Bernard Cornwell's 'The Last Kingdom' episode 1 review

[Lowtardog]

Moaning? It's artistic criticism, darling.

I'm off to watch episode 6.

Anyone been watching The Man In The High Castle, by the way? Now that is simply effing brilliant. The detail is stunning. Everything about it. Stunning. I couldn't even find the tiniest thing to  moan about with that.
Well, that's not strictly true, because they've buggered about fairly majorly with Philip K Dick's cult 1960's novel - but the result is an absolute work of art. Love it.

Fully agree, they are slaughtering the books but I am persevering despite that, only where is Steappa! Isnt that who he should be fighting if memory serves me.


Man in the high castle is great, loving it. The frankenstein series with sean bean on itv encore is ok too. Now next to watch out for is Beowolf coming soon and I may dip my toe into davincis demons!

[gamer Mac]

Got to try davincis demons, I love it

[Atheling]

I'm going to sound like a right grouch but phew! Thanks Thoth that is over with for a while!

Though, if I'm to be honest, I must admit that I did watch every episode 

Darrell.

[Harry Faversham]

Wot a bollik, Putrid son of Putrid, dropped shagging his virgin queen the night before the battle!!!
Getting slipped a crippler made her lose her second sight type thingy. Consequently she never saw it coming when some stropping great Dane baddy chopped her turnip off with his axe.
Funniest bit of the series by a mile, watching her melon bouncing through the sheildwall to land on Putrid's big toe... a very poor man's Game of Thrones!

   

[THE CID]

STOP MOANING,,,,Still by far better than most other crap on the box. I really enjoyed the last episode, although not historically correct, so what.  Get back to watching X factor and I'm a Celeb.

[Atheling]

STOP MOANING,,,,Still by far better than most other crap on the box. I really enjoyed the last episode, although not historically correct, so what.  Get back to watching X factor and I'm a Celeb.

Yeah, but I don't watch crap TV, except The Last Kingdom! 

It's a bit tenuous to predict what folk might be watching instead of a second rate historical drama too.

Darrell.

[Gibby]

Right. I guess things are above criticism now so long as they aren't the worst thing on TV.

[Captain Blood]

STOP MOANING ABOUT PEOPLE MOANING.
You're happy enough to label X Factor and I'm a Celebrity as crap. Millions of people happen to think those are perfectly good entertainment. Same as you feel about 'The Last Kingdom'.
The fact that one thing is less crap than another doesn't make it any good. People are entitled to criticise. Everyone has different standards.

I don't really care all that much about historical accuracy - either of the events portrayed, or the details of arms, armour, dress and culture (although The Last Kingdom was average to poor on both counts).
What I do care about is the fact that, like most BBC attempts at drama set-pre 1700's, it's a lame, pantomime portrayal. It's not BELIEVABLE. It's dumbed down. It's got no dramatic weight or self belief. Essentially it's no good because it's not serious about what its doing. Just watch the extras cheering in the battle scenes: they're like really bad actors in a really bad school play.

Despite moaning, of course I watched it all, and it wasn't awful. Parts of it were enjoyable. The main actors were pretty good. One or two were excellent. But it doesn't make it any good overall.

How come the BBC (and ITV) can produce endless drama programmes set in the Regency, or Dickensian times, or the Victorian / Edwardian era, and make them look and feel utterly believable in every detail. And yet as soon as they go near anything from earlier periods, they end up as pap like this? It's just very odd. It's almost like they approach it having already given up on any attempt to try to do it properly or seriously. They're happy with a panto approach to the whole thing: characterisation, dialogue, production design. One notable recent exception was Wolf Hall, which was subtle, adult, brilliantly done in every detail, as well as sublimely acted. That's the difference we're talking about.

If it's serious, make it seriously, like Wolf Hall. If it's going to be a bit tongue in cheek, and an out and out romp, like The Musketeers, then fair enough. Play it like that. But I think, like so much historical drama, The Last Kingdom fell exactly into that trap of being neither one thing nor the other, and just ends up feeling lame as a result.

Looking forward to season 2  

[Atheling]

Right. I guess things are above criticism now so long as they aren't the worst thing on TV.

Well put, it's wide of the margin to compare a historical drama to the X-Factor! 

A comparison to something like Sharp might be more constructive. They got the uniforms more or less right in
sharp yeah? So why not an Early Medieval series?

Darrell.

[Silent Invader]

In a rather large nutshell, this:

don't really care all that much about historical accuracy - either of the events portrayed, or the details of arms, armour, dress and culture (although The Last Kingdom was average to poor on both counts).
What I do care about is the fact that, like most BBC attempts at drama set-pre 1700's, it's a lame, pantomime portrayal. It's not BELIEVABLE. It's dumbed down. It's got no dramatic weight or self belief. Essentially it's no good because it's not serious about what its doing.

I like pantomime when that's what it's meant to be.

It was almost like the BBC had the book and a budget which they thought they could work with, then subsequently realised that on another channel was this hugely popular, big money, long running, high quality fantasy medieval series which it suddenly felt compelled to try and compete with but couldn't.  I haven't read the books - and to be honest didn't persevere with the TV - but I do wonder if a smaller, tighter production might have been better. 

[Lowtardog]

I just think historical issues aside, they would never be able to capture the first person narrative from the books. Yep watched it through may give vikings and black sails another try after this

[smirnoff]

I enjoyed it
A soap when not many people used soap

[THE CID]

I should take up fishing, got some real good bites there. Lol

[LeadAsbestos]

I enjoyed the series, and will watch season 2 if there is one. Nice to watch between seasons of Vikings!

[Driscoles]

I really look forward to watch this series soon. I was never really dissapointed by British TV shows except Broadchurch which was only ok for me.
We rarely have great tv shows in Germany. We have a very exciting history but when we try to bring it on the screen we mostly fail grandiosely. You should be much more grateful !