**SPOILER ALERTS**
I am conflicted writing this review. On the one hand it is a masterpiece of tv drama and storytelling. On the other its a painful cliched bore that made me nearly throw my TV out the window.
Sticking with the former first, its mostly a joy to watch. Sam Elliot and Lamonica Garrett are exceptional and deserve their own prequel show. Sam Elliot in particular steals every scene he is in and is criminally underused. The show should have been about him instead of Elsa, who i will get to shortly. All the other actors are great and there are some really good characters in there.
Then theres Elsa. The actress is actually brilliant and fair play to her she absolutely steals the show after a few episodes but my god do they focus too much on her. She has two separate love stories in the space of like 3 episodes, and gets over the death of her first love incredibly quickly. I bought the cowboy love as it seemed genuine but the Indian love was so weird and forced and came out of nowhere. And i dont understand why he would let her got to Oregon and come back all by herself, why didnt her husband go with her to protect her, makes no sense considering how dangerous her return journey would have been since would have been all alone. You could skip Elsa's love story with the Indian and have a much better time watching the show. How the show ends with her death is brilliant and is very emotional as you have been on this journey with her and her parents, and wee useless John who is even more useless in 1923.
A show that starts so strong but loses its way in the middle and then recovers brilliant to give you a gut wrenching finish. Addictive, glorious, beautiful TV drama