THE LAST KINGDOM

Nobody else watching this?

I particularly appreciate their attention to making sure everybody understands that the 860s was a thoroughly crappy time to be alive. Mud and livestock everywhere, all the beer is opaque, and clothes are all wool, furs and hides. You can just about smell the place.

it's a good show. uhtred himself is kind of the worst thing about it, i find it hard to care what happens to him. watching for everyone else, in partic alfred. not only the most interesting character but the actor is killing it also.

the divided situation that uhtred is in is fascinating and the story makes terrific use of it but the buy himself is a tool. i am hoping he grows out of it.

Definitely the least plausible thing about the entire story is the fact that Uhtred is still alive. By all rights he should have died somewhere in the first 15 minutes, that he's still alive heading into a fifth episode after all that's happened is completely absurd. I don't have much problem with the portayal though, for somebody who continually gets away with so much nonsense while catching one lucky break after another his whole life he's sort of earned being a petulant ass to everybody.

This just got much more interesting. I really enjoyed Uhtred's "REALLY?!?" face during the scene where he interrupts the prayer to explain how he etc etc spoilers.

The wailing woman on the soundtrack to this is hilarious, me and Chapette always start singing along when she comes on.

Fun show on the whole. Agreed Uhthred is the weak link, he appears to have literally no goals beyond short term circumstantial ones. He just sort of potters around while important historical events unfold in his proximity.

So is this going to get a second season? We hope so where I live. I loved the last episode. It's worth it just as a series of setups so we get to watch Uhtred's "REALLY?" face repeatedly.

"yo priests, hope you got silver, cause we just saved y-"
* it's not a priest it's Alfred The Great *
SERIOUSLY?!?

"Uhtred, what about God's will?"
REALLY I HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS

I'll grant there's some English Longbow fanservice in the latest ep because records of said weapon as a regular instrument of English military badassery don't show up until like 250+ odd years after the series takes place, but I was okay with it, because it made me look up earliest records of the English longbow used in war, so I learned something

Also an interesting touch with the heathen medicinal techniques and the perspective of emergent Christendom that all such practices were pagan and therefore to be frowned upon - is there a good historical text that covers the "hollowing out" of medical knowledge during early European Christianity, as local practices (tied as they would be to local animist / pagan spirituality) were snuffed out and purposefully kept out of the written record being developed at the time? The show also goes out of its way to dramatize the change from mostly oral history & practical instruction to written knowledge, and the accompanying trade-offs, since the Church apparently kept a fair monopoly on literacy. I really liked that moments after I asked "where the fuck were the goddamn watchmen?" Uhtred asked the same question, trying to use it as a teachable moment for Alfred, that all his priests and peaceful prayers were distracting his people from basic security principles.

Also we're setting up for an excellent moment of convergence where Alfred is becoming more skeptical, pluralist and pragmatic just as Guthrum is starting to discover the power of the written word and, by association, the Church - I hope they do it justice when it happens.

Also for what is I guess a mostly B-list cast they're pretty excellent all around. And I'm still impressed by the costuming and propmaking - nobody has a shiny blade, everything basically looks uncomfortable and rough-hewn, concessions to clean hair and healthy teeth are disguised as best as possible according to the budget and also presumably a certain audience tolerance for "only so much obvious decrepitude please" - the poor baby who had to get made up to look extra-sickly as Alfred's son was perhaps a bit much, but it worked in context to drive home the point

finally watched last week's episode, thought the sick baby stuff was drawn out a little too much. also wondered if the archers were a nod at english longbowmen but the bows weren't nearly as big as longbows fwiw.

Well I enjoyed that a lot. I hope they get a second season.

Watching Vikings now, it's fun lining up who's who even though these are totally different shows etc. "Hey, that's Alfred's granddad!"

ok ok I'll try it again

i do really need viking shows in my life so i should stop pouting about missing Ragnar lol

Timely as I think Season 2 is out later this week

SAY "MARRIED" AGAIN, ABBOT! SAY "MARRIED" AGAIN!!

So this show has always really been about the ridiculous coincidences of history, i.e. nobody has ever bothered to write down all the times when reinforcements showed up too late, but season 2 is a little heavy on that front, just saying.

That said, I love Hild, the-nun-with-skills, and I look forward to the body count Uhtred's going to pile up before he's done. I wish for more Danesploitation set in this place called Wessex. Make it happen.

I love me some Ragnar to bits

It is bullshit that nobody else on this board cares about this show. Season 2 is epic. So many good lines. Easily as good as GoT without the distractions of dragons and zombie armies and all that shit

i try but i just miss Vikings too much to care about this dude

he's no Trav

I'm stand with you tombot - one ep to go in s1 here. I wasn't sure until about halfway in but when it got good (and gave us a proper villain) it got real good

then maybe that's my problem. i'm only like 3 or 4 eps in

hold out until episode 5

thought S2 was wonderful.
just hope there is a budget for another season.

we're on S2 ep 7 and there had BETTER be a season 3 after all this craziness

finally finished the last ep

this show is fucking amazing

I love all of it

I miss the blonde nun though

and his poor wife from S1 (not the one who got beheaded, the other one)

(why because she look intersting)

also is it just me or do Uhtred's dreads get more dreadlocky as the show goes on? I suppose this is sort of realistic. But man just dive in the river a couple of times a year

It was very emotional watching that one dude bite it in the Dane camp, even though anybody who has ever seen a Seven Samurai homage knows the big dude always goes down hard

Bothersome that Uhtred teaches the Wessex boys how to form a shield wall when that was pretty much their standard move (unlike... the Danes he came from and presumably learned from).

i've only just started S1 but wow pretty fuckin good. great actors in this. the mud and the blood and the beer. yes uhtred is the luckiest son of a bitch alive.

Season 3 out tomorrow and now on Netflix so hopefully some budgetary improvements

Ive been watching this. on season 2 ep 2 and enjoying mostly.

Latest Saxon Tales novel came out last month, Cornwell is really phoning it in at this point.

Plowing through newest season Netflix now. So far it hasn’t disappointed in terms of comfortingly repeating the words Bebbanburg, Wessex, Mercia, giving us yet another reunion bro hug with Beocca, and reminding us who Uhtred is the son of (hint, it’s Uhtred).

haha excellent. love this show.

glad to have this back, just wish the saxons didn't largely have modern RPish accents

feel like it's balanced by uhtred's wtf accent which seems to hang out halfway between German and Moira Rose (to be clear i love this)

It is highly entertaining.

uhtred's accent is agreeably weird, it's kind of perfect

I have started watching this, one thing that didn't scan to me was why Ragnar took such a shining to young Uhtred.

cuz he had GUTS

the SOUL of a DANE

(Ragnar appreciated that the little dweeb tried to fight in the battle where his father died, then he became a member of the family when he stopped the daughter from being assaulted)

I feel like the episode we just watched where redacted gets murked might be one of the best in this series. The intrigue!!

What's with "hump" and "turd"?

Anyway, finished the first season, and am hoping that Uhtred becomes less of a humping turd after the events of its finale.

You’ll love all the “arse-licker” comments later on.

Arselings make a lot of turds

Finished the season this weekend. I’m not sure what happens next, they kinda tied it off too neatly, but I still hope for more. I really feel like this show should roll on until Uhtred is old and has 4 more children tbf.

Finished as well, def the weakest season but still very watchable.

I'd have to go back and rewatch before declaring this the weakest season - but I'd also buy that argument at face value, just on the fact that Edward sucks and Alfred was, ahem, pretty great

Is there a hashtag for Eadith + Finan shippers yet? Fidith? Eadin?

I thought it was the best season! All four kingdoms, Wales, Uhtred is likable now... top content imo

Anyway, finished the first season, and am hoping that Uhtred becomes less of a humping turd after the events of its finale.

Two episodes into season 2 and Uhtred is back to being a humping turd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtE1TmikgIQ

I thought it was the best season! All four kingdoms, Wales, Uhtred is likable now... top content imo

― The Cognitive Peasant (ogmor), Wednesday, May 13, 2020 bookmarkflaglink

still good, i just dont care about edward yet. plus some other stuff but ill wait til others watch it before spoilers.

Uhtred is likable now

That's good to hear! But damn I have another two seasons before I get to that point, and I just watched him shank a priest in a church.

One thing in the show's favor is that it isn't scared to kill off characters who otherwise seem like they'll hang around for plot reasons. OTOH I'm terrified for Hild.

You really have to resonate with Uhtred’s implicit agnosticism to get to like him, and accept that he’s always lived in a dog eat dog world

Uhtred is and forever remains an asshole in the books too. I appreciate that Cornwell doesn't give him a heart of gold.

Finished the third season.

* I like how the show isn't overly self-serious (unlike another well-known medieval-ish series).
* I don't like all the blatant fridging of female characters.
* Puhtred is definitely not an agnost -- I don't think he would've gone on the Niflheim side quest unless it meant something to him.