The Last Frontier Just Fell Victim to TV’s ‘World Police’ Trope

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The first season of The Last Frontier is unfortunately repeating a familiar pattern seen in many police dramas. The show centers on U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick, stationed in a remote Alaskan town after a prisoner transport plane crashes. His complicated partnership with CIA Agent Sidney Scofield fuels the main storyline, and the series often sets up a contrast between the honest, down-to-earth locals and seemingly ruthless outsiders. However, with the exception of the main villain, the escaped convicts are largely depicted as dangerous and deserving of punishment, particularly when they harm Remnick’s colleagues.

The new series, presented as a drama about a good-hearted U.S. Marshal, deliberately avoids the complex characters that made a previous FX show successful. In the third episode, titled “Country as F*ck,” the Marshal demonstrates to a visiting agent that the people in his town are more valuable than criminals or outsiders. He only agrees to help her after she reveals her pursuit of a prisoner named Havlock is driven by personal reasons. As they track Havlock and uncover his motives, other escaped convicts cause trouble while attempting to flee the harsh wilderness. These events, combined with previous storylines, reinforce a common and often troubling television trope: that law enforcement deserve to survive, while criminals should not.

The Last Frontier Continues to Portray the Escaped Convicts as Brutal Savages

The first episode immediately established a strange dynamic when Frank and his team arrived at the plane crash. The convicts waiting there staged an ambush that didn’t really make sense – they lacked weapons and warm clothes, yet tried to attack their rescuers while hiding in the snow. They acted more like a mindless horde, seemingly just to give Frank and his team an excuse to kill them without hesitation. Kitty, Vivian, and the other convicts, excluding Havlock, were a bit more sensible, choosing to flee instead of fighting a hopeless battle.

Okay, so this episode really leaned into a frustratingly overused plot device – the supposedly reformed bad girl who’s secretly still dangerous. We see it again with Kitty and Vivian, and honestly, it felt predictable. It opens with a state trooper stumbling upon Vivian, gun pointed at her, holding Kitty captive in a bear trap. The trooper manages to free Kitty, but then pulls her gun on Vivian, demanding she drop it. Predictably, Vivian turns her back, giving Kitty the opening to knock her out with a rock. Later, after a bit of patching up, Kitty shockingly finishes off the trooper – suffocating her with plastic wrap. It felt completely unnecessary and frankly, brutal for the sake of being brutal. The writers even go out of their way to establish Vivian isn’t violent, yet she watches the murder happen with disturbing enjoyment. It just didn’t make sense and felt like a cheap way to shock the audience.

After the escape, residents armed themselves and joined the search, many wanting to confront the escaped convicts with force. Law enforcement officers are also focused on capturing Kitty and Vivian at all costs. When Frank argues against taking justice into their own hands, Scofield acknowledges his good intentions, though she finds his idealism a bit sweet. Later, when they find Kitty, Frank insists on taking her in alive and ensuring she receives medical attention. Despite fighting to survive, Kitty expresses a desire to die rather than be recaptured. Tragically, she gets her wish after threatening Frank with scissors, highlighting a fatal mistake by Frank and the officer who underestimated the desperation of a convict.

The Last Frontier’s Convicts are Portrayed as Worth Less Than the Cops’ Lives

In “American Dream,” Kitty consistently demonstrates a ruthless and unethical nature, confirming the negative opinions held by all but Frank. The show treats the lives of its characters with a similar indifference, with deaths occurring frequently and without much consequence. Unless a viewer has very strict moral standards, the killing of villains doesn’t make the deaths of heroes feel particularly meaningful. Frank’s insistence on capturing Kitty alive isn’t about justice or morality; it’s a misguided attempt to impose rules on someone who operates outside of them. The reason Kitty needs to be eliminated isn’t simply because she’s a murderer, but because she’s already a convicted criminal.

Throughout the investigation, Frank learns from colleagues that Vivian isn’t violent – she’s a skilled con artist and identity thief currently serving an 18-month sentence after receiving a lenient sentence from the judge. After Frank and Sidney capture her, they question her about both Kitty and Havlock, having found evidence she’d previously crossed paths with them. She agrees to answer, but only after negotiating her release. Initially, it seems she spared Kitty due to moral objections to violence, but it’s revealed this was all part of an elaborate scheme to steal $4.2 million. While Vivian ultimately helps Frank and Sidney, this final revelation confirms she’s just as dangerous and manipulative as the killer they’re pursuing.

The Last Frontier Embraces This Trope to Make the Big Bad Seem More Sinister

Dominic Cooper plays Havlock, the main villain in The Last Frontier, bringing a similar intensity to the role as he did in Preacher. The other prisoners are portrayed as relentlessly cruel, lacking empathy and common sense, which makes Havlock appear intelligent in contrast. So far, Havlock has managed to stay hidden because, unlike the other escapees from the plane, he doesn’t act aggressively or wildly around the people living in the Alaskan wilderness.

Havlock’s violent actions always have a reason behind them, like when he confronts people who are abusing an animal. Although he’s a dangerous criminal, he isn’t simply reckless or heartless like some of the other characters. The show seems to want us to view Havlock as a complex figure, almost as much of a protagonist as the heroes. To make this work, the other convicts are portrayed as truly evil and beyond redemption. As we see with Vivian, simply returning them to the system isn’t enough – they’ll likely just cause more harm.

While The Last Frontier doesn’t portray Havlock as a hero, it aims to show viewers there’s a reason behind his crimes. However, the show attempts to justify his actions by portraying the other inmates as unreasonable and suggesting that anyone who harms a ‘good’ person deserves to lose their own life. The series complicates our understanding of Frank and his community, but misses an opportunity to challenge the common, and often flawed, idea that criminals should be punished with death. Ultimately, the show doesn’t live up to its potential.

The Last Frontier debuts new episodes Thursdays on AppleTV+.

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2025-11-01 21:08