Into the Wild Frontier

Excellent watchable and educational.

Historians narrate events in American History as factually as you've ever thought you already knew.

Dramatizations are either SNL type parodies of an actual dramatization, or someone deliberately made them cheesy enough to see where the line is with subtle comedy.

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'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.

While the majority of the series seems to be really well-developed, the producers lost my respect when I see Shoshone Indians meeting Lewis and Clark with double-rigged Western Saddles and metal curb bits in their horses mouths. If you are aiming for authenticity, you'd better go all the way. Even in the John Colter episode, they are using saddles that hadn't been developed yet for the next 20 years, and those brand-spanking new saddles on their horses were a far cry from the big heavy square-skirted saddles that the Texas cowpunchers were using. My husband now refuses to even watch the series, so I'm having to sneak in an episode when I can. :/

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.