Over the course of five seasons, The Last Kingdom has secured its position as one of the most watchable, entertaining swords 'n' beards series on television. Adapting Bernard Cornwell's novel series of the same name, the show has used brisk pacing, an excellent cast and some epic battles (on a not-so-epic budget) to tell a story of stirring politics and war in 9th and 10th Century Britain.
The fifth season of The Last Kingdom is the last, adapting the ninth and tenth books in the series: Warriors of the Storm and The Flame Bearer. The final three books in the series have instead been replaced in the adaptation by a single TV movie, Seven Kings Must Die, to follow later this year or early next. The decision to end the series in a different way to the books makes a fair bit of sense. In the books, Uhtred is around 60 years old during the events of this season (the actor playing him is only 39) and in his seventies at the end of the series, so ending at this point is a reasonable decision, especially as the ending of the story here brings the entire series around in a satisfying full circle.
The season also integrates the plots of the two books together, so rather than a fairly obvious mid-season shift in gears, the story organically moves from one storyline to the other. In the first, various factions trigger an end to the Danish-Saxon peace, resulting in a renewed conflict which the major leaders don't really want. Uhtred is invaluable here as he free-wheels between the two camps, trying to maintain peace whilst finding those really responsible for the chaos. This evolves into a larger-scale story as King Edward takes advantage of an opportunity to take more power in England, giving Uhtred a window of opportunity to realise a lifelong dream.
The 10-episode season unfolds at a brisk pace, the cast is as strong as ever, and there's a melancholic air to proceedings as Uhtred tries to keep his family - now grown up, married or with commitments of their own - together in the face of their own wishes and the whims of history. The nicely nuanced characterisation of the previous season, which saw Aelswith move from an antagonist of Uhtred's to reluctant ally, continues and is improved upon here. The battles are also stronger than Season 4's, which were underwhelming.
There are weaknesses. Uhtred suffering a setback, getting annoyed and then winning an unlikely victory is a trope we've seen before. Adrian Schiller is a fine actor but making his Aethelhelm (the most obvious "enemy within" ever) the main antagonist of the second half of the series feels a bit drawn out. A forbidden romance between Edward and a noblewoman named Eadgifu (a fine Sonya Cassidy) starts strongly and then kind of stalls. Wihtgar (Ossian Perret) is an underwhelming secondary villain. The lack of ageing makeup for any of the actors in the series is also increasingly bizarre, reaching comical heights in scenes where Aelswith (28-year-old Elisa Butterworth) is in deep conversation with her daughter Aethelflaed (28-year-old Millie Brady) and granddaughter Aelfwynn (22-year-old Phia Saban). But from a production standpoint, I get why they wanted to minimise such things.
The fifth and final season of The Last Kingdom (****) is not perfect, but it delivers a rousing finale to an enjoyable run. The show is available to watch on Netflix now.
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