Danes Just Want to Have Fun

Uhtred is our Jon Snow-esque protagonist

Shotgunned through The Last Kingdom while down with the flu. If you've got Netflix you could follow suit.

Although ostensibly a medieval action-drama about the battles between the Saxons and the Danes, the show sometimes feels like a critique of respectability politics. Alfred the Great chooses what looks "right" over what is actually smart or noble, and frankly he eats shit for it every time.

I'd extend the argument to Christianity as a whole, as it's presented here. 

Hild will fuck you up

Also there's a heavy critique of spin-doctoring in a pre-mass media age. A mouthy monk is equivalent to a thousand twittterers. Gossiping first counts for more than a first strike on the battlefield.

Faster death-rate than Game of Thrones too; Game of Thrones wants you to start liking a character before they eat steel--The Last Kingdom doesn't have time for your affection. That said, it does give you the space as a viewer to take an immediate dislike to some of the squirming wormtongue villains, and it does reward you with some very rewarding death scenes for the same.

The show even gets away with some noble savage nonsense because the difference between Dane and Saxon is (usually) less about ethnicity than it is about heathenry. 

I do wonder at the places where show gets a little squeamish. The use of the word "hump" in place of any stronger language is simultaneously jarring and charming, for example.

And then there's this crazy witch

My early favorite character was Hild, a warrior-nun who kicks ass and takes no shit. Current favorite character is Skade because she has just the right combination of feral witchiness and utter bloodthirstiness that I like in a woman. "There's this witch in season three you'll like," they said...and they read me like a god-damn book.