TV Review: 'The Last Frontier'

Jason Clarke stars in and executive produces an Alaska-set thriller where nothing is as it seems...

Original programming on the plethora of streaming services that are out there competing for eyeballs and subscriptions can too often feel derivative and predictable. Two episodes into The Last Frontier, which stars and is executive produced by Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), the show has blown past surface-level derivations (there’s a healthy Hannibal Lecter vibe going on in much of Episode One, and the frigid Alaska landscape might bring the Jodie Foster-starring fourth season of True Detective to mind) and presented so many narrative decoys, blind alleys, trap doors, and layers of misdirection that it remains a fun guessing game that constantly surprises.

The premise is fairly simple and instantly gripping: A plane carrying more than 50 federal convicts crashes in the wilderness twenty miles or so from Fairbanks. Among them is a mastermind named Havlock (sounds like “havoc,” and for good reason). He’s smart, swift, and so well-resourced you have to suspend all disbelief, but the jumps in story logic are worth it for the sheer entertainment value, especially when it starts to seem like Havlock might not have been the architect of the plane crash after all. It seems the CIA is looking to bury him, along with a secret program. But is there still more to the labyrinthine schemes?

(Photo: Haley Bennett and Jason Clarke in The Last Frontier. Provided)

You bet there is. To monitor the situation and take Havlock in (or out, if need be), the agency sends in a disgraced agent, Sidney Scofield (Haley Bennett), with instructions for her to win the trust of the local Supervising Deputy U.S. Marshal, Frank Remnick (Clarke). When Frank sees right through her, Scofield lets him in some of the quiet part: Someone, perhaps Havlock, has become a security risk for the agency, and perhaps the country as a whole. Her bosses suspect her of being in on it, and taking Havlock into custody could be her golden ticket to regaining the agency’s trust.

(Photo: Jason Clarke in The Last Frontier. Provided)

The series is full of tropes — a kidnapped wife, a demand for a prisoner exchange, a missing son — but only in order to confound expectations. Flashbacks fill in the backstory of Scofield’s relationship with Havlock and slowly start to paint a bigger picture. Where it’s all going is anyone’s guess — and that’s what makes this so much fun to watch, along with Frank’s homilies about community and tradition. Is Havlock pissed at the sorry state of the country these days? Is that what makes him so ruthless? Well, so is Frank… and Havlock is perfectly willing to trade on those shared sentiments for reasons of his own. Havlock “finds vulnerabilities,” Scofield warns, “and exploits them.” But how far can Frank trust Scofield? Just who is the bad guy, and what lengths will Frank have to go to in order to protect his town and his family, not just from whatever pissing match is going on between the CIA and their onetime golden boy but also from a bunch of desperate escapees ranging around in the snowy woods and willing steal, kidnap, and steal in order not to be taken into custody?

The Last Frontier premieres these two episodes on Oct. 10, with new episodes dropping weekly into December. So far, it’s a hell of a ride.