The Last Kingdom – A Game of Thrones fix

Are you hungry for a Game of Thrones-ish show to watch right now? Well hang on, because if you can get through this rambling, you might have one.

One of my favorite authors is Bernard Cornwell. I tell everyone who is remotely interested in reading, about Mr. Cornwell. I absolutely love his Arthurian legend series. The series is, The Winter King, The Enemy of God, and Excalibur. To me it is his best series and that is saying a lot as I have read a ton of his books. He has a large body of work, and all of it is good.

But it’s not the Arthurian series that I wanted to talk about, it’s the Saxon series, which I started reading a long time ago, but I read all the books out at the time and caught up with the series and then went on to reading other stuff. It was while I was in Colorado a few years ago that I discovered that this series had made it onto Netflix. I binged watched the whole first season I think in two days?

Since then they have released Season 2 and of course I watched all of that. I had heard that there might not be a season 3 and I was sad. But I decided last night to check on it and yes, the show has earned a season 3!

So, while we wait for 2019’s release of Game of Thrones and 2020’s release of The Witcher, I am of the opinion that The Last Kingdom is excellent and will give you that GOT fix you might be craving. To be fair, it focuses on one character, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, and not several different ones.

It is based on actual history

It is historical fiction so the story happening around Uhtred is true, or based on true events. That makes it, to me, even more interesting. I believe it takes a special skill to weave a fictional story with actual history in the background. That person’s life must be affected by the events of history.

Alfred the Great

The Last Kingdom takes place during the reign of Alfred the Great, the Saxon king of Wessex. The Vikings have found Britain and are plundering, pillaging and taking land. (That’s what Vikings do! Well besides drinking mead and going to Valhalla.) They are settling. Just to give you some info, our hero Uhtred, is captured by the Norsemen during a battle and raised as one of them. Misfortune befalls him, and he must find a place among his countrymen whom he feels no kinship to. He was raised as a Norseman, he believes and behaves as a Norseman, and this as foreign to his countrymen as their ways are to him.

A great cast

The cast is well suited to their roles and the show is well done. My favorite character is Leofric, a warrior and general smart aleck. If you’ve never heard the word “arseling” used to describe someone, get ready. The banter between Leofric and Uhtred brings a bit of levity to the show at times when the tension runs high. It is quite fun. There is a lot of good writing here.

Where you ask?

I do know that the location for the second season was Budapest, Hungary. Beautiful sweeping landscape shots.

Magic you say?

There are hints of magic, as there are in many of Cornwell’s books, it is ever vague, and never shown. I like that, because you never know. It might have been magic.

Season 3 is set to release this year! So if you haven’t watched the first two, you’re just in time.

So fire up your Netflix and grab a sword, you arselings! Battle awaits! Will you join Uhtred in the struggle for The Last Kingdom? Do you have a favorite show not mentioned here? If so I’d love to know. Have you seen The Last Kingdom already? I’d love to know your thoughts on it.

Until next time

Michael Wigington

(Yes, that is a shot of the wall beside my desk. Yes, I am aware that I am a nerd.)

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