Frontier

This series is not really about the wild frontier or the birth of a nation, but rather all the evil things white men did to natives and slaves. You learn very little about history and even the civil war is condensed to a 5 minute clip where we are mostly reminded about the massacre of a couple hundred indians. Really? Over 600.000 casualties during the war and this incident that wasn't even a footnote in the bigger picture gets the limelight? It seems that nothing positive happened after the independence struggle. It was all murder and mayhem. Really sad viewing really, a white guilt trip at most.

The history of how the United States came to be is a complex task to present, and even though Frontier claims to bring us 'the true story', six episodes of 40+ minutes just isn't enough. Like in most historical documentary series, there are a number of hand picked people to tell the tale, basically historians who have proved to cover a special part of history in an authentical fashion. Much of what is presented is very interesting and actual, such as the links between the Mexican American War, the California Gold Rush and the Civil War, or the demythification of the cowboy life, and the horrors of indigenous children in the boarding schools, to name three outstanding factors together with the final historical conclusion. However, some of the tales contain obvious errors, and when they all are illustrated with poorly and amateurishly made dramatizations, where the same slow mo clips and scenes are used over and over in different episodes, this sadly spoils the total fundamentaly.

I'm looking at this series from an European perspective. My local streaming provider picked up this series, and I started watching it without really knowing what I was getting into. It took a while to understand.

This series is really a collection of 10-15 academics reviewing major points of the expansion of the United States. The director of the series has made it a point to go in depth on three different perspectives: The perspective of the colonizers of the US, the point of view of the indigenous population, and the view of the enslaved Africans. Each point of view is given equal weight. The brutality of the creation of the US is heavily underscored. For some viewers, this might be uncomfortable viewing. But with such a breadth of historians, the facts presented appear to be very solid.

The director of the series has done a good job of organizing the subject matter, so it's easy to follow. The narration between the interview clips is well done in summarizing and connecting. So far so good.

The main weakness in this series is the dramatization that is used to illustrate the dialogue. This weakness becomes obvious rather quickly. The dramatizations are of a very general nature, and not specific to the events that are being talked about. And soon, these scenes are recycled, so you get the same shots of people walking through western towns, indians on horseback, and African Americans working in the fields. In fact, the series would be better without the use of these scenes at all.

There really is a disconnect between the thoughtful presentation of the material in terms of organizing and selecting and connecting the historians' account, and the lackluster use of "reenactments".

It is often said that history is written by the victors. This series really does a good job of rectifying that, and as such is worthwhile watching, even with its flaws. Some of the professors we get to see are better storytellers than others. Kevin Waite of Durham University stood out to me with his sharp and focused comments.

Really enjoyed watching this series, made a change to the thousands of documentaries already out there about the civil war and wild west.

Coming in from a European perspective, it was great to see the story told from another angle and so interesting to hear about things that you don't often hear about on this side of the water.

Totally eye opening to way in which land was obtained, just a slightly modernised version of the empires of the past. Really got me thinking, which is exactly what I want from a good documentary.

Those that were moaning about a "white guilt trip" need a serious self reflection moment after comments like that.

The show's fine if you never read a single book or knew anything about the topic. It gives a good overview and has nice maps and illustrations. The dramatizations are lazily made, and they get reused a lot. From episode to another, even while talking about different things. Same goes for the interviews. They use soundbites intended to be used in reference to a specific event in one episode, as a descriptor of "the frontier" as a whole in another. Just feels cheap.

I agree with the review about the weird white guilt tripping. I'm not denying any of the atrocities committed, but the show has this weird double standard that ends up feeling pretty racist in itself. Almost like white people are the "adults" of the world that more should be expected of, where as the native americans are these naive savages lower standards should be applied to.

The show correctly points out that "native american" is this anachronistic term invented by the Europeans to group all the native americans into one group. The native americans did not see themselves as part of this a large collective, but rather as members of their tribes. Tribes that were often at war with each other, fighting over land and resources. But when they do it, that's just "the way things were". When whites introduced themselves into this battle for land and resources, it's "theft" and an "invasion" for taking land that "rightfully" belongs to the native population. Rightfully, because they won it in a war some years earlier.

Some of the historians they interview seem to be fully aware of this, and paint the Westward expansion of the US as an extension of larger world history where conquest through might was the norm regardless of nation or race. Others seem to be totally oblivious. This results in a weird tonal mess.