The Last Kingdom

Obviously a much cheaper series than Vikings. It took me a while to get used to, but the gritty plot and especially the excellent main character definitely deserve four stars from me. Unlike a lot of Christian zealots, Uhtred is a loose cannon. He is selfish, disrespectful, uncontrollably angry and unchristian, which is why I’ve grown fond of him. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the series without him. (28/08/2016)

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. (05/08/2020)

Destiny is all. It´s hard to find a better historic carnage, where intrigues of ruling class and relationship affairs does not serve only as an obvious excuse to draw a sword and subsequent gore bloodshed. Not that there wasn't much of it. It is. In addition, it's really dirty, magnificently choreographed and uncompromising. It is not to be overlooked that Bernard Cornwell is behind the original, who oversaw the constant development of properly ambivalent characters, the “Vláčil’s" atmosphere of the Middle Ages as well as matters of heart and political reasoning with a multi - layered plot of intrigues, so that each of these components works on its own and yet acts as an integral part of the whole. And the whole thing is purely genre, it really isn't (and shouldn't be!) A faithful picture of the time of Alfred the Great. It is to the credit of the authors that they dealt with all of the above-mentioned when adapting, without it seeming like a blatant abbreviated thesis, in which even the ignorant will soon realize that it´s based on a book. The centerpiece is the excellently developed (in) friendly “bromance of Uhtred and Alfred"; their mutual hostility, distrust, tension and mutual respect and need. The only significant weak point of the first two seasons is that they have eight episodes, but it is strictly true that every four parts represent an adaptation of one of the books. And the models are conceived in such a way that each has its beginning and end, i.e., in the series there are repeated anti-climate situations, when the first and second episodes build lines, the fourth episode offers climax and the fifth and sixth then build new storylines from scratch. The series also overcame clinical death, when the BBC stopped the series after the second season, but Netflix took on the role of savior. Concerns as to whether taking it under their wings would turn out to be odd, as on the contrary, it gave it wings, so that it would be the ultimate historical movie “with an overlap", not only in terms of script, but also of budget. A more obvious deviation from history towards mysticism will suit it. In other words, if you miss the genre companion of the Vikings, which would not lose quality with the increasing number of episodes, then there is no need to look any further, because the hot-blooded escapades offer everything one can desire within the genre; moreover, in the highest possible quality. | S1: 4/5 | S2: 5/5 | S3: 5/5 | S4: 4/5 | (22/12/2018)