The Last Kingdom (5th Season Out)

[IronBrig4]

I like how his Irish friend is playing Red Dead Redemption 2.

[Ishan]

Catching up with this quite late. 4 episodes in now and ing....Athelwold!

Spoiler for Major Spoiler: 

Killed Ragnar in his sleep.

Edit:
And done. Very good season overall. Really enjoying that this show has massively improved over its course. Will miss Alfred. He was annoying as a king on many occasions but you get to respect him as a King. The transition shown between him and Uthred was excellent.

Who will be the main antagonist in S4 though? In any case, looking forward to it.

[athanaric]

Finished season 3 just now. Liked the acting and (most of) the characters, as always.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Thankfully they got rid of that Skade woman, I don't like characters who are psychopathic serial killers.

I haven't read the books yet, so can't comment on that. However while the show is better in many ways than other "history" shows, it does exhibit some of the same flaws. A lot of the costumes and "armour" are leather biker gear (*SJW voice* We need to talk about Uhtred's costume...) and there's an awful lot of indoor torches at some sets. And random background wildlife sounds mixed in, including some American species

Spoiler for Major Spoiler: 

Killed Ragnar in his sleep.

Yeah that caught me off guard, too.

[Muizer]

Just finished watching this. This show has come a long way since it began and this season was IMHO simply outstanding. The whole setting of an ailing King Alfred trying to protect his legacy while the vultures are starting to circle is quite magnificently portrayed, with Uther's story being used much more in service of a grand narrative than being the originally somewhat unlikely centerpiece.

[Roma_Victrix]

Just finished watching this. This show has come a long way since it began and this season was IMHO simply outstanding. The whole setting of an ailing King Alfred trying to protect his legacy while the vultures are starting to circle is quite magnificently portrayed, with Uther's story being used much more in service of a grand narrative than being the originally somewhat unlikely centerpiece.

Bro, don't scare me like that! Your post here had me thinking the fourth season already came out without me knowing about it, and that everybody watched it before I did. It is apparently coming out sometime this Spring or something. I haven't seen a definitive release date.

[conon394]

@ R_V I though the same thing.

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and there's an awful lot of indoor torches at some sets

True but remember what happened when Kubrik got all uber artsy director and shot Berry Lindon with only accurate period lighting. Production time and expense shot up I doubt the producers have the either mindset or stature of Kubrick to demand accuracy in lighting.

[HannibalExMachina]

torches are awful for lighting. seems more like the old "all medieval indoors need torches at all times" clichee. they could really knock that off.

[conon394]

torches are awful for lighting. seems more like the old "all medieval indoors need torches at all times" clichee. they could really knock that off.

Probably just easier to make and keep lit than period lamps or candles. But mentioning how well thay work I seem to recall a rant by Xenophon about how stupid its was guards to carry torches - they night blind themselves and revel their location all for a few feet of light at best.

[HannibalExMachina]

Probably just easier to make and keep lit than period lamps or candles. But mentioning how well thay work I seem to recall a rant by Xenophon about how stupid its was guards to carry torches - they night blind themselves and revel their location all for a few feet of light at best.

good catch, forgot about old man xeno, but yep, exactly.

but for films/TV, its really just a dumb clichee, like people covered in dirt all the time. torches are bad for camera work, no better than candles or whatevs. at least when kubrik did it, he used historical light sources, and it was indeed hellishly labourious to shoot with them. so, most filmmakers use torches because, uh, dungeons and dragons is the closest most people get to the middle ages, and use artificial light to make stuff actually visible on screen.

[athanaric]

I'd like to think that at least off-screen candles/rushlights/sunlight should be easy to imitate with modern technology. It's a shame really, because there are some historical movies out there that avoid the clichés we've listed, without being hugely expensive IIRC.

so, most filmmakers use torches because, uh, dungeons and dragons is the closest most people get to the middle ages, and use artificial light to make stuff actually visible on screen.

Speaking of which, I suspect that D&D, rather than the original sources, is the main inspiration behind the LotR and Hobbit movies...

[Ishan]

This show has definitely gotten better with every season and I prefer it more now over Vikings. So can't wait for season 4.

[conon394]

I'd like to think that at least off-screen candles/rushlights/sunlight should be easy to imitate with modern technology. It's a shame really, because there are some historical movies out there that avoid the clichés we've listed, without being hugely expensive IIRC.

Its not if fact easy. Even Kubrick had to cheat a little. But he had ridiculously expensive Zeiss cameras that had been designed for NASA and a cinematography crew that had to hand modify them so that could on occasion subtly add a background light without it being obvious when they needed to perfect/fix the natural lighting.

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Speaking of which, I suspect that D&D, rather than the original sources, is the main inspiration behind the LotR and Hobbit movies...

Ahh doesn't raise the old argument about JRRT never saying anything about pointy ears.

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like people covered in dirt all the time

Yes nobody can ever get the nasty brutish and short thing out of their head. Even when it patently wrong or at best a poor descriptor. The one that always bugs me is how everybody has to were leather vambraces that are really just wrist bands. Movies and TV seem to feel most people in the Ancient/Classical/Medieval world were recovering from a tennis wrist injury.

I did really like the shield wall battle and glad they did the long shot of not CGI but well people.

[Halie Satanus]

So season 4 is on Netflix.

Sunday sorted.

[Ishan]

OMG!

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

I watched all three seasons last week with my dad. As well as three seasons of Vikings and the Witcher.
If they have all of season 4 of Last Kingdom on Netflix then we can watch that too. For some reason they don't have seasons 4, 5 or 6 of Vikings on Netflix.

So having just rewatched all of these I find myself enjoying Last Kingdom more. On repeat viewing seasons 1 and 2 were really solid, where as season 3 had issues but wasn't as bad as I remember.
Vikings was still decent but there are so many details that annoyed me. When I find season 4 I'll watch it, but season 5 is fresh in my memory and good lord it was awful.

By the way I would be totally down to watch more Bernard Cornwell adaptations. The Warlord Chronicles would be a good show I think. I watched Sharpe years ago, it was alright but I definitely think that Last Kingdoms was better.

[Aexodus]

I’ve been thinking of watching Vikings S1 on amazon prime, but by the sounds of it this show would be a better use of my time

[chriscase]

I watched the first season of The Last Kingdom and enjoyed it quite a bit. Tried watching the first season of Vikings but it didn't quite grab hold of me the same way. Also watched the first season of Britannia which I still don't quite know how I feel about. To be honest I absolutely loved Britannia until the season finale.

[Halie Satanus]

Season 4 is good, Utred matured as the show went on and by season 4 he even gives a dam about other people, especially his kids. Though whatever that guy is doing to stay young, I want some. About 15 years have passed since season 2 and he hasn't aged a day. Battles are pretty solid and the scheming isn't as annoying..

Vikings was great up till Ragnar's death.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

I quite enjoyed season 4. At the start I really disliked Uthred but he has really progressed as a character. Season 3 I thought was a bit weaker than the other ones but season 4 surpassed my expectations for sure. This season is an adaptation of The Pagan Lord and The Empty Throne, but for some reason they take a few liberties. For example in the books Uthred has two sons, the oldest son Uthred decides to become a priest so Uthred disinherits him and changes his name to Judas, while he renames his youngest son Osbert to Uthred. It appears that they decided to combine Judas and Osbert into one character. That isn't so bad except that they clearly missed out on the theme that Uthred was originally called Osbert, renamed Uthred and then lost his territory to his uncle. Another thing that I remember off the top of my head is that Sitric doesn't kill Eardwulf, in the books Uthred captures Eardwulf and has the little Aethelstan kill him. There was also a sub-plot about a missing sword in the books. I don't remember if the sickness was in the books but I might be wrong on that one. My one complaint is that Uthred was so dumb that he declined the throne of Mercia, but I guess Aethelflaed has to rule to be consistent with history. One more thing that I remembered, the reason why Uthred doesn't have an army, in the books at least, was because when he disowned his son Judas, he struck a priest who cursed him. Uthred's army deserted because they were appalled at his behavior, which really puts the defeat at Bebanburg on Uthred, and continues the theme that Uthred always has bad luck with priests.

Long story short this might be my new favorite show. My dad also enjoyed it. The intro song is stuck in my head I heard it so many times, that doesn't have to be bad though. I prefer this one to Vikings actually, looking back. Vikings declined much sooner than Ragnar's death in my opinion. The show is bad because the writers are bad and don't know what they are doing. Granted I did not watch season 6 but at this point I'm not going to assume that the show improved from the awful season 5.

[PointOfViewGun]

I feel like the show missed the part about Uhtred's wolf banner. In the books he puts a lot of importance on his banner and heritage but I just didn't see that in the show.