Recently I’ve been watching The Last Kingdom. Here’s two wallpapers and some random thoughts about the show!
Started watching The Last Kingdom a couple of weeks ago! I vaguely remember watching the first episode when it aired, but apparently I totally forgot the series existed after that because all the other episodes have been new. I’m enjoying the series a lot, it’s interesting and fun seeing an era of history explored on screen that I don’t think another series has focused on? Except maybe for Vikings but I’m not sure how much of a fictional fantasy that show is, haven’t checked because I watched the first season of that one.
The thing about this show is that literally all my (even mildly) favorite characters had been killed off by episode 4.03 – and so many so early, that by the end of season 1 I had already realized that was not a series that kept characters alive. Just in season 1 many of my favorite characters were killed off: Macfadyen!Uhtred, Rutger Hauer’s character, Leofric and Iseult along with several characters I liked a lot but who didn’t make it to favorite list such as Skorpa, Aethelred of Wessex and Earl Ragnar. Now that I’m half way through season 4, the way it’s going, literally all named characters will be dead, including the main character Uhtred son of Uhtred, by end of series finale 😭 😂
Another thing about this show is that there are a lot of interesting and fun characters! And strapping men playing Danes with fun hair styles. Somehow the show succeeds in making me care about all the characters… even when I hate them! They’re making them fun to hate – such as Aethelwold – instead of making me wish they’d die and disappear already. I can’t remember the last time when a show had so many fun characters. Brida is the only one I’d like to go and die already – from the latter half of season 1 through to first half of season 4 she’s been a superfluous, pointless character that I don’t enjoy watching. She’s the only one so far… all the others are at least interesting to watch, or fun to hate.
More fun things: the various accents all the characters have – it really helps to set apart the different tribes and nationalities. All the characters whose names start with “Ae” – whenever there’s a new character, I’m always curious to see what’s the ending of their name!
I think maybe the most interesting character has been King Alfred because the writers explore kingship, religion, responsibility, friendships when you’re the King etc. through him. David Dawson has really impressed me in the role; even when he needs to be kingly, distant, controlled and expressionless in the face of hard decisions, you can see it all going on behind his eyes.
Another thing about the series that delights me is the lighting and color work of seasons 1 and 2 – the show looks absolutely beautiful in seasons 1 and 2, lively colors and so well lit! Especially all the scenes that take place in the old Roman villa that is Alfred’s palace. Sadly, seasons 3 and 4 which I believe Netflix made along with season 5, are lit much darker, desaturated, murkier and with a blue/gray tint. :/ So much so that I’ve had to adjust the brightness, contract, hue and saturation settings on MPC-BE to see what’s happening well. That’s my only complaint with the show so far!