Klondike

I watched this mini series for entertainment. If that is your purpose - enjoy!! The scenery is spectacular,the photography is beautiful, the acting is solid and the story is ENTERTAINING (somewhat melodramatic)!!! I thought the cast was excellent.

Much of the criticism that comes from the other reviewers seems to stem from the lack of realism. I have always felt that the hallmark of a good television show or movie is the ability to suspend disbelief. There are dramatic elements to this series that stretch the imagination BUT it is a story not a documentary. If you want it to be absolutely realistic don't watch it. I LOVED IT!!!!!

I watched it all and didn't mind it,know some of the producers who do a good job productionwise. There are errors, lots of them, like wolves chasing after humans, very rare. Also mounties, or North West Mounted Police were not against native Indians like American cavalry, in fact they were incorporated with the intention of keeping American whiskey traders in Montana.

There was not a lot of killing as portrayed here (stolen from Deadwood), in fact very little as the Mounties kept it clean. The idea of the Indians being hung is a little far fetched also. As with all things like this, the mounties didn't allow any murders, etc. Remember, this is Canada, not California gold rush or Black Hills gold rush where killing and lawbreaking was the norm. Women couldn't get into a beer parlour in 1969 without a male escort. Yeah, beer PARLOUR, not bar.

In truth, Klondike was not even close to Deadwood in crime. Eh? But anyways, a nice 3 episodes, not very true, but what the heck, neither was The Butler.

My wife and I were frustrated by all the factors other reviewers have pointed out...the "Hollywoodization" of the costuming and make up of the women, the inclusion of modern issues, race, anti Jewish, women's suffrage. The implausibility of the wolf attack, river near-drowning, etc.. Stupid mistakes historically I don't think cigarettes were invented until the early 1900's, as well as the events mentioned by others. It always surprises and annoys me when otherwise great production values are undercut with stupid and/or lazy mistakes.

All that being said, we did enjoy the production...great scenery and sets, the story line was interesting even though it was TV/movie formula with dark lighting and poor sound. Visually it was interesting...the series could easily have been shortened by a couple hours. I turned on the Captions which made the dialog easy to follow, and I enjoyed a number of quotes which, I'd love to be able to remember. They weren't authentic to the times I'm sure, but were little gems.

In conclusion, we put our critiques aside and watched the series and enjoyed it for what is was, not what it could have been.

Klondike is one of those series I picked up because it looks fascinating, with a somewhat unorthodox setting. With gold digging as the historical background, you assume that this is what the series will also be about mostly - aside from all the frauds and the harsh climate. Alas, everything seems to be addressed only once throughout the series, because there isn't time to remind the viewer what's so perilous about the environment, and what's at stake. Instead the show aims to be a classical Western story featuring cold weather.

The gold digging itself is also left completely out of the story. While I wouldn't want to watch a 6 hour series about digging gold, it's striking that a 20 page chapter of "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" is more detailed in the process of extracting gold, than a 6 hour series produced by Discovery. At times it's easy to forget that the show is even taking place in Klondike, and not just any saloon in Santa Fe.

Despite a good crew of actors, the characters are one-dimensional and there is little room for any character development. Although some of the characters undergo transitions, there's no development - they simply go from A to B while not giving the viewer any credible reason for their transition. The same goes for the relationships between the characters. Some characters that take up a lot of screen time are even completely redundant, and a waste of the precious time of a 6 episode mini-series. I can think of at least two subplots, without which the show would have lost virtually nothing, while gaining both time and coherence.

"Klondike" bit off more than it could chew. A mini-series of 6 episodes is not equipped to deal with profound questions on the true value of gold, while also dealing with the position of females, the suppression of Native Americans, the presence/absence of hope and God, and so on.

This series could and should have been a lot better.

Man, six interminable hours! Tons of commercials. And, for what? Something that would've been much better in a two-hour documentary.

Discovery has done well with other projects, like "The Challenger Disaster" with William Hurt. But, they definitely chose the wrong people to helm this project! This whole thing is like a watered-down version of "Deadwood," or something like that. Just lots of ugliness with no real point. Tim Roth is, by far, the chief irritant here. He's doing his thousandth (or so!) portrayal of the sociopath who gets off on tormenting people before killing them.

Even though it takes pretty much forever to get there, the synopsis of this miniseries is: hard-working people mine for gold, and scumbags kill them off to get their gold. That's it! The script endlessly meanders and has no narrative thrust. The direction is uninspired. The cinematography is muddy. The score seems disassociated from the goings on.

In short, please skip it! (Unless this reaches you too late. Sorry 'bout that!)

** (2 Out of 10 Stars)