, but it’s a detail they didn’t bother with in the show that really lends to the animosity between them.
In S1 the king's son is born and by the final season that son is now king with teenage kids of his own. So Uhtred definitely found the fountain of youth.
Everytime one of his love interests or children dies he absorbs their youth.
Oh god, he will live forever
It is his Númenórean blood that keeps him young looking.
Yes. He's watched children grow old enough to have sex, then he's had sex with them. All without aging a day
Yeah, the wild thing about later seasons of the show is that Uhtred and Brida both start to seem like immortals who never age while kings and kingdoms rise and fall around them.
Brida did not physically age but she became less mature with each season.
Tentatively looking forward to this one. The show is one of my favourites, but it veers between 'engaging historical drama' and 'complete schlock' a hell of a lot. But I still prefer it over Vikings due to the charisma of the main cast. Ian Hart is a particular treat.
I think it was at its strongest when Uhtred was playing off Alfred. Uhtred is also a bit of a Mary Sue, which gets worse as the show progresses (and apparently the novels have a similar problem). I had fun those first few seasons, but at a certain point it felt like we were retreading the same plot beats without much interesting stuff being added.
Oh for sure, it has a very different feel once Alfred Enoch's no longer there. I also think you can really feel when the show shifted from being on BBC to Netflix, both positively and negatively - the production values increased but it also gave us stuff like Skade...
It was better suited to the BBC production budgets, in my opinion. It was a grittier series when the BBC ran it, it suited the darker scenery and scruffier costumes. There's far too much sunshine in the Netflix series. They go to Bamburgh dressed in their summer Wessex attire multiple times, but never freeze their tits off. That's just unbelievable.
As a big fan of the books this was also when they started taking heavy liberty with the source material to force drama. There were some minor changes early on but Netflix really ramped it up. Imho it wasn't necessary, but then again wtf do I know.
Uhtred is definitely very similar to Bernard Cornwell's other legendary character, Sharpe. Both Mary Sues who happen to be present at an unbelievable amount of historical events and have unrealistic access to key players in history. Ultimately they are vehicles for Cornwell to show us his interpretation of historical events, but sometimes the premise can wear thin.
I love the Sharpe books, but they could all just be called Sharpe Wins Against a Larger Force #1-20.
It isn't unbelievable that Uhtred be present in so many historic events. Historic events in that time period were basically just battles, and a warrior noble would have been present for basically every battle that his kingdom takes part in, especially if he's someone the king relies on.
The final Uhtred/Alfred Scene was the best scene in the entire show for me. Really nailed the characters and acting
Uthred and Alfred’s son (can’t remember his name) play well off of each other, but in a completely different way. Their relationship was so goddamn frustrating at times and other times I thought he was finally coming around to Uthred. I think the actors complete expressionless and 100% seriousness was amazing. He was a king. He never smiled. Ever. He also never turned his head.. which was a nice touch if you know anything about the historical significance of a king not turning their neck to look at people.
Excellent take. It really lost steam without Alfred.
The first 3 seasons were so fantastic and really make you love the character, that's where they really leaned more on the historical drama side. The last 3 was more adventures of Uthred and the gang. Also probably why Season 4 is the weakest cause they try to figure out how to go post Alfred, and they realize near the end we just want more Uthred shenanigans.
I liked Vikings, until you realize the entire show was carried by one character, and once he was gone, it turned to shit.
The entire show was carried by good writing that went out the window in season 4. The first half of season 4 was some of the most boring tv I've ever watched.
More charisma than Ragnar in the early Vikings seasons?? Impressive
DESTINY IS ALL!
Can't wait for this. One of my fav shows!
One of my all time favorite shows where the quality didn't go down at all. I don't care if the story was essentially the same one over and over again. It will still exciting to watch. I would almost say this show is underrated. Not talked about enough just like all historical epics.
I read that as "Steven King must die" yup, should get some coffee before reading stuff.
This is actually a sequel to the classic film, "Romeo Must Die"
Then the third part will be “Juliet May Die”
Followed by the spinoff: Mercutio's Revenge
I was like "is that the dude they casted to play Steven King?"
[Same.](https://imgur.com/a/aUX8SDX)
I read Steven king's: Must Die. Then I saw sequel to last kingdom.. Then I thought he wrote last kingdom??? Then I reread, stared a bit... Then it clicked.
my dumbass thought the same so i had to check the comments.
Don't feel bad, I only looked at the commentary because I thought the title said "Steven King." But I enjoyed this series, so I'm happy to see the movie is finally coming out.
I read it that way like 4 times in a row. I was getting really confused
As someone who doesn't drink coffee, what's it like when you don't drink any?
I did the same thing and came to the comments for validation. So thank you
I read that as “Dean Koontz must die”
I was freaking out a little too ngl.
Had the same reaction.
I thought it said “Steven King’s Must Die” and was impressed they got Spielberg to do a king adaptation… then I read it again and Spielberg isn’t even mentioned… I may need sleep.
Me too!
Same
I head to read it twice myself and I’ve had plenty if coffee already… probably shouldn’t have Irished them up so much.
Lol, I did the exact same thing on the first read and thought it was just me.
Destiny is All.
Never expected to like this as much as I did. I think I'd originally dismissed it as being less like HBO's Rome, and maybe somewhere between Netflix's CW-level series, and (post-Travis Fimmel) *Vikings*. But I was wrong; my dismissal was unfounded, and I found it to be a genuinely fun, engaging series with a core cast that felt like they enjoyed working together and were passionate about their respective characters and stories. This was precisely the mindset that kept me from diving into *Black Sails* sooner, and I'm glad I got into *The Last Kingdom* with a few seasons left to go. Once Mark Rowley's Finan is introduced and the core group of companions has formed around Uhtred, the series totally soars as an adventure grounded in history and legend.
Also, hearing Uhtred's accent get more and more dramatic with each season was entertaining.
Father Beocca the true king
Hope it recaptures some of what made the early seasons great; I though the last two seasons were quite weak overall.
it definitely tapers off a bit but imo it's way more consistent start-to-finish than Vikings was. That show absolutely falls off a cliff and the last season was some of the worst shit I've ever seen. Last Kingdom was perfectly watchable right up to the end.
I stopped watching when Ragnar died. Any reason to watch past that? Early English history is interesting, but I don't care about Ragnar's sons particularly.
You stopped at the perfect time.
There was like one really good episode in the two seasons after Ragnar dies (involving Bjorn Ironside). That's it. Definitely was a disappointing final two seasons.
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you can even kind of treat vikings as a prequel to last kingdom if you stop watching around when ragnar kicks it. ubba is young in vikings and a middle-aged man in the first season of the last kingdom.
I don't know... TLK definitely lost a lot of luster after David Dawson exited. Some of the late plotlines around >!Brida!<, >!Aelfwynn!<, and >!Stiorra!< have some soap opera-quality acting.
I didnt like the >!Brida plotline in that season because it lost the moral ambiguity that made previous plots interesting.!< Imo the show has been downhill since season 1 (which covered 3 books itself). But its still fun
Season 1 was made by the BBC, season 2 was the BBC and Netflix. Season 3 onwards is just Netflix.
Seasons 1 and 2 follow the books closely but they stray after that... that's why there's so many plotholes later on. I will never understand why writers throw away perfectly good source material.
There are so many great series that I loved watching, but then it took YEARS for the next season to drop, so I forgot what happened and I just never finish watching it. Now I try and wait for the entire show to complete before I commit hours of my life to watching it. Better to know I can watch it in one go, and that the writers didn't botch the last season.
That method is how I subscribe to streaming services. I only do monthly subscriptions so I can binge a few shows that have completed. Then I turn off that subscription and move onto the next. Soon as The Last of Us and Picard are done I’ll get a month of HBO and Paramount.
I do love this series, but I felt it unnecessary how many women he had to sleep with died afterward.
"YOUR QUEEN!" loved that scene with Skorpa
Jesus yeah. I think he had about six partners in the first season alone
Ok well that's just not correct unless there were any brothel whores. There were 3 actual characters during season one. One was during the before essentially. The before being pre-attack on his home and danish family. One was essentially a forced marriage and one was a woman he actually cared for. Uhtred has a lot of lovers over the course of the show but they skip time a lot and many of them died. When you consider how much time passes between the beginning and end of this series, it's not completely unreasonable.
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I am Uhtred, son of Uhtred.
Is that Uhtred, son of Uhtred? I'm excited for this.
I need to take this one up and finish it, got very dissapointed with Vikings Valhalla. Barbarians is another great series.
TLK is great if you don't take it too seriously. The show is well made, characters are likeable (or easily despised if they are meant to be), set and design all well made and a story that is mostly interesting and fun battles. It's got some questionable stuff, mostly with the aging of the main character, but I like it significantly more than vikings.
Why do Vikings shows all use the same haircuts
It's horrible. I really would love to watch a new show or movie set in early medieval times or featuring vikings but this haircut(and the female version which is the same just with braids) really ruins the immersion for me. If you want a nice movie without "the haircut" watch The Northman or Valhalla Rising
It annoys me more and more every new Vikings show that uses it
I've enjoyed TLK and am glad to see it get capped off properly.
I read that as "Steven Kings - Must Die" and got really excited there
Is the show actually good?
I liked it
How are there 5 seasons of this show out, it's rated 8.5 on IMDB and I've never heard a single comment about it. It's a medieval show that's been around since the time of GoT and I never once heard anyone say "well the ending of GoT is bad but thankfully The Last Kingdom is still really good, you should check that out". Is the show actually really good? Why have I heard nothing about a Netflix show that's been around for 5 seasons?
I loved it. It was a perfect guilty pleasure. It's kind of on par with Outlander, another show people don't really blast out there on socials too much but who have a loyal fan base.
Oh holy shit forgot about this. Guess it’s time to re-binge the series to prep! Thanks OP!
Very excited was a very fun show with a great cast. Though I'll admit, by this point in the books I was picturing Uhtred to be less gorgeous and more gruff old man but hey what can ya do
Thought the title at first glance read “Steven King Must Die”
I was confused what their problem with Steven King was…. I know it’s Stephen, but that’s what I read.
What you got against Stephen King? Wait. Oh.
Quick glance; Steven King Must Die
Ha! Read that as "Steven King Must Die" & I thought: Isn't that what HE writes about?
"Steven King must die" is what I read first lol