Jason Clarke has been a busy man in 2025. He’ll be starring in Netflix’s soon-to-be-released House of Dynamite and Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family next week. But before fans get a hold of either of those projects, they can see him in the latest thriller on Apple TV+, The Last Frontier.
Apple’s Con-Air for television, The Last Frontier follows a U.S. Marshal named Frank Remnick (Jason Clarke), a hometown hero of sorts who went away to the lower 48 but returned home to their remote part of Alaska. His usual small-town schedule was interrupted when a prison transport plane crashed near their town, signaling involvement from other government agencies. When CIA agent Sidney Scofield (Haley Bennett) arrives on the scene, there’s an immediate clash in power and personality. With every second counting, the powers that be must choose what takes priority: the residents of their small town outside of Fairbanks or the prisoners.
The series starts on an incredible high. With the trailer building up enough suspense to demand attention, the first episode lives up to the hype, bringing excitement and explosions. Around the second or third episode, you may start to feel misled. Is this an action-packed thrill ride like the trailer suggests, or is this a wannabe psychological thriller?
Unfortunately, the series starts too high, in the sense that there was no crescendo. There are a large number of inmates who survived the inevitable crash, and the entire series should’ve been focused on them. Instead, as each episode passes, the focus slowly shifts to the torrid relationship between Scofield and Remnick. This doesn’t fare well as Scofield is a liar and Remnick is too trusting. It got to the point where anytime they were together, you’d expect anything she said to be false. Also, the main inmate who caused a manhunt, Havlock, was not cast well. He wasn’t sinister, scary, or caused any type of fear or suspicion.
On top of all the responsibilities that come with being a U.S. Marshal, Remnick also has to manage problems at home. His irresponsible son Luke (Tait Blum) is too busy trying to impress his girlfriend Kira (Kya Rose) to notice the threat to their town. Then, wife Sarah (Simone Kessell) makes a string of poor decisions while struggling internally. With her son missing and her husband working 24/7, she’s left to manage her unit at the hospital.
The writing was exceptional. There weren’t any holes in the plot, the dialogue was solid, and enough backstory was given to understand the main characters. The mystery and plot twists landed perfectly with each episode. The story was great, but the shift in focus from prisoners to personnel is more than likely going to lose audiences.
Aside from the extremely flat casting of Havlock (revealing the actor would be a spoiler), the rest of the actors were great. Jason Clarke has always been a favorite, and he was a believable U.S. Marshal. I was shocked to see Johnny Knoxville as an antagonist, but the role fit him nicely. I’d be shocked if he didn’t get typecast after this to feature as a villain. The indigenous love was there too, with Dallas Goldtooth and Theresa Cutknife giving excellent performances. Alfre Woodard didn’t have the best ending (as the whole series is in free fall by that point), but for the first eight episodes, she was great.
The Last Frontier gets a 6 out of 10. This is a project that would’ve been better received as a film. A 10-episode season left too much time for mistakes to happen. Haley Bennett was completely unlikable from start to finish, and with each passing episode, her presence only exacerbated an already worn-down onscreen existence. I should’ve known the out-of-place theme song was an indicator that I wouldn’t get what I expected. The series starts at a “9.5” and slumps to a “6” midway through the season. I’ll let you be the judge of the CGI. This could’ve easily been the best series on Apple TV+, but instead of focusing on the inmates and making things go boom, they tried to get too psychological and intellectual with characters that didn’t fit the bill (and were boring).
The Last Frontier premieres its first two episodes today on Apple TV+, followed by new episodes every Friday through December 5.
-Jon Jones
Photos: Courtesy of Apple TV+
Genre: Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 10 Episodes | 1 hr
Trailer: Watch
U.S. Release Date: October 10, 2025