The Last Kingdom (5th Season Out)

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If you considered it a live action version of an anime, it is Japanese.

[Heathen Hammer]

Originally I was excited about this, but trailer has given me a very negative impression.
Armor looks like its from some generic late middle ages/high fantasy hollywood film, not something 800s Danes or Saxons would wear or was even a thing back then.
Saw some pictish shields, wtf
Uthred looks nothing like he was described as in books. In the books he is blonde Northumbrian, in the movies he looks like some Irish/Celt guy, plus in the books Uthred was barely 20, the actor who plays him looks ing 30.
So far it looks like crap, but then again, I didn't really expect much from BBC.

[Stavroforos]

Saw the first episode, can't say I was too impressed with either the story, the characters, or the depiction. I think I'll stick to Vikings, which BBC appears to be trying to rip off, but badly.

[Mhaedros]

Saw the first episode, can't say I was too impressed with either the story, the characters, or the depiction. I think I'll stick to Vikings, which BBC appears to be trying to rip off, but badly.

You do realise it's based on a series of books. If you want to be cynical about it Vikings "ripped off" the books.

[Stavroforos]

You do realise it's based on a series of books. If you want to be cynical about it Vikings "ripped off" the books.

Vikings isn't based on these books.

[PointOfViewGun]

Vikings isn't based on these books.

The books predate the Vikings show.

[Stavroforos]

The books predate the Vikings show.

The actual Vikings predate the books, so I'm not sure what your pointless post was about.

Wait I take it back, you're absolutely correct, since I'd rather not debate pedantry with you for 4 pages.

[PointOfViewGun]

The actual Vikings predate the books, so I'm not sure what your pointless post was about.

Wait I take it back, you're absolutely correct, since I'd rather not debate pedantry with you for 4 pages.

That's one way to undermine your initial point. It's quite stupid to claim something is trying to rip off something else just because it's from a similar topic at face value anyways. Nice to see the play of double standards here.

[Stavroforos]

That's one way to undermine your initial point. It's quite stupid to claim something is trying to rip off something else just because it's from a similar topic at face value anyways. Nice to see the play of double standards here.

Nobody's advertising this series as "finally the books come to life!" but as a period drama in the style of GoT or Vikings. Sure, it's based on some books, but its audience is meant to be people who are interested in something like GoT or Vikings.

[Påsan]

You do realise it's based on a series of books. If you want to be cynical about it Vikings "ripped off" the books.

Um Vikings and the books Last Kingdom got like nothing in common except being set in a vaguely similar historical setting.

[Mhaedros]

Um Vikings and the books Last Kingdom got like nothing in common except being set in a vaguely similar historical setting.

I know, that's why I said "if you want to be cynical about it" The Last Kingdom tv series and Vikings doesn't have very much in common apart from being set in a vaguely similar historical setting either, that was rather my point.

[PointOfViewGun]

Yeah, if people are gonna make such senseless points they should at least be consistent in their own failed logic.

[Stavroforos]

I know, that's why I said "if you want to be cynical about it" The Last Kingdom tv series and Vikings doesn't have very much in common apart from being set in a vaguely similar historical setting either, that was rather my point.

Yeah, sorry, I confused my shows about Vikings named Ragnar who attack England.

[TheDarkKnight]

Different Ragnars.

I liked it. Those that have seen the next three episodes says that it improves. Nothing else on on Saturdays and it is a historical show, so I see no harm in continuing.

[Copperknickers II]

Yeah, sorry, I confused my shows about Vikings named Ragnar who attack England.

That post doesn't really mean anything. By that logic, all films which include Mexicans called José involved in drug cartels are the same. Or all films which include Chinese people called Li doing kung fu. Vikings are by definition norsemen who raided the British isles, and many of them were called Ragnar. It's impossible to make a TV show set in the British isles between 700 and 1100 without including a Viking called Ragnar attacking someone.

[Påsan]

Good production values and decent costumes, certainly better than "Vikings" on the saxon depiction. Except from some of the helmets. But yet the show is kinda.. dead. It lacks charismatic leads and I dont particularly care about anyone in it. Its still entertaining but still lacking in characters. Nice traditional music though.


O and the sword he got looks completely stupid and unrealistic and that's not how a shield wall works, vikings.

[Stavroforos]

I think they're suffering from the testudo sickness...where movie producers think that these types of formations were used in melee combat.

[Påsan]

Yeah pretty much the gist of it.

[Copperknickers II]

This is fast turning into a habit, but once again I am driven to near apoplexy by the stupidity of the supposedly educated people who try to conflate every single television programme set before 1700 into the same niche genre. Just look at this ridiculous article.

Seriously, who gave Patrick Smith a job working for a quality newspaper? He could have at least pretended to do some basic research into the field of English history, or at least the history of recent British television. Is that too much to ask, really? What exactly does Last Kingdom have to do with Game of Thrones, other than being set in a world without gunpowder? I've seen people conflate medieval history programmes before but further conflating medieval history with the fall of Troy is a new one to me. A full 2500 years of history conflated into the same genre of 'swords and politics'. The Trojan war was 2000 years before the Viking invasions of the British isles ffs! As a great man once said, after 1000 years the dust from Achilles' bones was gone. After 2000 we don't even know for certain if there ever was a Trojan war.

But even more unbelievable is that this incompetent moron does not remember that historical programmes with edgy use of nudity and violence have existed for several decades, most notably in recent times the HBO/BBC Rome series. Which is still 700 years before the viking invasions, but at least is not a fantasy show about zombies and dragons, so might have made a slightly better comparison. Smith also seems to think that writing in mildly archaic ye olde English constitutes 'capturing the speech of the times'. King Alfred would not have understood a single word of Chaucer let alone lightly medievalised modern English.

Pre-modern history for some people seems to be incredibly short. Blink and you'd miss it in fact. [history] Human evolution -> stonehenge, pyramids, aliens -> swords and dragons and -> pirates -> Downton Abbey -> Hitler ->[/history] -> the beginning of everything that is not a blatant rip off of Game of Thrones.

[athanaric]

I think some stylistic influence from GoT and Vikings on this show (not the books, obviously) and the ones that may come after it is practically inevitable. Probably also from the LotR movies, which set standards regarding props and costumes. Speaking of which, using the flawed argument presented before, one could also say "OMG, GoT totally ripped off LotR! Just look at the setting and the costumes! and they even got Sean Bean back!"

This is fast turning into a habit, but once again I am driven to near apoplexy by the stupidity of the supposedly educated people who try to conflate every single television programme set before 1700 into the same niche genre.

That's how the minds of many people works. They'll know a bit about the last 300 years (but chiefly, Hitler) and everything else is some indistinguishable salad to them. I think this is mostly the fault of the people who set up the history curricula for schools, though.

But even more unbelievable is that this incompetent moron does not remember that historical programmes with edgy use of nudity and violence have existed for several decades, most notably in recent times the HBO/BBC Rome series.

I, Claudius has quite a bit of nudity and violence and it's a British production from the Seventies...

The biggest concern I have about this show (and others) is expressed by this gentleman:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: