The Last Kingdom (5th Season Out)

[Påsan]

Yeah I went like "Wait what?" when I first saw the sword.


Why O why cant they jut make a pretty normal sword? Its not like the Saxons/Danes were't flamboyant as hell when decorating their swords/axes.

[The Despondent Mind]

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.

Nailed it mate.

A friend of mine moaned about how I get so nitpicky about the historical accuracy when it comes to weapons, then I ask him "Honestly if you saw an AK-47 or an M16 in a WW2 movie, you would scream "" or laugh how stupid the movie is?" Of course he said yes, then I explained him that in some specific movies or shows you see weapons with hundreds of years between them, after which he kind of acknowledged that it's more than nitpicking.

The sad thing is, there is simply no way to re-educate the entire populace to understand these things about history. Of course there are people out there who wouldn't even notice there's something wrong in a WW2 movie with the Abrams, Apaches and F-117.

[Derpy Hooves]

Yeah I went like "Wait what?" when I first saw the sword.


Why O why cant they jut make a pretty normal sword? Its not like the Saxons/Danes were't flamboyant as hell when decorating their swords/axes.

Because that's what happened in the books.

[PointOfViewGun]

Which specific scene are we referring to?

[Twido]

I have not seen the first episode yet, having just watched the trailer. I am a huge Bernard Cornwell fan though having read nearly all his books. That is not to say I like everything he has done, but I do like is approach to writing historical novels.

I must admit that I am concerned that this TV adaptation will be a disappointment based purely on the trailer. One of the great things about Bernard Cornwell's writing is his vivid and gritty descriptions of how battles might actually have been fought. His portrayal of fighting in a shield wall in this series of books is very good and, from what I can tell, they haven't tried to capture that at all.

Obviously I will give it a chance though, the trailer might have been designed to capture as wide an audience as possible.

[Påsan]

Because that's what happened in the books.

He had a semi-longsword thing with an amber taped to the pommel in the books? Because I really cant remember that. I seem to remember he had a normal "Viking" sword with the amber engraved.

[DarthShizNit]

I thought the first episode was fine. I'm not going to make any sweeping judgments off the entire series just one episode in. It didn't blow my mind, but I'm not put off from tuning in next week.

[Halie Satanus]

I like it, it's entertaining, got to love that Viking humour even if it is becoming a bit of a stereo type: Viking funny - Saxon stoic.

I wasn't so bothered by the sword since he did explain what he wanted as if it was something unusual and the smith gave the impression it wasn't something he'd made before. Not having a proper pummel is a bit odd but the length of the handle could be to offset the lack of weight. Maybe someone will comment on it in a later episode.

[caratacus]

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.

I agree with your summary except the positive bits. OK, so I know the BBC don't have a huge budget except to pay their celebrities, but the production was extremely lackluster and the CGI image of that Northumbrian settlement somewhat unrealistic. A set from an episode of Cadfael would have looked more authentic. Also why is everybody wearing dirty furs and the same coloured smock!? The Danes and especially the Saxons wore good woolen clothing some of which was probably dyed and stitched in a decorative manner. They may have been violent to our standards but they were not cavemen and appearance was as important to them as it is today, if not more so.

This production also lacks a good script and is full of the stereotypical things people think about the Vikings (Danes in this series) and is therefore a missed opportunity
I am shocked to find out it is is based on a popular novel, I think I should get writing because I would surely make a better job of depicting the events and the people of that time and make something a great deal more entertaining. Not sure whether I will be watching the next episode, that production of Robin Hood by the BBC was bad enough to sit through.

Men dressed in furs and rusty helms ravishing wenches and bashing each other with swords, does not a historic drama make. And frankly that testudo formation of 3 shields coming together to crush the Angles was rather ridiculous. It surely was taken straight from a Roman movie.

Sorry!

[Twido]

I watched the first episode when it aired last week. I agree with what others have already posted.

I was a big fan of the books (although the series lost its way a little after the first three) so maybe I am holding the TV adaptation to unreasonable standards. I mean, its not that I thought it was bad; it was very watchable, it just wasn't good. I will quickly go through what I thought were the good and bad points.

Starting with what I didn't like (so I can end on a more positive note). The series is telling the story of how England came into existence. It is a very good story and is not one that is often told. From the very start the people in the kingdom of Northumbria are talking about defending England before it even existed. You might think this is a trivial point, but it really irked me because it is not the sort of mistake the BBC should be making. I suspect that it was done deliberately to make it easier for people to understand, but that is even worse since it undermines the history.

The second irritation is, as someone pointed out previously, the depiction of the shield wall. In the books this is described in great detail and it is something that will be returned to time again. I just don't understand why no one tries to depict these things realistically; it would be far more dramatic than the usual crap that we get.

Thirdly, it is way too short to get any kind of character development and therefore one doesn't really care about them.

Finally the main actor playing Uhtred looks like he would be more at home singing in a boy band than fighting in a shield wall. In some ways it is a little forgivable because the events in this series unfold over quite a long period of time. Since this tells the story through the eyes of this character then he would have to start young age considerably throughout.

Damn, I started out writing this review thinking it was a very average production and have managed to convince myself that it is bad. I was going to say the production values were high but, having thought about it, it was very variable with some parts looking good and others very poor.

All in all, it is a real missed opportunity. It really needed some innovation in the style it was filmed in to capture the atmosphere of the era. Lets hope the following episode are better.

[Påsan]

Vikings have some pretty good shield wall battles where they use it more or less correctly. . In the one vs Jarl borg they even form a "svinfylking" (wedge) to break Ragnars shield wall. Pretty good stuff.


This is the only one I found on youtube. Still not bad.



Yeah as of Ep 2 I find I dont really like any of the characters. I feel like they had a bit of a bad casting team and went with looks over charisma.

[DarthShizNit]

Meh, it's not great by any means, but it's not bad either. The acting of the main dude and chick is a little wooden, but I'm loving the Saxon characters. Overall, I don't love it, but I certainly like it enough to keep watching it, hopefully it hits it's stride.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the Saxons also have used the shield wall during this time period?

[Påsan]

Oh yeah sure. The shield wall was common among all the Germanic migration successor states. However there is a higher difference between the Vikings and the Saxons at this point of time in terms of quality and tactics than the more classic Saxon army at Hastings and Stamford. At that point they were nearly identical to Scandinavian armies.

At this point in time though most Saxon armies were badly trained, mostly consisting of peasant levy fyrd and not well led. while the Vikings were highly motivated and opportunistic warriors with a migration age warrior culture mentality. Those discrepancies evened out considerably as the Saxons reformed their military and adapted to the Scandinavian adversary. Its pretty much that evolution the show is all about through the eyes of the main character who pretty much embody the change being a saxon with viking training.

[PointOfViewGun]

I must admit, the guy that plays Uhtred comes quite close what I imagined he'd look like as I read the books. Hopefully, we'll get to see some duels soon.

[Kinjo]

I like the show so far after seeing the first 3 episodes, definitely want to read the books now.

[TheDarkKnight]

Vikings have some pretty good shield wall battles where they use it more or less correctly. . In the one vs Jarl borg they even form a "svinfylking" (wedge) to break Ragnars shield wall. Pretty good stuff.


This is the only one I found on youtube. Still not bad.



Yeah as of Ep 2 I find I dont really like any of the characters. I feel like they had a bit of a bad casting team and went with looks over charisma.

Alfred was a great cast, though. Uhtred isn't bad when he isn't around Brida. I can't stand Brida at all.

[TheDarkKnight]

Episode 5 spoilers

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Was not expecting Ubba to die so early. But damn, the sight of having both Achilles tendons severed at the same time made me wince

Alfred again is a standout in this show. I almost wish he was the central character.

[Halie Satanus]

The only character I like is Leofric' the man at arms who's Utred's only friend. Utred himself is an ass.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Alfred is naive beyond reason, for a character who's constantly held up as a thinker he's far too willing to believe the first story he hears and then refuses to hear any other. Worse still he punishes Utred out of spite. I was shocked to see Ubber taken out too, the Danes seem far less of a threat without him. I'm assuming the story will shift soon to Utred going off raiding with Leofric. Disappointed by the non-battle.

[MathiasOfAthens]

That was a minor battle compared to what is coming.

I forgot how much of an ass Ultred was in the beginnings. An idiot too. He has some a beautiful wife too, she is going to hate him after this.

[Akrotatos]

The series do well in capturing the "I want to strangle Alfred and burn all priests" feeling I had in the first books.