The Last Kingdom (TV Series 2015–2022) | Review – Season 5

The Last Kingdom: With Alexander Dreymon, Eliza Butterworth, Arnas Fedaravicius, Mark Rowley. As Alfred the Great defends his kingdom from Norse invaders, Uhtred–born a Saxon but raised by Vikings–seeks to claim his ancestral birthright.

Source: The Last Kingdom (TV Series 2015–2022) – IMDb

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Review – May contain spoilers!

Well, I finally finished watching Season 5 of this worthwhile alternative to Vikings and, I guess, Game of Thrones.

To me, this season seemed a bit tired, as if some of the actors had lost their initial enthusiasm and were just going through the motions, looking forward to something new to work on. The show is still good but Covid seems to take its toll not just on average people but on TV stars too. That was just my impression. Who knows what the cast was really thinking and feeling.

‘The Last Kingdom’: Is This Brida’s Look for Season 5? – Showbiz CheatSheet

Likewise, the character of Brida (Emily Cox) seemed to lose some of her complexity as she blindly veered into the dark side, quite unchecked. And Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon), as I say, seemed a bit older, rounder, and a lot more bored with the whole thing. We can’t blame Dreymon for being older and chubbier, this probably being exacerbated by the stress and strain of Covid. Maybe coming off as slightly distracted and losing some of his ‘zip’ also had something to do with the pandemic. We can’t be sure. We can only assess the final outcome as it flickers on the screen.

Still, I did enjoy this, especially the last two episodes.

If anyone stood out, I’d say it was Eliza Butterworth in her depiction of Aelswith, Alfred’s wife and Queen of Wessex. In real life, she’s only 28 years old, and you can tell she’s physically young no matter how much they try to make her look older. But her demeanor is second to none. She really comes off as an icky old Queen Mum—icky but with a good heart that is.  I found her performance delightful and amusing.

The Last Kingdom: Aelswith star Eliza Butterworth on why she loves to play older roles – Express

The rest of the crew mostly ranged from good to above average. And that’s pretty much how I’d sum up Season 5 of The Last Kingdom.

Definitely, time to close up shop. And it’s good the producers realized this before dragging the series out too long, as we saw with the first incarnation of Vikings.