The Last Frontier Review: Jason Clarke Shines In An Uneven Apple TV+ Series

Apple TV+'s "The Last Frontier" was brought to the screen by the creator of "The Blacklist," which ran on NBC for 10 seasons. "The Blacklist" focused on the FBI and their dealings with a man on the FBI's Most Wanted list and former government agent, Red Reddington (James Spader). "The Last Frontier" has a similar focus on government agents, albeit this time, it's the CIA, so there's some similarity between the two shows.

In other ways, though, "The Last Frontier" leans on other properties. For example, 1997's "Con Air" is a big influence, as the plot leaps into action because of the crash of a prisoner transport plane. It also takes cues from the 1993 movie "The Fugitive" and has elements of the first couple of seasons of "24" in it, especially in the first few episodes. But this all comes together and makes "The Last Frontier" its own thing.

The show starts with a plane crashing in the middle of nowhere. The crash is closest to the town of Fairbanks, Alaska, and the fire chief wants the lone U.S. Marshall there, Frank Remnick (Jason Clarke), to get an idea of why there's smoke coming from the rugged area to their North. He goes to investigate and quickly finds a plane on the ground and all hell breaking loose around him, as all the prisoners that have managed to survive the crash attack him and his deputies.

Frank manages to get away and call in more of his troopers, but by then the remaining prisoners have all taken off and spread out to various places around Fairbanks. Frank has to track down the remaining prisoners one by one, plus he has to deal with a woman, Sidney Scofield (Haley Bennett), from the CIA. Why? Well, it turns out there was a very important prisoner on that plane, and she has been assigned to bring him in no matter what it takes.

While further details would get us into spoiler territory, suffice it to say that this is a stew of good marshalls, bad inmates, and questionable CIA operatives, and the pilot makes quite a case for sticking with all of them.

"The Last Frontier," for most of its run, is a rip-roaring good time, full of action and fascinating stories of what the various prisoners do to try to find their way to freedom. For the bulk of its 10 episodes, the show has a strict format: the A plot is about Frank and the various people that are helping him track down and find one or more of the prisoners, and the B plot is about something the CIA's rogue operative is doing. The format, while familiar, works well in this context.

Plus, it has the unique backdrop of Alaska. The unforgiving state is an unconventional place to put a show like this but it works well, and the production design and cinematography do one hell of a job capturing the rough and tumble nature of the place. In addition, it gives the production an excuse to use all sorts of transportation, from the traditional cars and planes to the more unconventional snowmobiles and sled dogs. All of these are used to crash, smash, and race across the Arctic, and it gives the show all sorts of fascinating ways to stage action sequences.

Most of all, though, the show wouldn't work without committed performances. Jason Clarke's performance as a by-the-books marshall who has been compromised in the past is exceptional, grounded, and serious. He's a large part of why you believe what's happening, even as it gets more ludicrous. Haley Bennett, Dominic Cooper as a character named Levi Hartmann, and Alfre Woodard as Bradford, are also good as CIA operatives up against impossible odds (although the British Cooper's American accent is shaky). And Simone Kessell is wonderful as Frank's stoic yet deeply feeling wife, Sarah, along with various other individuals playing the prisoners featured in an episode or two.

While most of "The Last Frontier" Season 1 is fantastic, what prevents me from giving it a higher score comes down to the last three episodes. There are various things I can nitpick before then, such as a certain carelessness in some of the filmmaking — when the Remnicks say they're taking their son, Luke (Tait Blum), to the hospital and end up at home, for example — but the last three episodes go from good to bad fairly quickly — especially the last two, which could have been shortened substantially.

These episodes largely focus on an unforeseen love story between two major characters and the ultimate fallout from it. While I can't tell you who they are, I can tell you that their love story doesn't make a lot of sense. Neither character sells the fact that they're in love with the other, and so their devotion to one another doesn't make a lot of sense — especially his devotion to her, which is supposed to power the show to another season. Of course, a lot of that is because of the twisty-turny nature of this show, so you could blame the writing as much as the actors.

That's ultimately the problem with and the triumph of "The Last Frontier." You want to know the answers to questions that the show is quick to point out but slow to answer. So when Frank hits on one of the solutions, it's great. But it also is hard to hold a show with so many secrets like this together, and that's part of its downfall. Ultimately, I think it scores more than it fails, but your mileage may vary depending on your tolerance for lies and deceit.

The first two episodes of "The Last Frontier" hit Apple TV+ on October 10. New episodes premiere weekly after that until December 5.