Apple TV+ has shifted its focus to prestige television in recent years. Its series frequently outperform its original film slate, with hits like Slow Horses, Silo, Pachinko, The Studio, and Masters of the Air. Sometimes, you have to give the people what they want—like The Last Frontier, a man-against-the-elements crime drama from the creators of The Blacklist.
The Last Frontier, despite its genre trappings, proves to be an unexpectedly exciting and suspenseful thriller led by the ever-reliable Jason Clarke and delivering on every front.
What is Apple TV+’s The Last Frontier about?
The story follows U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick (Clarke), who oversees the barren Alaskan wilderness. He and his wife, Sarah (Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s Simone Kessell), are finally beginning to rebuild their lives after the death of their daughter. This tragedy has strained their family, including their teenage son, Luke (played by For All Mankind‘s Tait Blum).
Frank leads a team whose primary duty in the region is tracking down the occasional fugitive hiding out in the land of the midnight sun. However, things take a deadly turn when a prisoner transport plane crashes in the middle of the snowy, frigid frontier. Onboard are some of the country’s most dangerous inmates—men and women of all backgrounds—each driven by violent, murderous impulses.
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Unaware of the plane’s deadly cargo, Frank and his team walk into an ambush when they arrive at the crash site. One of the prisoners, responsible for causing the crash, escapes into the wilderness, forcing Frank into an uneasy alliance with a shady CIA agent (The Luckiest Man in the World’s Haley Bennett) as the hunt begins—before it’s too late.
Apple TV+’s The Last Frontier Review
The Last Frontier has a deep bench of actors dedicated to prisoners, with a cast including Johnny Knoxville, Rusty Schwimmer, and Clifton Collins Jr. The series follows a bit of a network procedural, sometimes dedicating episodes to tracking prisoners who are still missing and on the move. If you watched the trailer, you know who most of the series is centered on.
The opening episodes revolve around the mystery of the main villain, so to avoid spoilers, we won’t mention it here. The creators need to perform an effective “bearding” that makes the reveal genuinely satisfying. That being said, any seasoned film or streaming buff may spot a familiar face. In turn, guessing a likely suspect before the plot twist lands.
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The series comes from Jon Bokenkamp, creator of one of the few true network mega-hits of the past twenty years: The Blacklist. He employs a similar formula here, emphasizing character, structure, and timing while introducing a new villain every episode or two against the backdrop of a larger mythology. What elevates it further are the sharp, timely reveals delivered with a cutthroat pace.
Is Apple TV+’s The Last Frontier worth watching?
I will say that, being an Apple TV+ series, the streamer relies on each series running at least ten episodes to pad out its limited library. As a result, the series does suffer from filler, with overstretched storylines that could have been trimmed. At times, it also strains credibility. For example, the survivals and contrived plot devices that elevate certain characters feel forced.
However, The Last Frontier is worth watching if you turn your analytical mind off and give in to the genre tropes. It helps when an actor like Jason Clarke, who excels at portraying an everyman with grit in any role, elevates the material. Along with antagonistic tension with the main villain, Clarke’s turn carries a duality that keeps the audience invested and the series more compelling than it might otherwise be.
You can watch The Last Frontier on Apple TV+ streaming on October 10th, with episodes dropping each week up until the finale on December 5th!
