I enjoy The Last Kingdom too. I loved the first two seasons of Vikings but after that... kind of lost interest. I still haven't seen the second season of TLK! I can't seem to find a way to watch it legally. (Probably have to try harder....) I was really expecting it to be on Netflix starting March 16th. I was a bit disappointed.

I've read the novels and I'm looking forward to the next one. Cornwell's new novel will be published in October, but is about William Shakespeare's brother, so I think we'll have to wait longer for the next one in The Last Kingdom/The Saxon Stories. Bit of a bummer seeing as I was getting used to a novel each year...

@NotoriousRio said:

Excels above and beyond Vikings with better characters and overall story, which is based on the books by Bernard Cornwell. The costumes and look of the Saxons and Vikings is much better than History channel’s show, Vikings succumbed to overt political correctness and bland stories in later seasons, making Last Kingdom far more enjoyable.

Yes I agree. PC kills so many shows. It seems the writers cannot help themselves. They often write the first couple of seasons without making it PC, at least not overtly so, but then when they believe they have captured an audience which has invested in the story and the characters, they use their show as a platform to push the PC views and agenda. That crap ruins many shows. Thankfully they didn't do that to this one.

(EDIT: On starting to re-watch the first season on Netflix, and giving it some thought, there is one sort of PC aspect of the series which comes to mind; that is the way in which most of the devout religious Christians are portrayed as bigoted, emotionally immature, harsh, unbending, and unkind. The most striking case is that of Alfred's wife. Granted, history is replete with examples of corrupted organized religious figures and organizations. Yet there are and have always been pious, kind, intelligent, spiritual people who are part of organized Christian religious organizations. But in PC entertainment media, depictions of such people are exceedingly rare. The typical portrayal of Christians in PC media are one dimensional, judgmental, unkind, people with serious lack of character. This treatment of Christians is so commonplace that one expects it. It is one of those tropes one must overlook in order to enjoy the rest of the show. But aside from this, the series was pleasingly lacking in overt PC tropes.)

I have seen three seasons of The Last Kingdom now. It looks to me like they wrapped up the story at the end of the last season. They way they left it, the last episode could serve as a good series finale. They wrapped up the important points. Alfred's nephew, the sniveling little weasel character, finally got his due. Ragnar got to Valhalla. Uhtred was again vindicated somewhat and as the show ended he was not in any distress, etc. If this was the series finale, I think they did it well. But the way they left it, they could continue the story easily.

I wasn't really hooked on the show on the first episode, but began to get into it after that. It turned out to be a very good show. I am quite interested in historical programs, whether they are historical fiction or real history.

I don't agree that it's better than Vikings, but there's no doubt it's a great TV show too. I'm enjoying both of them. I gave Vikings 10 and 8 to Last Kingdom.

Thank you for the information. I watched Vikings till the death of Ragnar and lost interest.

write2topcat is right. The PC executives put their hands and start demanding writers to include PC crap, turning nice shows to crap. Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead were great shows initially. Some shows go PC (aka full-retard) from the beginning; Catwoman.

It's good to know The Last Kingdom didn't fall for that.

I'm watching the 3rd season and it starts with a witch (blonde who looks underage) who fights like a ninja and Alfred's daughter is leading an army like a General. I have the impression the series will go downhill with feminism (wahmen is as strong as men, specially in medieval times).

God please have mercy!

@therapist said:

Thank you for the information. I watched Vikings till the death of Ragnar and lost interest.

write2topcat is right. The PC executives put their hands and start demanding writers to include PC crap, turning nice shows to crap. Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead were great shows initially. Some shows go PC (aka full-retard) from the beginning; Catwoman.

It's good to know The Last Kingdom didn't fall for that.

I agree with you. I liked Walking Dead initially, but then it became too prolonged, too cheasy, from zombie TV show it turned into some cheap shooter with dumb emotional TV series. After governor era I lost interest. I think they are prolonging it a lot. Game of Thrones was also interesting TV show, but I disliked two things about it: They were killing characters way too fast, so fast that they didn't even have a time to develop, like take an example of Khal Drogo. We didn't even see any deeds from him. All we saw, how he was traveling and then they killed him just liked that. Or Net Stark... I really disliked this in GOT and second reason was it's disaster ending... Eventually, I disliked whole TV show and gave it poor ratings. Well, Vikings... I think same is started degrading after Ragnar's death. It's not as interesting as it was. He was real star. It's not as bad as walking dead for sure after his death, but not as great as it used to. I think I'd give 10 to Vikings during Ragnar's era and after it probably 8. Oh and after watching all episodes of Last Kingdom I decided to give it more than 8, because it deserves more than that in my opinion. I agree with you, It's still interesting and good and didn't share same faith as above mentioned TV shows, which is good.

If you like medieval TV shows, I would highly recommend you "Nightfall" and "Spartacus". They are also very good and if you liked "The Last Kingdom", think you will like them too.