daveryanmoore
Frontier can't decide what it wants to be: an extremely violent action series or a politically correct rewrite of history that delivers a positive social message. Hmmm...Episodes begin with quotes from cool contemporary people like Nelson Mandela and the rapper Ice Cube on weighty themes such as social justice. But don't let that fool you. If you want to see men gutted, flayed alive, and decapitated, you've come to the right place. Also, if you want to see bosomy barmaids serving half-wild fur trappers, you won't be entirely disappointed. On the other hand, if you want to see women occupying positions of authority and contemporary racial politics disguised as character development circa 1700s, you're also going to be pleased. For the most part, it's nation v nation with no multiculturalism tolerated. The exception is a band of indie fur-trading mystery tramps who dress straight out of Central Square in Cambridge, Mass. Their leader, one Declan Harp, is what you'd expect to get if Fabio and Charles Manson had a baby. When he's acting all loyal and altruistic, we're told his Native genes are at work doing the right thing; conversely, when he's going all murderous rampage on us (Hello red coats!) it's his Euro-trash genes acting out. Shades of Fenimore Cooper!The show has been criticized for its historical inaccuracies, but my sense is that this misses the larger question of why this program was made in the first place. Actually, it's hard to figure out why such as strange series was made in the first place. Was it to avenge the European invasion of the Native lands? If so, mission accomplished, especially in the case of the English red coats who are on the receiving end of some spectacularly rough treatment here. The producers seem to have decided that if one English soldier is going to get bumped off then, dagnabbit, we might as well bump off six or seven!I began to watch Frontier largely in hopes that the setting would be grand in the mold of Bruce Beresford's magisterial Black Robe. But even this disappoints after the first episode. The one good part is the deliciously evil main bad guy, Lord Benton. He's so evil he's actually funny, which is fitting because this show wants to be dramatic and high-minded but is actually funny and ludicrous.
chrisduwe
Whilst the larger plot may be based on historical events this show is a drama dropped into that overall narrative. The characters are 2 dimensional, each one making a pathetic attempt to talk with an accent that they couldn't be bothered to perfect. This is fast paced but nothing actually happens, character development is paper thin. With the resources put into this it could have been something great. Judge it alongside something like Deadwood and this is like a babys first attempt at a poop compared to a 5lb turd!
