Plaguing the screen alongside Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus and Ted Lasso on Apple TV is The Last Frontier. Among many other shows found on the streaming service, The Last Frontier poorly lands a narrative or tonal direction, much like the airplane featured in the first episode.
Starring Jason Clarke and Haley Bennett, The Last Frontier makes a feeble attempt to pull you in at cruising altitude before strapping you in for a wild ride. Promising the allure of an intense drama, full of espionage, political intrigue, and good old fashion corruption. Sadly for this 2025 release, the momentum of the show does not maintain cruising altitude for long.
When a lone U.S. marshal’s jurisdiction is turned upside down after a prison transport plane crashes in the remote wilderness, setting free dozens of violent inmates, he begins to suspect the crash was not an accident.
Apple TV
While that’s how Apple TV would describe their recent creation, I’d offer up a few other ways to summarize the story. I’ll approach this summary in a way easy for fans of this show to understand.
- Bland
- Uninspired
- Disoriented
- Tasteless
In an attempt to avoid yucking someone’s yum, I merely communicate this information with you in this way since the show assumes your brain is only processing at half capacity as the characters have to rehash the same details of the show, OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Crushing your skull with how the “CIA is involved” and that Remnick (Jason Clarke) is a downright, true grit hero among this Alaskan town.
Above all else, a prison transport has crashed, releasing a variety of villains upon the local Alaskan community. The show relies heavily on introducing a new criminal from the transport to move the story forward. There’s a conscious effort to delve into what the “CIA is up to” only to fall back onto the introduction of a classic who’s who of the criminal underworld.
The writing and plot of this show remains all over the place from episode to episode, failing to to maintain momentum at any point during an episode, much less throughout the entire season. An attempt is made to build up Frank’s credibility and how he “always does the right thing”, especially for his small Alaskan town which saved him from the thralls of Chicago.
This show wants to be morally ambiguous so badly. Some episodes YEARN for it. Oh, will the protagonists choose the well-being of the town over the pursuit of a known CIA enemy? Luckily for us, no difficult decisions are ever made. Every plot point manages to resolve itself sweetly, wrapped up in a nice package for all the characters. The Last Frontier started with killing off what seemed like an important character, which caused some intrigue. That was short lived, and the man is really never mentioned again.
There’s a moment midway through the show where a convict kills a police officer. This happens often, the criminals continue to get an upper-hand on the locals. I’ll come back to this in a moment. That specific criminal is eventually chased and caught, falling into a nearby snowdrift. Frank calls into question what is inferred. The other deputies with him are looking to execute this criminal, earn revenge on their fallen comrade. Of course, Frank fights back against this idea, that no one even suggested. There’s some dialogue about how he needs to bring her in, and that she needs to face justice. Ironically enough, they transport her to the bed of a truck without putting handcuffs on her. While Sidney and Frank chat, the criminal makes a move to stab the king of Alaska himself. Unfortunately for the audience, Frank is saved with the quick reaction of Sidney, gunning the criminal down without hesitation.
Ice, sled dogs, and heaps of snow can be found throughout the hellscape of Alaska, and the lack of ability and preparedness to such an event is understandable. Where I have an issue with this show is, the authorities eventually call for backup, and lots of it. We’re several episodes deep into this show and the bad guys are still pulling a fast one on the local authorities by calling in a car crash, only to jump the EMTs who arrive shortly after. Why would the EMTs be driving around without any police escort? This is episode six.
These criminals are of course played out to be the worst of the worst. Horrible individuals with a bunch of unique talents. One of them crashes through the front gate of a military facility by driving a snowplow through it. This is AFTER Frank and friends warn the military of action in the area. You’re going to tell me that this military installation is only being protected by one man, who appears to be the most unprepared soldier to ever exist?
SPOILERS AHEAD
The time I’ve invested into this show is quickly crossing over into sunk-cost fallacy territory, with episode nine flashing upon my screen. Possibly the most egregious narrative decision of this show falls upon having Scofield turn “evil” once again. Attempting to portray this as some grand scheme the show’s been building the entire time, you’re meant to be caught in surprise, maybe even aghast at such a thought! You’re meaning to tell me that the character “we” suspected of having a hand in all of this, actually does? That’s outrageous, how could the writers have snuck this one by us, by me? The problem lies in the fact that the show’s development absolutely doesn’t sell this idea.
At what point in the show did Scofield perform a redemptive act to actually build a case for how she’s changed? There’s been no point during this entire show that her actions fortified the idea that she was a part of the “good” team. From the moment the audience was provided with the information that Scofield and Havlock were romantically intertwined, you had to know there was more to this story than what was originally portrayed.
If you’ve made it this far, I can only assume you’ve also invested some of your well-deserved free time to watching this show. Apple TV so desperately wanted an action-filled show that pinned the little guy of Alaska versus the big government yet all they could muster up was some diabolical narrative choices. (I’m looking at you, episode nine. You can’t just let a guard walk into the cell with Havlock and let him out, how ridiculous.) There’s plenty of other excellent television out there to watch. My recent favorite was HBO’s Task. You should be watching Task instead of this silly cop show out on the frozen tundra.
Geoff W - A Space To Myself 