La signora del West

While I was not a faithful devotee of the series, I tuned in whenever the opportunity presented itself and invariably enjoyed the stories revolving around a frontier town's lady doctor. I view the program strictly as entertainment, and missed too many episodes to comment accurately on any social issues depicted or historical liberties taken. However, I will note that the show does justifiably denounce racism and tends to cast native people in a sympathetic light.

Set just after the Civil War, the series portrays the ongoing story of a lovely young Boston doctor, Michaela Quinn, who following the death of her own physician father, moves to the frontier town of Colorado Springs. There Dr. Mike sets up her medical practice, to the consternation of those upset at the novel prospect of a female physician. Byron Sully, a rugged mountain man (and friend to the Cheyanne) helps her adjust to frontier life, and naturally the pair develop a mutual attraction. She is aided by a midwife, Charlotte Cooper, who on her deathbed following a snake bike, places her three children (Colleen, Brian, and the older Matthew) in Dr. Mike's care. Thus the doctor takes upon herself the responsibility of three adopted children. Later Dr. Mike marries Sully and they have a baby of their own, little Katie, to add to their previously existing foster family.

The beautiful British actress, Jane Seymour, is radiant, appealing, and sympathetic as the frontier doctor. Dr. Quinn certainly displays an admirable strength of wit and character, tackling both a challenging career and an instant family in this rugged pioneer setting. Yet she also reveals a touching vulnerability. The chemistry is electric between her and Sully (charismatically played by actor Joe Lando) and that factor is probably responsible for much of the show's success. On the whole, it's an engaging series and when it first aired, proved from my perspective superior to much of that era's TV programming.

I am really taken aback that the only comment I see so far for this excellent show is entirely negative and dismissive. I feel compelled to set the record straight. The commentator dismisses the show for, among other things, anachronistic historical inaccuracy, as well as politically correct emotional sterility.

That is ridiculous. This was a wonderful show. The episodes were certainly not all the same. It dealt with many issues that are politically and socially relevant. It presented emotionally gripping drama, with different points of view, especially including compassionate consideration of the plight of native American people. It reminded me very much of the show Kung Fu, which is set during the same period in American history, the 1870s, and also had similar themes of pacifism, labor militancy, feminism, the plight of native Americans as well as the Chinese immigrants. (In actuality, David Carradine himself, a good friend of the Director and Seymour's husband, James Keatch (brother to Stacy Keatch, who appeared in one episode as President Ulysses Grant), appears in one of the episodes. The Keatches and the Carradines go back at least to the time when both families did the movie on the Younger-James gang.)

This show won an AWARD from the Smithosonian institution, hardly a left-wing bastion of political correctness, for its portrayal of the massacre of the Cheyenne at Washita. Its portrayal of the history of the persecution and genocide of the native Americans, by such notorious b******s as Chivington and Custer, was meticulously researched. Its show on Walt Whitman is a case in point as a study of actual attitudes, scientific as well as popular, toward homosexuality, during this period.

The show presented well the CENTRAL cultural conflict in American history, as portrayed by such authors as Leslie Fiedling (LOVE AND DEATH IN THE AMERICAN NOVEL) and Richard Slotkin (RESURRECTION THROUGH VIOLENCE): between the murderous drive to conquer nature and exterminate the "Reds," vs. those, like Dr. Quinn, Sully, and their family, who seek, then as now, to make peace with their fellow human beings and the natural environment.

The show emphasized the value of an emotionally, politically, and socially complex community, with its racial and ethnic hierarchies which Doctor Quinn continually challenged, and its emotional intimacies among men and women. Absolutely historically accurate!

Last but certainly not least, the romantic aspects of the show: the growing romance between Dr. Quinn and Byron Sully, her adopted son Matthew and first Ingrid, and then the prostitute (what was her name?), and between her daughter. Caroline, and the Doctor, Andrew, were great: as was the portrayal of Matthew's coming of age as first the non-violent sheriff of the town, and then as a budding attorney.

Please, if you have never seen this show before, do not be dissuaded by the previous commentator. Check it out-you'll be doing yourself a big favor. This is one of the best shows ever made for television!

Despite being such a simple series, It is probably one of the best for that reason. The 'EastEnders' of nowadays is becoming way too stereotypical and predictable that this masterpiece of a series has a somewhat timelessness to it. I mean, I'm a 16 year old, and I'M ADDICTED TO IT! The acting is of a high standard and there is no part of it I can deem as typical.

The best thing is, that if you miss a few episodes and pick it up from a random episode, it still makes sense and you still enjoy watching it. It's not like one of those series that if you miss one episode, you don't really understand what's going on in all the episodes following it. That is why this series is so viewer-friendly.

I don't know about you, but I'm considering buying the entire box-set!

how could anybody possibly say anything bad about Dr. Quinn at all?! its so addictive its ridiculous! i didn't even start watching it until a year and a half ago because my girlfriend used to be obsessed when she was little and she made me start watching the DVDs with her, but now I'm so obsessed with it! it was an amazing show and its a shame that people are badmouthing it. i wish it was still on. for the people who said that they were running out of diseases for her to cure that is ridiculous.. there are millions of diseases in this world, and of course they did not know about lots of them in the late 1800s but there are many episodes where the end of the episode she still does not know what is wrong with the person and cannot cure them because the disease wasn't really discovered yet. then they make a little announcement at the end of the episode stating what disease it is and if it has a cure now and what year they found it and all that. so really that claim that they ran out of ideas is ridiculous.. and really i mean one doctor for a whole town of course shes gonna have to deal with lots of different problems over and over again. and i have heard people saying it was not realistic for these people to get almost deathly ill so often, but really think about it. medicine was advanced, but no where near as advanced as it is now with vaccines and everything, we are much more sterile and all that now, so people did get sick more often then. this was over a hundred years ago! and i don't see how people can say that the native Americans were too "in touch with nature" thats what native Americans DO! they are all about nature and peace with nature, yes there were some native Americans who were violent and angry and all that and i think they did show that, they did not make them look like they were not violent at times. and also, there's no way you can say that the army coming in and stealing land and forcing native Americans into ethnic cleansing camps basically is a right thing to do and was the "founding" of our country, because the "founding" of our country was about freedom from England and religious persecution. oh and the original colleen (Erika Flores) didn't quit, she was forced out of the show by her father. thank you. the end. p.s. Dr Quinn rocks!

This was a great series, too bad it was canceled. It was "Little House" of the 90s.

Don't miss Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, the Movie.