Im looking forward to the movie.
Its strange cos ill be happy there is one. But i thought the ending was almost perfect.
Its strange cos ill be happy there is one. But i thought the ending was almost perfect.
Television The Last Kingdom on BBC
- Thread starter djembatheking
- Start date
I thought the last season would be more spectacular but yes the ending was good
Yeah it kinda just felt like any old season but with a happy ending . Maybe to its benefit, as it was always less cinematic than say Vikings.
I get what ya mean but happy the way they did it
Interested to see how the movie fares and if it's got a bigger budget and what story they tell
Vikings seems to have a lot of the Wicklow coastline to use. Hungary doesnt have much of a coastline so you have a lot less scope that way filming the Last Kingdom.
Friday lads, destiny is all.
Looking forward to this. Wish they'd just done it as another season though.
Oh wow, that's kinda just come out of nowhere. But awesome too
Movie out now on Netflix 
Watched the movie and personally liked it, but it could easily have been another season. Oh well. Destiny is all!
Yeah, loved it. Unfortunate that so much was condensed but needs must. I'm just glad that the two movies were financed so they could finish this incredible story.
Just watched it and glad they did it.
Was there originally another season planned? Seems like they compressed a whole seasons worth of material into two hours.
Maybe Netflix were willing to greenlight a movie but not a full season? If that's the case then the writers did a decent job of condensing it into two hours.
Enjoyed it and a fitting end but way too quick, feels like there was at least another seasons worth of material crammed in to that 2 hours.
Nope the show was based on the first 10 books with smidges of the last 3 for foreshadowing and such. The show was started when there was only 10 and only slightly tweaked. 7 kings must die is based on the last 2 books where Uhtred is in his late 60's early 70's, and late 70's by the end, theres a fair time jump from the end of the series where he's late 50sish iirc.
It was nice to get closure and the ending got me in the feels, but I would have enjoyed it more if everyone wasn't named aelflflf-alf-alfred-eiffel tower-ston so I could understand who they were referring to.
Most those folk are based on real people and Aethel just means noble so lots of nobility actually had it in their name.
Just started this series last night. One episode in the bag. I like it so far. I prefer it to "Vikings", which was a comparison point early in this thread 6 years ago. Not reading through for fear of spoilers.
The one thing that gets me in any big historical production is just the epic levels of cruelty on display. In the first episode of "The Last Kingdom"
and so on. I know that these things really happened but these days it's a chore for me to wade through so much human misery to get to the meat of the story. Like, knowing what I know now about "Game of Thrones", I wonder if I would watch it. It's the same with "Peaky Blinders" or "Boardwalk Empire" or "Sopranos" or really any multi-year story involving bad people.
So I am probably setting myself up for some serious nightmares watching this!!
The one thing that gets me in any big historical production is just the epic levels of cruelty on display. In the first episode of "The Last Kingdom"
we see people being tortured for fun, rape, quasi rape, murder, abuse,
So I am probably setting myself up for some serious nightmares watching this!!
Just watched the film, it was good but like others they have crammed too much into the film. I suppose the character has to end somewhere as he doesn’t age in the tv series.
I kinda get what you mean. It's like some shows go OTT with it, whether it's the violence or sex scenes which just get boring after a while and don't really add anything except it's there.
Last kingdom however, imo, is fantastic and as a show from start to finish, I think it's more consistent than vikings
Thought the film was excellent. The battle was very well done and the end showing the castle in modern day was great.
Didn’t mind that it was condensed really. Made for a nice change of pace, but definitely would have made for a good season.
Didn’t mind that it was condensed really. Made for a nice change of pace, but definitely would have made for a good season.
About the ending...
After that final time jump to the modern era I was expecting to see a dining table with all of the characters aged to the point that they're just bones, and Uhtred is there with a slightly wrinkled face and maybe a single strand of grey hair
The ending was the only good part for me. I didn't expect much, but still was disappointed. Since Netflix took over, this series got worse season by season. GoT season 8 feels slow paced and coherent in comparison to this film.
A shame, because the 13 books are among my absolute favorites and I have read them three times. They could have done so much better with that source material, but well it's Netflix.
Has anyone read the books before? I'm in the middle of season 4 but tempted to ask for the books for Christmas.
Weirdly, my brother is pen-pals with the writer. He’s a really well read guy my brother, and he really rates the books. Not read them myself though, because I’m lazy.
Nice. Think I will pick them up. It really is fantastic. On Season 5 now and the acting is superb. It's gotten better and better as a show, rate it higher than GoT.
I really loved this show. I’ll probably rewatch the entire thing some time next year.
It’s really good yeah. Only criticism is that it’s quite repetitive/predictable at times.
I was disappointed with the film, though.
I thought the film was a pretty decent send off and I liked the show, but I don't get folks saying the acting is great. It's fine, and the actors llike the one playing King Alfred etc are great,but there is some truly cringe worthy acting in it too: like Brida. I remember watching the first two episodes or so and thinking it was a big step down from Vikings on the acting front, but it found its footing as it progressed. The fact it was less polished eventually added a bit to the credibility of it.
Currently on my 3rd rewatch and it's up there with GoT for me, absolutely love the series and film.
The books are fantastic, you will love it.
Bernard Cornwell has also written a brilliant Arthurian trilogy, The Warlord Chronicles as well as a standalone story about Stonehenge and a trilogy about a 14 Century archer, The Grail Quest.
There are thirteen books in the Saxon stories series about Uhtred starting with The Last Kingdom, give it a go.
Last edited: