Klondike

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)

Very disappointing. Too many nonsensical story lines which detract from what a mini series on this subject could be. The script was weak, the dialogue was not of the era, the costumes were 21st century and some things just did not make sense or were completely unbelievable. Somebody needed to do a little more research on the subjects. When our hero fell out of the boat into the river, in the first episode, he would have probably died from hypothermia before the wolves even chased him. In the second episode our heroine could have reported the killing she witnessed to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police rather than let her competitor lumber mill operator continue to threaten the town. This series is a good example of how Hollywood can take a great subject and throw it right in the mud. I almost lost my stomach when the story line went so far as to interject antisemitism, race issues and women's suffrage into a show which I dialed in to be entertained. I watch TV not to be manipulated by the social engineers but to enjoy a good story. I don't think I can watch the third episode.

I was looking forward to this series as I have done the Chilkoot Trail and spent a fair amount of time in the Yukon. I saw an interview with the producer stating how they went out of their way to be accurate so I had high expectations. Yes the scenery was spectacular, but not at all like that of the real Chilkoot Pass. The first disturbing piece of footage was at the beginning when the miners were working their way up the pass and in the background there is a ski area! You would think in this digital age they would be able to "photoshop" it out. Did not one person in their crew notice this? At the pass they are greeted with a spectacular view of the Yukon River. Sorry, but that's not what you see. Also, each miner had to prove they had 1000 pounds of gear to get over the pass, an important fact left untold. Okay, all this technical geography stuff aside (most folks would never know anyways), I just thought they did a poor job making this look like the late 1890s. Modern phrases are used and everybody is way too clean. It was a good attempt on the Discovery Channel's part but it ended up being a disappointment for me. There are great books on this great historical time out there for folks who are interested. Think I'll go pull out some Robert Service poetry and get a better fix!

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.

I typically love historical epics, and I'm fascinated about stories of the West and gold rushes etc. However, "Klondike" blew it in so many ways, I'm not sure I can enumerate them all.

The camera work, scenery and set design was marvellous, and definitely needs acknowledging. The rest? Well it was great to see Robb Stark again, and he comes out unscathed. The remainder of the characters are cardboard cutouts and I felt no sympathy for them, good or bad. Tim Roth was embarrassing.

The plot was simple enough, but was cut to shreds by jumping around here and there, which makes me think the editor should never work in Hollywood again.

I could go on, but, you get the point, I'm sure. I don't normally write critical reviews, so the fact that I'm doing so means this was missing it all, really wide of the mark. Mediocre - 5/10.