Seasons(5) / Episodes(46)
Plots(1)
The year is 872, and many of the separate kingdoms of what we now know as England have fallen to the invading Danes, leaving the great kingdom of Wessex standing alone and defiant under the command of King Alfred. Against this turbulent backdrop lives our hero, Uhtred. Born the son of a Saxon nobleman, he is captured by the Danes and raised as one of their own. Forced to choose between the country of his birth and the people of his upbringing, his loyalties are ever tested. What is he? Saxon or Dane? On a quest to reclaim his birthright, Uhtred must tread a dangerous path between both sides if he is to play his part in the birth of a new nation and, ultimately, recapture his ancestral lands. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews of this series by the user Ediebalboa (1)
The Last Kingdom (2015)
A straightforward medieval ride where, contrary to current trends, there is no room for any filler with mythology, shallow stories of side characters from the tavern or dragons, undead and other monsters. Amen for that. The Last Kingdom sticks firmly to its protagonist Uhtred, leaving space for others only when their fates move the central plot, or even the whole story. A trivial strategy for today's filmmaking, perhaps, but one that is appropriate as the series progresses, avoiding blind or unfinished storylines, which actually would have been hard, given the excellent source material. The British creators pick the best from all the books and, apart from a rather cheesy introduction, they create their story in Hungarian studios flawlessly. Not so for Series 5, which takes only the bare minimum from the books and history, and its plot veers off in all sorts of directions. Still, this last phase of Uhtred manages to bring the series to a close with many times more grace than the geniuses Benioff & Weiss managed in their time with the messy ending of Game of Thrones.
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