Too much of everything

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

3 episodes in and this show is rubbish. Poorly written, paper thin characters and plot. Clichés do not make a story, and a wet and muddy set and facial stubble does not make "gritty" or believable characters.So disappointing.The only believable character is the mud... It obviously requires considerable expense to establish such sets and to film in snow and cold. The writing simply does not do justice to the story concept or the natural environment.Can anyone believe the horses breaking away from the cart as a plausible plot device in episode 3? That could have been written by a 6 year old.Casting Sam Shepard and Tim Roth caught my attention, i was curious to see what Roth would do after Lie to Me.Unfortunately this show compares poorly to Hell on Wheels, which compared poorly to the exceptional Deadwood.I am astonished at the high ratings shown for this series. What are other reviewers seeing?I am done this series, it is an insult to my intelligence as a viewer.

Not my usual genre, given the period setting and the dreadfulness of a promised Deadwood atmosphere, my expectation was low. And I remain lukewarm-to-cool about it afterward.Brief summary of my experience in abstract:Good: Great scenic shots of Canadian wilderness. Set design and effects are superb. Good performance from most casts. Scary enough villains. Key actors with enough screen presence and weight to carry the story on, in spite of the following...Not So Good: Not enough realism. Inconsistent casting with mixed/ wrong accents - some authentic some modern US some modern UK. Madden's character motivation wobbly, or is plain petty/myopic and not exactly high-minded heroism. Abbie tries hard but remains a self-conscious poser. One moment she's seen-it-all gun-slinging red-neck cowgirl next moment modern rom-com-style heavy-heaving damsel in distress. And if you decide to watch this...be warned about a stinky dirt shot. Hint: human refuse outlet; a 90's film director's favorite shot. that could set many nauseous for days. Either the director's idea of juvenile comic relief, or some big statement about his idea of money's worth. Either way, it is supremely poor taste delivered in sneaky, aggressive, obnoxious manner. Not cool.Dirt is really not the new sexy, nor a cheap way to amp up much-needed but insufficient realism.It wouldn't matter to me if I missed this honestly. Still, I would've given a charitable 7 for the actors performance and the cinematography effort if not for the overall distracting inconsistencies and gratuitous dirt-porn. Hence 5.

Possible Spoiler (s)...Was looking forward to it, if fact glad that another "reality channel" was dipping into the mini-series market such as History with the Hatfields and McCoys. More disappointed in this than the aforementioned. While the H&M on History was over-melodramatic and flirting with silly, it was still riotously entertaining and the performances by the cast were from very good to superb. Most of the cast in Klondike seem to be on lithium. H&M did a great job in developing characters, using every chance they were on screen to expose their motivations, flaws, strengths, and did it through dialogue and interaction with other characters-- even gestures. In Klondike this very important facet of storytelling is handled by one-line descriptions or a pat phrase. The pacing of Klondike is another issue, break neck for twenty minutes and snailish for forty. Tim Roth-- who is soooooo underutilized they could have put a cardboard Tim Roth mask on a mannequin and wheeled him around-- is the resident thug/soulless usurper, but in watching the show you have to wonder if he's not behaving that way out of simple boredom. He seems to bore the hell out of whoever he's threatening, anyway. The business woman (so uninteresting her name escapes me) is also victim to the writing. What drives her? What brought her to Dawson City? Mom died in childbirth? Well if that don't make ya wanna head to the boonies and sell booze, what would? Al Swearingen she ain't. The hooker? Drop me with a preacher and the turnaround is miraculous. Again, couldn't she have fared better as a gal-fer-rent in San Francisco or New York? One would think you have to be pretty motivated to peddle your virtue if you're going to go through all that trouble to find a whorehouse with the Help Wanted sign...? Her transition from saloon trollop to Florence Nightengale strains belief. Richard Madden is serviceable-- again a victim of the script-- but comes nowhere near the performance he gave us in Game of Thrones. Sam Shepard is the only cast member who seems to be trying to inject a little life into his character, but again the limits of the script seem to hogtie him.I won't go into the RCMP or the Natives, but they also fall victim to cliché.The camera work is a delight. The setting spectacular. The mud looks real. Otherwise, an overall disappointment.

What a fantastic story this could have been, and of course in fact actually was! But what a horrendously and stupendously horrid story this joke of a mini-series portrayed. A total discredit to what the men and women went through in the Yukon during that time. The maker of this film basically turned a real life drama in to some form of ridiculous soap opera. I put this catastrophic film right up there with the joke that James Cameron turned the Titanic in to. How can you go so wrong with a movie when the fantastic story is already written for you? Absolutely shameful for everyone involved. I very rarely review any movies, but the garbage of this film motivated me to speak out and hopefully steer people away. Or, if nothing else, then to at least provide some comfort to those who died during their time in the Klondike and who are now turning in their graves!