Tony Dowling

It is a good historical drama covering a period that doesn’t get much attention. There are several story lines. One is around a woman and her son escaping west after she murders a man back east, has a bounty on her head and bounty hunters chasing them and her taking up with a loner mountain man to guide her, and their not inconsiderable travails. Another main story line centers the Mormon settlement of Utah and the Mountain Meadows massacre, an actual massacre of a group of settlers traveling across what is now Utah. I think there is still some controversy about the Mormon’s role in the massacre. Finally both story lines cross paths with Jim Bridger at Bridger’s fort. I love this sort of historical drama. This one is filmed and acted in an understated manner. The acting is excellent. Writing is austere but good. Scenery and cinematography are excellent. Many of the people and places are real and of historical importance. Like all historical dramas, it plays fast and loose with some of the facts and realities of the time. People cover vast distances on horseback in hours or a day. The woman and her son fleeing pursuit leave St Joseph MO in a rickety covered wagon with a single horse and show up at Bridger’s fort in Wyoming looking like they just took the train. It’s snowy cold in some scenes and dusty plains in others which seem like they are geographically close. The actual Bridger’s fort was in southwest Wyoming, not a days ride from Salt Lake City. Mountain Meadows is in south central Utah a long way from Bridger’s fort and SLC. All that said, I enjoyed the show a lot and welcome more historical dramas of this sort.