The Last Kingdom

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Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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4.43 star(s) Rating: 4.43/5 7 Votes
Title: The Last Kingdom

Genre: Action & Adventure, Drama

First aired: 2015-10-10

Creator: Stephen Butchard

Cast: Alexander Dreymon, David Dawson, Ian Hart, Thomas W. Gabrielsson

Overview: A show of heroic deeds and epic battles 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.
 
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Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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605
Looks fantastic.


Adapted by Stephen Butchard from Bernard Cornwell?s best-selling book series The Saxon Stories, The Last Kingdom combines real historical figures and events with fiction, re-telling the history of King Alfred the Great and his desire to unite the many separate kingdoms into what would become England.
 

Agraza

Registered Hutt
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It could be quite good. I'm really not that interested in the source material, but it's BBC so I assume production value and writing will be well above average. For those that watch Vikings, this is the other side of the story. If you want spoilers search wikipedia for Alfred the Great, but I don't know how divergent "The Saxon Stories" are.
 

Xenrauk

Trakanon Raider
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Not bad, kinda almost like a mirror of Vikings but from the English side. Vikings is much more brutal though.
 

Agraza

Registered Hutt
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I liked the first two episodes. It's set up a lot like Rome, with a minor yet pivotal character acting as the narrative device, interacting with historical figures large and small.
 

Lithose

Buzzfeed Editor
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113,035
Got through first episode. Extremely solid acting and the setting is one of the most interesting times in history (The "Great Army" of the Danes campaign in England in 865)....Unlike Vikings which seems to be pulling from over a few centuries of history and essentially retelling legends through a semi-ficitional character (Some not even Ragnar's, like that whole coffin trick in London? Ragnar's son did that in Italy), as Agraza said, this has some more fidelity and seems to be using a smaller character to tell a story around the big players we know.

If you enjoy historical pieces which have excellent ambiance/setting quality, like GoT/Rome, give this is a go, it is really good so far and the sets/period props are allverywell done. I'd have to watch more, but if the excellent set design and props/costumes hold, this will for sure be on that level (Rome/GoT) in terms of, at least, period quality. Or at least more in line with those kinds of shows, where adherence to setting/costume seems important (Even down to them using proper armor and shields of the time) compared to shows like Tudors or White Queen where it's more of a frilly costume historical drama. (This for sure has more grit and reality to it.)

If the acting and story continue to be good, it will certainly join those two as one of my favorites. Still early to make that call, but they've certainly got the ambiance and general direction down to get there (Something The Bastard Executioner failed horribly at). Only thing that sucks is BBCA, so no nudity =-/...? (I think the BBC is cool with nudity? So unsure if there is an uncensored version or if they made it sanitized to push it to the U.S. as well, to fight for those GoT dollars.)

In any case, hopefully this does well and continues to spur on historical pieces looking to cash in on Game of Thrones making fantasy/historical dramas cool. TBE sucked, but I was at least happy people are trying earlier periods, always glad to see new period pieces. (But this stuff does make me sad thinking of Rome...It was ahead of its time, wish it came out today now =-/...would have been amazing to get the arc of at least first three seasons they had planned out, so S2 wouldn't have had to been rushed. S2 Civil War/Death of Brutus. S3 Civil War/Death of Antony). These shows always make me think of Rome, crazy to think that Vikings literally took and held land without even enough troops to be considered one legion (Probably only a few thousand), and that was considered abigarmy of this time. Yet almost a millennia earlier Rome was fielding armies not far from there of 10+ legions, well over 50k men (Or even in England 7 centuries before)...Hopefully they talk about Rome in the show, because I know the Wessex king in this war actually used Roman tactics and old Roman forts to fight off the Danes.
 

Ridas

Pay to play forum
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I watched the first episode yesterday and enjoyed it. I just wish they would cast a proper badass as main character. Maybe it is just me, but when there was the scene, where he emerges from the water all grown up, I was already annoyed. Hairless, good looking boytoy. Cast some proper badass. I am already rooting for the vikings!

And for the love of god, no retarded love story!

Beside those two personal annoyances it was entertaining and well done.
 

wamphyr

Molten Core Raider
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"Is a clubbing necessary, or will the arrows suffice ?"

Amazing scene that was.

Overall, it is somewhat mixed in quality, but they do have one brilliant screenwriter in there.
 

Convo

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Another really good episode. Won't post any spoilers since it only aired last night. Loving this show tho.
 

Arden

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I watched the first episode yesterday and enjoyed it. I just wish they would cast a proper badass as main character. Maybe it is just me, but when there was the scene, where he emerges from the water all grown up, I was already annoyed. Hairless, good looking boytoy. Cast some proper badass. I am already rooting for the vikings!

And for the love of god, no retarded love story!

Beside those two personal annoyances it was entertaining and well done.
To be fair, he's supposed to be 15 or 16 in the scene you mention. No way for you to know that, of course, unless you read the book.

Show is great. Following the books pretty closely and the changes they have made have all been positive. I'm a fairly harsh critic and I am impressed and enjoying the show quite a bit.
 

gogusrl

Molten Core Raider
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Dunno what to say, there's a lot of manufactured drama and Oddo the kid is the most annoying fucker ever.
 

Arden

Blackwing Lair Raider
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Dunno what to say, there's a lot of manufactured drama and Oddo the kid is the most annoying fucker ever.
They have stuck pretty close to the text to this point, but have been drifting away recently. IIRC there was an Oddo-like character in the books, but he had way less "screen time." My recollection is that the books are 90% focused on Uhtred killing shit, raiding shit, and dominating shit with little emphasis on the politics. Not saying politics weren't there, but the books were written from Uhtred's perspective and since he really didn't give a shit about much besides fighting, women, and treasure, that's what the books were focused on.

I don't feel like the politics have dragged the show down too terribly tbh. I think maybe GoT is showing its influence a bit by way of the direction in which the show's creators have taken it.
 

Convo

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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605
Kid is annoying but it'll be great when he dies.

Show is still awesome for me.
 
TV show information provided by The Movie Database