Is anyone else watching it? I thought it was a pretty catchy first episode of a mini series. The into is very game of thronesie. You get a good feel of all characters. You even have to deal with loss. The show is great. I'm very pleased. I love it already. also Richard Madden is so good lookin.

I DVRed it....plan to watch it sometime this week

I DVRed it last night and was gonna watch until I noticed it was 2 hours long. Won't get to it until this weekend.

Anyone actually watch it? I DVRed it too.

This is my second time watching it. It's pretty good. Binders didn't want to watch. About 15 minutes in he was like "this is so good!"

Tl;Dr. I enjoy it. Definely will watch part 2&3.

I don't mean to dampen anyone's spirits, but I thought this was one of the dumbest, most forced pilots I've seen in a long time.

The scope of the first hour or so was great. Some epic, coasting-over-mountains landscape shots and a lot of nice, authentic-feeling, on-location sets. Just great production value all around. It was when Bill and his buddy arrived to Dawson City, though, that the whole thing went downhill for me...





*** POTENTIAL SPOILER GRIPES / QUESTIONS ***





- Nothing about Bill's arrival to Dawson City made any sense. Why in the world did the well-connected Belinda (Abbie Cornish) just randomly approach him and introduce herself at that bar? He had literally just shown up to town, along with dozens and dozens of other anonymous no-names like himself. Yet, because he was the main character I guess, she goes out of her way to come over to him and essentially tell him she'll stay out his business if he stays out of hers. What??? What made this pilot so weird to me was that characters just kept randomly coming up to Bill, telling him exactly what he needed to know for the plot, like he was this special "chosen one" guest to the town or something. When, in reality, he had done absolutely nothing to stand out from everyone else.

- If Bill's land claim was so special, why the hell didn't any of those people buy it before he got there? He and his buddy had hardly any money left once they got to town, they bought a plot of land no one gave two sh*ts about, but then all the sudden everyone was interested in his claim and that very specific piece of land. Again... why??? Because he was the main character? If he was some kind of geological expert everyone knew about, I could understand that. Bill and his buddy did make it a point to say they had college degrees, and that they were likely smarter than the rest. But again, no else knew that besides the audience.

- Same goes for Sam Shepard's character. He was just some random old man who shows up to town with a bunch of other no-names and buys an old store in the middle of the town to convert into a chapel. But then all the sudden, everyone - including people with money who were already well-established in the town - wanted that specific piece of real estate. Again, if it was so special, why didn't they just claim it before the Father arrived? Did I miss something? Why, when two of the main characters came to town and purchased things, did everyone who was already in town suddenly want those things? Especially when they could have easily bought that land / real estate themselves before the strangers showed up?

- Also, what was Jack London's motivation for randomly approaching Bill and wanting to take him into Indian territory? Especially when he lied about speaking their language? He risked both getting shot by Indians and attacked by wolves... why? Because it could potentially make for a great story? Otherwise, what did London get out of suggesting that little adventure? Other than the writers needing/forcing him to?

- FInally... Abbie Cornish is hot, no doubt. So it's hard to "complain" about this, but her wardrobe was just ridiculous. Literally every other character felt period-appropriate as far as their clothing went. But Belinda looked like something out of Joss Whedon's Firefly or Serenity. All this form-fitting, "old west" designer clothing that looked completely out-of-place. I kept expecting Will Smith and Kevin Kline to show up and fight her. She even had tight leather pants. Again, not complaining about a hot actress wearing tight leather pants, but it was yet another aspect of the show that made absolutely no sense to me.


Overall, maybe I just wasn't paying attention enough. Some of the dialogue was kind of muddled and hard to hear. But for a show that started out somewhat promising for that first hour or so - enough to make me pause and set the DVR for the next two nights - by the time that second hour was over, I actually went back and unset the DVR for the next two nights. If your plot can't be clearly-explained, and no one's motivation is making any sense, I just can't justify wasting any more time on your show. No matter how good the production value, or how hot your female lead is.

[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 1/21/2014 1:31p).]

I had high hopes going in. Watched the first episode. I removed it from dvr.
It feels manufactured and disconnected like the poster above states. Scenery shots are great and all but that only goes so far.

Sounds like I'm better off sticking to the weekly chit show known as Gold Rush.

quote:

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It feels manufactured and disconnected

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Perfect descriptors for the show.

We put, TCTTS. Those were my feelings exactly. Really started feeling it when the two big shots in town felt they all of a sudden NEEDED the old leaky dry goods store.

Everything about this miniseries is great except the plot/script which just has too many holes in it. Still worth a watch, but not as good as it could have been.

Same thoughts as TCTTS. Just too many things that aggravate me to hold my interest.

I thought it was ok and agree with the points above re: the glaring holes in the script.

Pure speculation on my part to follow, and if any of this is true they did a horrible job of conveying it.

1. People heard them talking about what they should look for in a plot of land. Plausible, but stupid that they couldn't hear anyone elses conversations but everyone heard them discussing why their plot had potential.

2. The townies wait until an out-of-towner purchases property, then they run them off to get it for free/cheap.

3. People watch/approach them because they look like college city slickers that don't know what they're doing. This would make them vulnerable to intimidation and swindlers.

All good points, Adam Ag 98. Would explain a lot. But yeah, if that's what they intended, they really did do a horrible job conveying it.

I liked it. Belinda was hot. Much better than most shows on tv.

I agree with most of TCTTS's complaints. Seems like most people they run into are like Chris Farley in Wayne's World. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDgzThsMd1Q
But the people and scenery are attractive, so it's nice to watch in HD. Seems like the exposition gets better in the second half of the first part.
They tried hard to make this look like Game of Thrones. The intros are very similar.

Evidently the internet was available in the Klondike back then, because EVERYONE knew the partner had been killed,even the Indians when the main character hiked miles into the wilderness to find them. News traveled fast back then, I guess. Turned it off at that point.

IMHO Belinda went up to Bill in the bar because he is smoking hot and he did stand out from all the other characters there.

If you've ever lived in a small town, the part about everyone knowing about his death is the least surprising thing in the episode.

Also, I agree about the townies trying to run off someone new who purchased a piece of property at a high rate simply so they could get it at a lower price. That is what they were trying to do to Bill over his half of the claim.

I think Belinda dresses like she does to set herself apart, did you notice the house and fixtures in her house when Bill visited? I was surprised she didn't have a fit when he sat sopping wet and muddy on her couch. Now THAT didn't make sense.

The part about them deciding on a claim based on the book Bill was reading, Bill being saved in the wilderness by the preacher after he miraculously survived the cold plunge in the river and Epstein surviving the avalanche are bigger plot holes to me.

All in all though, I like it and it is 1000X better than most of what else is on TV.

Professor - Those are all great explanations, I just felt they needed to do a better job of making those points. Even a line or two here and there would have helped immensely. Either way, yeah, I'd still pick this over anything the networks have to offer.