L.K. M.

An incredible feast and visceral submersion into the changing atmosphere of what was to become the United States. This series has incredible production design, cinematography, writing, acting and Directing. It has distinct morsels of “the revenant” styling and essence of the horrors of early America. Every episode absorbs the viewer with its filth, unyielding lack of compassion in the Old West. These people are ruthless, survivors, settlers, and the viewer can’t help but feel the suffering and anguish this time must have been. This is not Horizon- stupid over produced, everyone is clean, new clothes, new buildings. Everything in those shows feels like you are on a set watching scenes by movie stars. Just glossy unrealistic shows. This series brings back the life and energy one would expect of the period of time - though not being able to go back in time, this series sure feels like I am right there in it with these people. Really impressed. I hope this series comes back a few more seasons. There are so many tales of the West that can be told in this style and narrative. Love this series.

I could write a very enhanced detailed account of why this series fit for me, but I won’t bore you with that. I found this to be one of the best television series ever made, next to “Breaking Bad” this is my 2nd favorite series. Once you jump on board and begin to fall into their world it is an intense, complex of webs that connect us all in life as we journey thru time. I highly recommend trying this series. It’s beautifully shot, amazing story connections and a vivid story so much so, that I would only watch one episode very few days to allow the journey to last. Like savoring a good meal with undersized portions. Try it. As with anything it’s not for everyone. I used the subtitles and watched in the native German. Bonus- the creators are working on their next series. “1899”

I didn’t know anything about this series, and had not heard of the book. So I gave it a shot without reading anything about it. The plot was intriguing as being about the movie industry, (where most movies about movies fail to some extent or another with a few notable exceptions) “Living in Oblivion”, “Barton Fink”, “The Player”, “Cinema Paradiso” to name a few. I am not a huge horror fan, as there is far to much violence and horror in the world period and real life gore is all to available to saturate anyone’s senses in a matter of minutes via the internet. However, I love a good story. This first episode opened like reading a graphic novel. I could just see the vivid visual panels in a book of this nature (though there is not one). The cinematography is excellent and somewhat a gimmick at first. However, it does eventually draw into the nature of the story, enhancing the journey all along the way. I was pleasantly surprised. Not a terribly complex story, but with the acting and disturbing and unruly elements of horror it takes one down a very uncomfortable path of the human condition, revenge and magical forces. It brings elements of “The Evil Dead”, “The Fallen” and other horror genre into play. I enjoyed the dance between the absurd elements and rather haphazard story jumps and accepted the journey after the first episode. Thus, making it an enjoyable yet uncomfortable ride where I had to stop it twice to allow my mind to reset. However, to me this is a good sign for a series, as it makes me cringe and feel uneasy. A+ on that. Just what I want it to do! I found out that the story of the series is only the first 66, pages of the book. While this was very intriguing to me, I sought out to buy a hardcopy of the book to see where things really start to get going in this story could go from here. Mind you this is l not a series for everyone by any means. It’s messy, gory, and jumps from time and space with unrealistic connections - but I was immersed in the story and liked the characters and subtle dark humor dancing all around the series. The symbolism and larger messages amount to stronger themes of religion, spirits and forces of energy traveling thru all of us.