The Last Kingdom (Season 3)
Netflix released the third season. As opposed to the previous two seasons, which covered two of Cornwell's source novels per season, this one, as far as I can tell, is only based on one of them, The Death of Kings.
Now, I think here despite taking considerable liberties I think it's here where the tv show can't help but run into a basic problem with the source material. Which is that Cornwell simply wants to pair up Uthred with a great variety of women. S2 eased up on this somewhat in that while our hero got together with his new lady in the first half, the second half gave the romance plot to Aetheflaed and Erik and actually allowed Uthred ro remain committed. But this time, it's death by childbirth for Gisela in the season opener, which also introduces us to Skade the psychotic man-enslaving witch. If Iseult in s1 was a positive cliché, Skade was a negative one. Once she actually got a scene with Brida, I was hoping for at least some interesting fleshing out via interaction between two female main characters, but no. (Mind you: it was absolutely in character for Brida to have no time for Skade as presented in this story.)
Speaking of Brida, though: this season was fantastic for her, providing her with a true spotlight after the second season gave her only brief appearances. And it's all the tv show (in this case, I have read the source material), which, Iseult and Skade aside, does ever so much better by its female characters than Cornwell's novels do. I've said it before, I'll say it again: the key difference is that the books aren't interested in women Uthred isn't currently romantically attracted to, and in them only intermittently, while the tv show very much is. Brida in the novels only briefly shows up as Uthred's first love and later goes Skade-style evil, mostly off page. Brida in the tv show is a very different character, with the audience during the original relationship and breakup with Uthred getting very much her pov, and her later mixture between anger and affection along with a well-founded scepticism re: his bouncing to and thro between Saxons and Danes shown as equally warranted. She's believable someone UIthred has grown up with and who also is the road not taken (not romantically but in the sense that Brida made the opposite decision that Uthred did, committing herself to the Danes for good early on and sticking with that choice), and this season highlights that their bond survives. (BTW, that tv Uthred is able to have friendships with women he's either no longer together with - Brida - or never was together in the first place - Hild - also is one of the things that makes me prefer him to book Uthred.) The mid season episode in which they're both mourning Ragnar, taking a breath and allowing the characters to grieve before the plot moves on, was just superb. Moreover, since by now the various Danish leaders battling the Saxons have grown same-y (or at least feel that way), tv Brida is has become even more important as the one three dimensional character on the Danish side the audience really is invested in. If the show continues, I very much hope they'll also continue to ignore Cornwell's writing for Brida and stick with their own version, continue to give her plots different from the novels.
Another source material departure I feel less certain about, to wit, heightening the stakes of the final fallout and reconciliation between Uthred and Alfred. (Incidentally, I'm not surprised this season chose to stick with one novel instead of two, because while it did a very good job of letting Aethelflaed and Edward come into their own, killing Alfred off mid season when he's been the second lead throughout would just have felt wrong.) I mean, on the one hand, stuff like Uthred putting a knife on Alfred's throat (while later admitting he'd never been able to go through with it) is pure fodder for the fannish id, and I'm not made of stone. On the other hand, there's a reason Cornwell (unless I'm massively forgetting something) never went that far - it's the kind of thing you really don't come back from in feudal society, at least if you do it in public, which tv Uthred does. Also, while having Aelswith attempt to revoke Uthred's pardon and to banish him eventually resulted in a situation which allowed the scriptwriters to have him recite out loud part of book Uthred's mental (not spoken out loud) summing up of his and Alfred's relationship (note that they changed "I despised and admired him" to "I despised and loved him") to all of Winchester (again, fodder to the fannish id), book Alfred manipulating Uthred one last time into taking the oath to Edward just before his death strikes me as somewhat more plausible than tv Alfred's more complicated machination resulting in that scene in the public square after his death.
(Oh, and one more thing, not unique to this particular tv show but shared with 99% other historical tv shows and movies: death scenes of royalty (who doesn't die in battle) are always depicted in a way that's a concession to our modern sensibilities, treated as something private, with only some family members and/or loved ones present. (Cornwell in the books doesn't do that, btw; the man does his research.) In reality, having a "good" death was hugely important for a Christian ruler, especially one whose faith was so central to him as Alfred, and thus there would have been priests present all the time along with various high ranking members of the court in addition to family members, so there would have been no question the king died shriven and strong in the faith. That bedroom would have been crowded all the time once it was clear Alfred was in the final stages. BTW, this isn't an actual complaint, because as a viewer, I enjoyed the intimacy of those scenes, including the ones immediately after the death, as the one with Beocca kissing Alfred on the forehead, which he wouldn't have done had others been present. I'm just pointing out the concession to modern sensibilities and dramatic needs.)
Alfred dying throughout the season and aware of it also means David Dawson continued to be the only actor allowed to age realistically on this show. I don't mean just the women (i.e. Hild, Brida and Aelswith having a very few lines more than they thad in s1, never mind that baby Edward from s1 is now a 16ish teen), but also the men: Aethelwold looks hardly any older, Uthred alters hairstyles a bit but otherwise still is untouched by time, Beocca has the advantage of already having looked old in s1 and just remains unchanged. But Alfred? Actually looks like at least fifteen years have passed since Uthred met him, in addition to looking sick. Dawson continues to be excellent throughout, saying a lot with just a few lines ("I do enjoy the summer"), and showing the pettiness along with the greatness. One last time my repeated observation: Alfred truly benefited from being neither the pov character nor his author's favourite; he'd never have come across as interesting, flawed and compelling otherwise. And never mind historical realism, I do appreciate him and Uthred having their last heart to heart alone; the actors had great chemistry, and it really felt like a chamber play.
Meanwhile, Aethelflaed has grown up very well from last season's distraught young princess and clearly inherited her father's intellect and manipulative skills; having been socialised as a woman, she practises them better where Uthred is concerned, and so far, he's been going along with following her orders accordingly. The flirtation between them also starts (again, appreciate tv Uthred taking things slower than book Uthred here) which I had been expecting from the novels, though again, the tv show does better than the books re: its female characters by giving Aethelflaed scenes where Uthred isn't present and by showing us her becoming the ruler her husband is failing to be. That her husband's Trusted Lieutenant switches loyalties from him to her because he can see she's actually better for Mercia and only after falls for her as a woman was also appreciated on my part.
Aethelwold finally running out of luck, committing one betrayal too many and dying only leaves us with the above mentioned husband, a one dimensional villain, on the Saxon antagonist side. Well, him and Aelswith, who is by contrast a good example of how you write a female antagonist to the hero without demonizing her or falling into the evil maneater cliché. Aelswith's hostility to Uthred is to a great part religiously motivated (though I do wish the book information that her hometown was raided by Saxons, a raid in which young Uthred actually participated, though she doesn't know that, would have been worked into the tv show as well), with some undercurrent of Alfred related jealousy (that in the tv show Alfred dies while they're in the middle of an argument about Uthred does not help), and the narrative clearly positions her as wrong in this. (Not least because Uthred is simply too useful when on your side and too dangerous when not for Edward to dispense him as she wishes.) But otoh the show also never makes her less than human, and gives her moments like the one with her children after Alfred's death when she for the first time reveals how she felt in the early days of her marriage with him, or, on the light side, her maternal fussiness with Edward.
The late Leofric makes a welcome comeback as Uthred's Head!Leofric, embodying his Saxon loyalties when he makes his last attempt to go full Dane. BTW, in another welcome bit of realism, other than Ragnar the Danes this time around are somewhat skeptical from the get go (and not just villains like Canute), and haven't forgotten how many of them he killed. Uthred's merry band of followers also retains three dimensionality by being allowed to react to the (potential) prospect of joining a raid against their own people instead of just going along with Uthred. Incidentally, in the middle of watching I had the depressing thought that books and show could, of course, be read as part of that same current fever dream of English Resistance drummed up by the Brexiteers, allowing the nation who through most of its history did the invading and colonising feel as the brave underdog. Though the show, none too subtly, uses Thyra's subplot to depict the show side of emerging nationalism . (Which I don't think Cornwell does in the books. I have no idea about his take on current British politics, but when reading Azincourt, it cracked me up that he followed good old English tradition of dressing this particular invasion tale, or, if you like this better, two dynasties duking it out, up as another David vs Goliath tale complete with class issues by letting the main English characters be underdog foot soldiers and the French all evil nobles.) Thyra being first verbally abused, then physically attacked and finally burned to death as a Dane despite her marriage to Beocca was, again, on the nose in terms of what it alluded to in the present, but these days, maybe on the nose is what's needed.
Let's see, what else:
- I do wish the show would have let Aethelflaed wear the same practical clothing as Brida does in battle, or at leat let her wear some armor, but no such luck, apparantly they thought we wouldn't recognize her if she did
- while Skade mostly succeeds via mind games, I wish the show wouldn't given her actual powers as well, because here I'm with the books - doesn't improve the character, but I'd rather have all mind games, all the time if we have to have her
- did I mention I'm always uneasy whenever a show uses evil witches as a trope (in this case even with ending by drowning in order to break the curse) because of actual history? I think I did, once or twice (read: a lot). It comes with hailing from a town where in one particular wave of persecution, about 1000 people (of a town population of 8000) were murdered as witches. I REALLY DISLIKE THIS TROPE.
Lastly: while I would like another season with Aethelflaed as the Lady of Mercia, I'd also be fine with this being the ending of the show. All the surviving characters are in a good place, and the relationship between Uthred and Alfred, which was so central to its narrative, is wrapped up.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1315170.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Now, I think here despite taking considerable liberties I think it's here where the tv show can't help but run into a basic problem with the source material. Which is that Cornwell simply wants to pair up Uthred with a great variety of women. S2 eased up on this somewhat in that while our hero got together with his new lady in the first half, the second half gave the romance plot to Aetheflaed and Erik and actually allowed Uthred ro remain committed. But this time, it's death by childbirth for Gisela in the season opener, which also introduces us to Skade the psychotic man-enslaving witch. If Iseult in s1 was a positive cliché, Skade was a negative one. Once she actually got a scene with Brida, I was hoping for at least some interesting fleshing out via interaction between two female main characters, but no. (Mind you: it was absolutely in character for Brida to have no time for Skade as presented in this story.)
Speaking of Brida, though: this season was fantastic for her, providing her with a true spotlight after the second season gave her only brief appearances. And it's all the tv show (in this case, I have read the source material), which, Iseult and Skade aside, does ever so much better by its female characters than Cornwell's novels do. I've said it before, I'll say it again: the key difference is that the books aren't interested in women Uthred isn't currently romantically attracted to, and in them only intermittently, while the tv show very much is. Brida in the novels only briefly shows up as Uthred's first love and later goes Skade-style evil, mostly off page. Brida in the tv show is a very different character, with the audience during the original relationship and breakup with Uthred getting very much her pov, and her later mixture between anger and affection along with a well-founded scepticism re: his bouncing to and thro between Saxons and Danes shown as equally warranted. She's believable someone UIthred has grown up with and who also is the road not taken (not romantically but in the sense that Brida made the opposite decision that Uthred did, committing herself to the Danes for good early on and sticking with that choice), and this season highlights that their bond survives. (BTW, that tv Uthred is able to have friendships with women he's either no longer together with - Brida - or never was together in the first place - Hild - also is one of the things that makes me prefer him to book Uthred.) The mid season episode in which they're both mourning Ragnar, taking a breath and allowing the characters to grieve before the plot moves on, was just superb. Moreover, since by now the various Danish leaders battling the Saxons have grown same-y (or at least feel that way), tv Brida is has become even more important as the one three dimensional character on the Danish side the audience really is invested in. If the show continues, I very much hope they'll also continue to ignore Cornwell's writing for Brida and stick with their own version, continue to give her plots different from the novels.
Another source material departure I feel less certain about, to wit, heightening the stakes of the final fallout and reconciliation between Uthred and Alfred. (Incidentally, I'm not surprised this season chose to stick with one novel instead of two, because while it did a very good job of letting Aethelflaed and Edward come into their own, killing Alfred off mid season when he's been the second lead throughout would just have felt wrong.) I mean, on the one hand, stuff like Uthred putting a knife on Alfred's throat (while later admitting he'd never been able to go through with it) is pure fodder for the fannish id, and I'm not made of stone. On the other hand, there's a reason Cornwell (unless I'm massively forgetting something) never went that far - it's the kind of thing you really don't come back from in feudal society, at least if you do it in public, which tv Uthred does. Also, while having Aelswith attempt to revoke Uthred's pardon and to banish him eventually resulted in a situation which allowed the scriptwriters to have him recite out loud part of book Uthred's mental (not spoken out loud) summing up of his and Alfred's relationship (note that they changed "I despised and admired him" to "I despised and loved him") to all of Winchester (again, fodder to the fannish id), book Alfred manipulating Uthred one last time into taking the oath to Edward just before his death strikes me as somewhat more plausible than tv Alfred's more complicated machination resulting in that scene in the public square after his death.
(Oh, and one more thing, not unique to this particular tv show but shared with 99% other historical tv shows and movies: death scenes of royalty (who doesn't die in battle) are always depicted in a way that's a concession to our modern sensibilities, treated as something private, with only some family members and/or loved ones present. (Cornwell in the books doesn't do that, btw; the man does his research.) In reality, having a "good" death was hugely important for a Christian ruler, especially one whose faith was so central to him as Alfred, and thus there would have been priests present all the time along with various high ranking members of the court in addition to family members, so there would have been no question the king died shriven and strong in the faith. That bedroom would have been crowded all the time once it was clear Alfred was in the final stages. BTW, this isn't an actual complaint, because as a viewer, I enjoyed the intimacy of those scenes, including the ones immediately after the death, as the one with Beocca kissing Alfred on the forehead, which he wouldn't have done had others been present. I'm just pointing out the concession to modern sensibilities and dramatic needs.)
Alfred dying throughout the season and aware of it also means David Dawson continued to be the only actor allowed to age realistically on this show. I don't mean just the women (i.e. Hild, Brida and Aelswith having a very few lines more than they thad in s1, never mind that baby Edward from s1 is now a 16ish teen), but also the men: Aethelwold looks hardly any older, Uthred alters hairstyles a bit but otherwise still is untouched by time, Beocca has the advantage of already having looked old in s1 and just remains unchanged. But Alfred? Actually looks like at least fifteen years have passed since Uthred met him, in addition to looking sick. Dawson continues to be excellent throughout, saying a lot with just a few lines ("I do enjoy the summer"), and showing the pettiness along with the greatness. One last time my repeated observation: Alfred truly benefited from being neither the pov character nor his author's favourite; he'd never have come across as interesting, flawed and compelling otherwise. And never mind historical realism, I do appreciate him and Uthred having their last heart to heart alone; the actors had great chemistry, and it really felt like a chamber play.
Meanwhile, Aethelflaed has grown up very well from last season's distraught young princess and clearly inherited her father's intellect and manipulative skills; having been socialised as a woman, she practises them better where Uthred is concerned, and so far, he's been going along with following her orders accordingly. The flirtation between them also starts (again, appreciate tv Uthred taking things slower than book Uthred here) which I had been expecting from the novels, though again, the tv show does better than the books re: its female characters by giving Aethelflaed scenes where Uthred isn't present and by showing us her becoming the ruler her husband is failing to be. That her husband's Trusted Lieutenant switches loyalties from him to her because he can see she's actually better for Mercia and only after falls for her as a woman was also appreciated on my part.
Aethelwold finally running out of luck, committing one betrayal too many and dying only leaves us with the above mentioned husband, a one dimensional villain, on the Saxon antagonist side. Well, him and Aelswith, who is by contrast a good example of how you write a female antagonist to the hero without demonizing her or falling into the evil maneater cliché. Aelswith's hostility to Uthred is to a great part religiously motivated (though I do wish the book information that her hometown was raided by Saxons, a raid in which young Uthred actually participated, though she doesn't know that, would have been worked into the tv show as well), with some undercurrent of Alfred related jealousy (that in the tv show Alfred dies while they're in the middle of an argument about Uthred does not help), and the narrative clearly positions her as wrong in this. (Not least because Uthred is simply too useful when on your side and too dangerous when not for Edward to dispense him as she wishes.) But otoh the show also never makes her less than human, and gives her moments like the one with her children after Alfred's death when she for the first time reveals how she felt in the early days of her marriage with him, or, on the light side, her maternal fussiness with Edward.
The late Leofric makes a welcome comeback as Uthred's Head!Leofric, embodying his Saxon loyalties when he makes his last attempt to go full Dane. BTW, in another welcome bit of realism, other than Ragnar the Danes this time around are somewhat skeptical from the get go (and not just villains like Canute), and haven't forgotten how many of them he killed. Uthred's merry band of followers also retains three dimensionality by being allowed to react to the (potential) prospect of joining a raid against their own people instead of just going along with Uthred. Incidentally, in the middle of watching I had the depressing thought that books and show could, of course, be read as part of that same current fever dream of English Resistance drummed up by the Brexiteers, allowing the nation who through most of its history did the invading and colonising feel as the brave underdog. Though the show, none too subtly, uses Thyra's subplot to depict the show side of emerging nationalism . (Which I don't think Cornwell does in the books. I have no idea about his take on current British politics, but when reading Azincourt, it cracked me up that he followed good old English tradition of dressing this particular invasion tale, or, if you like this better, two dynasties duking it out, up as another David vs Goliath tale complete with class issues by letting the main English characters be underdog foot soldiers and the French all evil nobles.) Thyra being first verbally abused, then physically attacked and finally burned to death as a Dane despite her marriage to Beocca was, again, on the nose in terms of what it alluded to in the present, but these days, maybe on the nose is what's needed.
Let's see, what else:
- I do wish the show would have let Aethelflaed wear the same practical clothing as Brida does in battle, or at leat let her wear some armor, but no such luck, apparantly they thought we wouldn't recognize her if she did
- while Skade mostly succeeds via mind games, I wish the show wouldn't given her actual powers as well, because here I'm with the books - doesn't improve the character, but I'd rather have all mind games, all the time if we have to have her
- did I mention I'm always uneasy whenever a show uses evil witches as a trope (in this case even with ending by drowning in order to break the curse) because of actual history? I think I did, once or twice (read: a lot). It comes with hailing from a town where in one particular wave of persecution, about 1000 people (of a town population of 8000) were murdered as witches. I REALLY DISLIKE THIS TROPE.
Lastly: while I would like another season with Aethelflaed as the Lady of Mercia, I'd also be fine with this being the ending of the show. All the surviving characters are in a good place, and the relationship between Uthred and Alfred, which was so central to its narrative, is wrapped up.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1315170.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.