A mixed bag of a first season. It's not Game of Thrones, Black Sails or even Vikings yet; it doesn't have the budget but it started out on the BBC so that's to be expected. I'm looking forward to seeing what the move to Netflix will do it budget-wise. It's very impressive for a BBC series in terms of the scale and drama it achieves; and a lot of that is down to Bernard Cornwell's novels which - from what I remember, are very good, although it's been a while since I've read them.
The first episode didn't really grab me at all and was easily the weakest of the whole season. It was exposition heavy and Uthred isn't exactly a likeable protagonist early on. He grows on you as the series progresses; as do all the characters, but at the same time having him as a lead character for the first few episodes was as testing, especially when he stuck by Alfred after everything that Alfred put him through for minimal returns. The Danes were the more lively characters of the bunch and Ragnar and Brida needed more screentime - in general, The Last Kingdom has a major problem with its female characters that never really got addressed to the point where Iseult's plot and everything that happens to her is laughably bad. Mildrith deserved a lot better; and her storyline made me feel sorry for her character and the luck of the draw that she got. Brida threatens to be an actual character at times but the show pushes her to the side after a few episodes to the point where she and Ragnar almost feel like extras by the end of Season 1.
The action scenes are brutal and intense and I like that this show packs a lot of story in its episodes - it's rare that there isn't an hour long episode that doesn't make the most of its runtime and there's enough plot in episode five alone to fill an entire season which is a refreshing change when Netflix just lets its episodes run and run. Episode 5 is easily the highlight of the entire first season. Odda the Younger was a really detestable antagonist; and Ubba was a more than credible threat for the Viking side; so the series did a good job at building up its characters and making you invested in Uthred's struggles even if I never warmed up to him that much over the course of the show.
Verdict: Better than Season 4! If not by much. Definitely not good enough to justify the constant self-referential jokes about Season 4 being bad when there's still a lot of episodes that aren't much better than Season 4 (I hate it when shows make jokes about their past seasons without being good seasons themselves so this automatically causes it to lose points). Season 5a was a lot stronger than Season 5b - and I felt like this show lost a LOT when Donald Glover left, and it's going to lose a lot next season with no more Jonathan Banks and John Oliver too. Feels like it's a show that gets worse the more self-indulgent it becomes and it's very much a case of Dan Harmon being caught up in his own hype.
I talked about Pierce and Troy's farewell episodes a few days ago - and they're the high-point of the series I think for me. It handles Troy's farewell brilliantly and manages to get Pierce perfectly even in an episode without Chevy Chase ever actually being there at all, Walton Goggins showing up was hilarious and Troy's send off in a mostly Britta-centric episode worked well and made the best use of a LeVar Burton cameo. Also, this is probably due to the fact that I'm watching this much later after the app-rating parody trend seems to have passed - but App Development and Condiments just felt there to me; other shows have tackled a similiar subject so much better. And there's yet another trap that the show falls into of tackling high-concept episodes - they're fine in their isolation but there's just too many of them and they just feel like once again, the show's doing them just because they can and hasn't really learned anything. They keep repeating concepts without trying something new, and even the season's best episode - Basic Intergluteal Numismatics, which I liked - isn't as good as the Law & Order parody that came before it.
I'm fine with the odd one or two concept episode but they're still really overbearing - the Dungeons & Dragons episode felt a bit too repetitive and just a weaker retread of what had come before; and the G.I. Joe episode just felt like a weaker version of the Christmas animated episode and it felt really hollow as a result (especially given the lazy copout of the It was all a dream ending, which feels like a direct retread of the Season 4 finale). And even given the choice as much as I loved Geothermal Escapism, I'd take the paintball episodes over it. Community used to be a show that was able to balance emotional stuff with the concept episodes and although it does it with Troy's departure, that's probably the only time it manages this season as even Jeff and Britta's on/off marriage proposal/breakup just feels flat and forced like they needed to get two characters together and - yes, they called out on the trope but they didn't do anything with it. Also: Abed realising that he's on a show... didn't work for me, as much as I love Abed's character.
The characters don't feel anywhere near close to what they were in the past especially by the end - in part due to how plot-driven the finale is, there's a few quiet moments but mostly they just feel there to react to the news that there's buried treasure and that's all we get. Most of the time they're all pretty much interchangable now to the point they all feel like shadows of their former selves. Also: Chang just becoming part of the group still feels odd especially given everything that happened in Season 3 - did they really forget about him essentially TRYING TO KILL THEM?, but I did like some of the material that Chang had this season. Even Season 4 had a better ending than Season 5 - at least they actually tried to give Jeff a character arc.
If anything - Season 5 feels like The Rise of Skywalker (although that's not to compare Season 4 to The Last Jedi because I loved TLJ and didn't click with Season 4). It feels very much like a course-correction, over-reactionary, safe and ambitionless when Community previously was daring, risk-taking and always trying out new things. And what's arguably made it worse is that this time it feels self-indulgent and self-righteous (see back to the constant gags about Season 4 being a 'blip'). When I started Season 3 I was worried it would go full Sherlock and jump the shark completely - and it looks like it has done. Now it's just - aside from the odd exception - stale and lifeless. Still: one more season to go! (If I ever do rewatches, unless Season 6 salvages it I'm sticking with Seasons 1-2).
Favourite episodes from the season:
Cooperative Polygraphy
Geothermal Escapism
Basic Intergluteal Numismatics
