Set in 866 during the Danish invasions of England, The Last Kingdom features realistic low budget combat, some unfortunate tropes, such as an amazon love interest, but manages to paint a tolerable picture of the reign of Alfred the Great. The first few episodes are the story of a boy who is the second son of a minor king and is captured and adopted by a Danish warlord. Reminiscent of HBO’s Rome, with a minor character written in for a ride along with a historic figure, serendipity is predictably overused. But intelligently neutral treatment of Norse Heathenism and English Christianity offset the stock tropes and most of all, we don’t have homo-sex pushed on us in the formative stages of the series.

The Last Kingdom is not movie quality in production value and is saddled with a fair burden of modern conventions, but is a tolerable treatment of masculinity in the Dark Ages of Materialism and the High Age of Heroism, and makes available a bit of escapist reflection for an anachronistic soul too tired to read without falling asleep.