david-2348

I love westerns, and this had the potential to be a good one, but it was ultimately a complete mess due to extremely questionable editing, and trying to cover too much ground with too many characters in too little time. As others have said, this would have made a great mini-series, giving more time to develop the characters and storylines.

It was almost as if they were intentionally trying to be obtuse and confusing. Would it have hurt to put in some titles whenever the time and location changed? For example, knowing that it was now 18XX and we were in Texas, or wherever, would have helped immensely.

Technically, as a means of getting the story across in a coherent way that was enjoyable for the viewer I would probably only rate it 4/10, but there were individual storylines that were enjoyable to watch - hence my higher overall rating. But man, what a missed opportunity to make something really good.

I like intelligent dramas (the stuff the Brits are good at), and my wife likes wholesome romcoms. I put up with this show so we can watch something together, and for several seasons it was fairly painless viewing, even though some of the characters were extremely annoying. It has never been an intelligent drama, but now it is almost the polar opposite of intelligent. Erin Krakow has the acting depth and breadth of a puddle. How on earth did she ever become one of Hallmark's top actors? The half-open mouth, half-smiley look that she manages to pull off 20 times an episode is painful to watch. When it comes to wooden actors, she leads the pack. Rosemary and Bill try to inject some zing into the show, but it's pretty much on life support at the moment (season 11). Maybe the producer's plan is to keep the Elizabeth-Nathan-Lucas love triangle going forever, and just change the main love interest from season to season. They could just reuse the earlier scripts. Oh wait, that is pretty much what they are doing this season. I love my wife, so I will keep watching it with her, but she will probably need to wake me as the credits roll.

Yes, you can legitimately quibble that it should have have more of this, or less of that, but it captured the spirit of the anti-mandate protest, the freedom village, and the horrendous overreaction by those in power. Although I didn't camp out on the grounds, I was a frequent visitor to the village. I have never in my life before or since felt such harmony as I did on those visits. Where else can you see gay, straight, Christians, atheists, nature lovers, Hare Krishnas, surfies, rappers, metalheads, gang members, bikies, priests, nuns, ex-police, ex-nurses, ex-doctors, ex-military, farmers, pensioners, middle-aged, thirty-somethings, twenty-somethings, teenagers, kids, white, brown, black, and people from all walks of life, all getting along peacefully and genuinely caring for each other?

Apart from one early stupid foray, I thought the police were respectful and polite for the most part. Right up until the last day. Then they lost the plot. And of course, once attacked, some protesters decided to fight back. That was unfortunate, but it was a small minority. Perhaps the best way to have avoided that would have been for the police to leave the jackboots at home that day.

That not a single member of parliament would agree to talk to the protesters about the mandates was downright disgraceful, and I for one will never vote for any of those cowards ever again.

The majority may prefer to believe that the protest was just a bunch of fringe nutcases, but it was the finest example of living in harmony that I have ever witnessed.