The Last Frontier Review: Jason Clarke Powers a Pulse-Pounding Thriller From the Director of Extraction

Sometimes a show walks up with a premise you swear you have seen a dozen times, then proceeds to win you over by sheer execution. Apple TV+ has one of those with 'The Last Frontier' — familiar on paper, but put together with enough talent and momentum to make it a legit binge.

The setup

Frank Remnick (Jason Clarke) is the only U.S. marshal covering a chunk of Alaska so empty it feels like the edge of the map. He is trying to ease into the next phase of life with his wife, Sarah (Simone Kessell), when a prisoner transport jet goes down in the middle of nowhere. Dozens of inmates scatter into the wilderness, and one of them — a meticulous operator named Havlock — looks like he engineered the crash to break free.

Enter Sidney Scofield (Haley Bennett), sent by CIA higher-up Jack Bradford (Alfre Woodard). She knows exactly how dangerous Havlock is, and she is not here to make friends. Scofield teams with Frank to round up the escapees and, more urgently, to track Havlock, whose plan clearly stretches beyond a simple getaway. As the bodies drop and the trail winds through the snow, Frank starts to suspect the crash was just step one in something bigger and uglier.

How it plays

The season runs ten hour-long episodes and hits the ground hard. The premiere is a full-throttle kickoff, and the show basically refuses to downshift from there. Each chapter piles on developments and ends with a tidy cliffhanger that nudges you into the next one. The structure splits the focus: Frank and Sidney ticking off a rogues gallery of escapees while the longer cat-and-mouse game with Havlock tightens. The more you learn about Havlock’s actual goals, the more the dynamic between him and Frank evolves — with Sidney stuck in that uncomfortable space between doing things by the book and stopping a monster at all costs.

Who is involved (and why that matters)

• Leads: Jason Clarke anchors as Frank Remnick; Haley Bennett plays CIA agent Sidney Scofield; Dominic Cooper is part of the central trio.
• Frank’s family: Simone Kessell is Sarah, Frank’s wife, grounded and believable amid the chaos.
• Agency side: Alfre Woodard is Jack Bradford, the CIA figure who dispatches Sidney.
• Among the escapees and locals: Johnny Knoxville, Clifton Collins Jr., Rusty Schwimmer, Gus Birney, Dallas Goldtooth, and Tait Blum — a strong mix of familiar faces that keeps each manhunt feeling distinct.
• Showrunners and writers: Jon Bokenkamp and Richard D'Ovidio created the series and wrote the first episode and the finale. The rest of the season comes from Melissa Glenn, Albert Kim, Kelli Johnson, Glenn Kessler, Akela Cooper, and Ryan Cruise. Bokenkamp and D'Ovidio previously teamed on The Blacklist, The Blacklist: Redemption, and the 2013 feature The Call, which explains the clean blend of pulpy plotting and propulsive pacing here.
• Directors: Sam Hargrave (Extraction and Extraction 2) directs episodes 1 and 3; John Curran takes four episodes; Jessica Lowrey handles two; Dennie Gordon directs two. Hargrave’s touch is most obvious in the premiere’s bruising fight sequence and a ripper of a helicopter set-piece in episode 3.

Does it deliver?

Pretty much. The show feels like a big-screen thriller stretched across a season — part procedural, part mystery, done with feature-scale muscle. Jason Clarke, who has spent a lot of his career playing hard-edged and outright villainous roles, makes a sturdy lead here as a dad lugging around a past he does not want to unpack. He plays nicely off Simone Kessell, who avoids the usual thankless spouse tropes. Clarke and Bennett have worked together before (2020’s 'The Devil All the Time'), and that familiarity helps sell their reluctant-partner chemistry as they learn where the other is strong, where they are vulnerable, and how to survive the middle ground between them and Havlock.

The Alaska setting is a cheat code in the best way — the isolation and terrain make even standard chase-and-capture beats feel tense and fresh. Are there a few forehead-slapping character decisions? Yep. But they are speed bumps, not roadblocks. On balance, this is one of the more entertaining and straight-up thrilling series this year.

Release and the road ahead

'The Last Frontier' premieres with two episodes on October 10 on Apple TV+, then rolls out weekly. In a world where budgets are brutal and nothing is guaranteed, I hope Apple’s deep pockets mean we get another run. If I am nitpicking, I would have happily taken more episodes directed by Sam Hargrave, but the season still finds a sweet spot between action and character drama.

Bottom line: familiar template, sharp execution, and enough momentum to keep you locked in. Call it a very solid 7 out of 10.