Has anyone else been watching the Into the West series on TNT? It is really a remarkable piece of television.

Have to say that one of the marks of a great piece of film or TV is when you look at yourself and your beliefs and think, "Well, maybe what I believed all along wasn't quite so right..." I am hardly a left-leaning bleeding heart but, I know that watching this series has had that effect on me.

I grew up learning how the West was won, the philosophy at taht time was Manifest Destiny concerning the land and the animals, all was the settler's for the taking. But what a cost!

Native American traditions that had been practiced for thousands of year were coming to an end, such a shame. Watching last night, the one thought I was having was, "This does not make me proud of our heritage." I wonder if anyone else feels that way too. If not, that's OK, point out where I am mistaken, but when I look around at what we consider a civilized society toady, I think how lucky the Indian's were to have such a simple world.

Ive only caught a couple episodes.. I did enjoy it immensely. I need to wait for a few re-runs.

It was nice to have a slightly more historical view after obsessively watching Deadwood earlier in the year.... Which reminds me I still need to finish season 2.

But back to the topic... I missed this past weelends... but from what Ive seen so far, kinda interesting and thought provoking what we did back then.

The sound of crickets...

I watched the first few weeks, but ended up fishing or busy these last couple weekends. But it was quite good. I liked that there was alot of death. Not that I'm morbid, but it seemed much more realistic.
I agree with wanting simplicity to life. Sometimes I wish I were a Native American from way back when, but then again, I wouldn't want to be strung up by my nipples for an entire day, waiting for a vision or whatever that dude was doing in one of the earlier episodes. I'm pretty satisfied with the 1/64th injun that I have in me, although it didn't score me free money for college or any part of casino profits.
Anyways, I'll prolly rent the stuff if it comes out on video later. What's going on with the story nowadays -- have all the characters changed since 2 or 3 episodes back?

I have wached all the eposodes so far, taped them so I could. I think they are great, well done and mostly historically correct. The series shows the struggle for all, remember the Chineese, in the development of this country. If you start from the beginning, the story line follows two families, one white and one native american. How they intertwined and thier part in the expansion. No one can deny the treatment of the native americans by the US Government, but that is not the main thread of the series, in my opinion.

Pete