One of the better series that has come out in recent years. Uthred, no relation, starts out kind of whiny but matures and develops. Looking forward to the next season. I got pretty burned out after the 3rd season of Vikings so this was a nice change.
As someone who enjoys historical fiction, especially Bernard Cornwell and this particular series, I was extremely put off by the Netflix adaptation. It is your typical Netflix product-- the source material has been prolapsed, stretched, and torn to encompass the broadest possible audience. What remains is shredded and barely recognizable.
Perhaps I'm negatively biased as this series was one of my favorites, and the fact that the recreation is as trite as it is shallow really bummed me out. I suppose if you're the type of person who can enjoy 20 episodes of Netflix's low-budget Marvel recreations they throw up every six months you might really dig this one too.
If you like reading action-oriented historical fiction I strongly suggest giving the books a chance first.
I liked the show a lot. It's clearly not a perfect portrayal of England back them but most events follow real events, and I understand it to have great representations of what life was truly like back then. I've watched it alongside a site that briefly explains what is and is not true about the series, which helps define what's real and not.
What I found really interesting is their portrayals of religion and divine acts; nothing beyond reality, but it's nice to have a show that touches on it heavily without diverging into the low fantasy genre.
Of course the series doesn't compare to the books, and I didn't like it at first, but the series grew on me over time. Reasonably well done I thought.
If you like the series but haven't read the books: Do so. If you didn't like the series and haven't read the books: Read Them.
I also highly recommend his Merlin and Stonehenge series. On the subject of Bernard Cornwell and sub-par TV production. I HIGHLY recommend the Sharpe books.
Bernard Cornwell has a fantastic ability to interweave fictional stories (Sharpe, Uthred, Merlin, Etc) into very accurate historical settings using real world settings and historical findings.
I will typically read his books on my kindle with Wikipedia open on my iPad and whilst I go along read up on the various places and people referenced throughout the books.
His only flaw is perhaps his English centric viewpoint on historical events (Sharpe).
