Barkskins

If you followed Jamestown, Frontier and similar series you will enjoy this one, too. Thewlis, Horn, Wilmot, Barnard and co-actors give a good performance; let the story unfold itself, I like to have a glimpse of life in the New World during these days.

Fantastic historical drama. Fascinating characters, beautiful settings, visceral action sequences - terrible abrupt ending. Like screeching tires abrupt. I kept thinking maybe there was another episode or two... maybe a second half of the season coming later? Nope. Seems like that was it. I know it was adapted from a much longer novel, but the amount of unresolved plot was distressing. If this is all there is, with no further seasons/episodes, I will leave with a horrible taste in my mouth.

I never read the source novel by Annie Proulx, and maybe that's an advantage, but I found the first two episodes to be enthralling. It's as if you have been inserted into a foreign society and you are trying to figure out the norms and the rules that govern.

The world of Wobik, "New France", and its surroundings feel authentic. An uneasy and changeable peace exists between the various cultures in the area, and justice is usually negotiated at the end of a knife. It's a look at one of the antecedents of modern society. Within this grimy province lie dreams of homesteads, cities, and even empires.

The acting is strong and the sets evoke the ethos of a burgeoning society, rising out of the mud and darkness.

It helps to pay close attention to the character's names so as not to be confused in the first episode. But like the best historically-based narratives, it is worth the effort.

Barkskins is set during one of my favorite periods of Canadian and American history. The series is populated with a number of unusual but sharply drawn characters driven by diverse set of motives as only Annie Proulx could write them. Entertaining and highly educational, Barkskins paints a detailed portrait of an important and interesting period of Western history.

A little hard to keep the characters straight at first but that clears up quickly. This show gives a pretty authentic look at how people lived and how brutal their lives were. It also takes a swipe at racism towards Indigenous people which is more than most historical entertainment does. Europeans were every bit as brutal and doublecrossing as portrayed.