Heartland

Great story-telling in this series and every aspect is well produced: acting, writing, and the incredible scenery. I'm about halfway through the 12-season show, and am simply enjoying the heck out of it. The horses are great actors, too, and should win awards. It does seem everyone is doing most of their own riding, they make it all so very realistic. The lead Amy played by Amber is incredible, who knew one person could do so many different types of riding and do it well? Horse dancing, to dressage, to jumping, to rodeo, to racing, to communicating deeply with horses in a genuine heart-felt way gets conveyed incredibly well. There's lots of topics that reveal ranch life in today's world that is interesting as well. From wild horses to oil, class war, business vs. family life, addiction, native people's oppression and resilience, death and loss, relationship dysfunction, craziness and creative solutions (no sex). Then there's the whole healing aspect that comes from living in and/or visiting the land where the heart rules. The therapeutic work with the horses affects the people and vice versa in sometimes amazingly touching and profoundly metaphorical ways. The show goes deep and is lighthearted too. It cannot be an easy show for the actors to do because it is quite physically demanding. There's violence, though not too bad, fires, explosions, shooting, avalanches, rescues, fights, lots of action. The characters, including repeating characters and are so well-drawn and acted, you end up taking them to heart. There are a few places where what they do doesn't quite fit with them, what they know or would do in just a few situations, but otherwise the character arcs, their growth and development over the years is an incredible journey of the heart. Totally enjoyable for the whole family, too. If you don't love horses when you start this series, you will.

Sorry, that headline might make you think I hate the show, but actually I'm loving it, for all the same reasons others have mentioned. Heartwarming, wonderful acting, good stories. But honestly, Lou and Tim and just plain insufferable. They're both self-centered, passive-aggressive, and frequently bullies.

That said, the real reason I watch the show is the horses. I can't get enough of those beautiful horses. And the horsemanship. At first I thought there was some camera trickery going on or a stunt double for sure. So I looked up Amber Marshall's (Amy) bio and learned she's a bona fide equestrian. I love watching her ride.

Heartland is a true family show grounded in the values of times past but in a present context, leaving the viewer with a light and happy feeling at the end of each episode. It is a true delight to watch and the characters are incredibly genuine, making it easy to empathise with their lives and dilemmas. My son is 15 years old and as with other children his age, addicted to modern technology, yet since I discovered Heartland, we enjoy nothing more than sitting down in the evening and watching a few episodes as a family, something that I doubt no other PG-rated show could have achieved. I would recommend Heartland to everyone of all ages who wants to watch a heartwarming television show that brings its stories to life.

Living where I am in Buffalo, New York I'm fortunate to get a few Canadian television shows from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which is on my cable package. If I didn't I wouldn't be seeing Heartland which I'm informed is Canada's longest running television series.

Family patriarch is Shaun Johnston who is a man of the land and in his way of living land means you grow things and or you feed animals off the things you grow. He's a cowboy and still a working one at that. But he's smart enough to bend with the times and part of his land is now a dude ranch for dudes who want to pretend. Not thrilled with the idea, but it's an income and the family works at it as a family enterprise.

My favorite of the characters is Chris Potter who is best known for the role of Peter Caine in Kung Fu - The Legend Continues. He's Johnston's errant son-in-law, a former rodeo star who can't forget the roar of the crowd and hasn't quite matured. As this series is almost a decade old Potter and the rest have really honed their characters pretty good.

Heartland is a really nice product from Canada and we Americans who can see it should be grateful.

I confess this show is one of my clearly-no-longer secret pleasures. The stories of Heartland resonate with me in quite a different way then most of the pablum I watch on television. The travails of a multi-generational country family, the mix of urban experience and back to the horse-manure land operation, the western motif and the youthful tales of love, of coming of age, of environmental concern, well I find some comfort and a strong sense of just about lost values in the telling. Above all else, the story of the young horse whisperer is almost mystical. If it borders on trite from time to time, it is easy to forgive this creative slight. A very pleasant TV experience.