Into the Wild Frontier

"Into The Wild Frontier" is a fantastic show. The cinematography is excellent with the beautiful wilderness background. Finally, a good series with historical accounts. Truth is better than fiction. I don't have faith of it continuing with such little information concerning it's future. It was on one minute and then GONE with no advertising for more episodes. Not good at all with the marketing.

I've only seen one episode, the one in which a Daniel Boone daughter was captured while canoeing. I thought it was excellent.

A mixed review a year ago included: "But I do wonder where the Indians, living in the middle of nowhere, with little or no contact with white men, get all those rifles, gun power, musket balls and saddles."

Uh, well, it's called the Fur Trade. By the early 1800s, the locals had been trading with Europeans for over 300 years. Muskets, rifles, lead, powder, silver ornaments, beads from Italy, vermilion from China, fabric from India, and blankets & Sheffield knives from England. I don't know what bits & saddles are right for Blackfeet & Shoshone, but know that Spanish bits were steel, as far back as Coronado.

I've enjoyed watching the first a few episodes. Good stories, well acted. But I do wonder where the Indians, living in middle of nowhere, with little to no contact with white men, get all those rifles., gun power, musket balls and saddles. Secondly, many of their horses bridles have modern steel bits. One scene had two horses wearing halters which appeared to be made of modern braded nylon. There has been a lot of attention paid to story detail so I was surprised to see these pretty obvious errors.

Good stories. We need more programs like this showing history, not just "shoot em up" Hollywood westerns.

I find it funny how the director/producer equipped all natives with flintlock rifles. When (Ep4) Lewis/Clark reach Idaho and the Shoshone tribe how is it that 80% of the tribe meeting the expedition already had rifles in hand? It's 1805! They were fat and few between at that point in our history, especially in the mountainous northwest. Civilians traveling in that area didn't happen until pioneers started going west in the 1830's-1840's.

I found it interesting that Jim Bridger (Ep2) actually left a man behind to die even after he himself had to traverse the wild naked after being tortured by the Blackfeet and reach other trappers/traders of his main group.

I enjoyed the historical re-enactments as well as the discussions by historians and university professors. A miniseries on INSP that is much better than anything on cable or network TV, it depicts real people in the American west and is both entertaining and educational. Sad that comic book heroes are glorified on TV instead of these actual American heroes who played a large part in civilizing the American West. I grew up watching westerns on TV and the shows on now and the movies produced by Hollywood are mostly dreadful.

I'd love to see more shows like this one - good acting by young attractive unknown actors and a well done series.