Best movie ever!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Having read the Lonesome Dove novel by Larry McMurtry, watching this movie was truly seeing his words come to life. This movie was originally supposed to have John Wayne as Woodrow, and while that would of been a performance worth seeing, Tommy Lee Jones does an excellent job in the role as Woodrow. His ability to be a main character while also connecting with Woodrow's disapproval of attention and groups of people plays out beautifully. The scenery and filming location throughout the mini series mostly took place on a ranch in South Texas, and it is clear that not as much has changed in South Texas as it has in other areas of the state. The story that McMurtry has dreamed up is a story that has a little bit of something for every viewer. It is the type of story boys spend their whole lives dreaming about taking.

There are many people who consider "Lonesome Dove" to be the greatest Western saga ever created. While I can't quite go that far in my praise for it, I will say that it was easily worth watching for the iconic characters (bolstered by incredible acting) it cultivates throughout.For a basic plot summary, "Lonesome Dove" tells the story of Gus McCrae (Robert Duvall) and Woodrow Call (Tommy Lee Jones), two cattle ranchers who decide to leave their dusty Texas ranch and move the herd to Montana on the advice of fellow friend Jake Spoon (Robert Urich). Along the way, they deal with the harshness of the Old West territory, Indian warrior Blue Duck (Frederic Forrest), and (more importantly) cultivate new relationships. Lorena Wood (Diane Liane) is a prostitute who wants to turn over a new leaf and start a life with Gus, but first the old cowpoke must deal with his feelings toward old flame Clara (Anjelica Huston). A side plot sees a Sheriff, July Johnson (Chris Cooper), set off with his son Joe (Adam Faraizal) to hunt down Spoon, who murdered another in a dispute and must be given justice.The reason "Lonesome Dove" is such an iconic miniseries is because it creates characters that seem so real. Often, westerns can fall into the "stock character" trap where the participants are a bit too cut-and-dry, or black-and-white. The exact opposite happens here, as pretty much each and every character is given something to do and room to grow.That being said, the whole film pretty much revolves around Duvall's Gus, and fortunately that actor is up to the task. While the surrounding acting performances are also great, everyone else (as characters) are really defined by their relationship to Gus. I don't want to sound like I'm taking anything away from the film as a whole, but I was always invested when Gus was at the forefront (physically or emotionally) and that wasn't always the case otherwise.The only criticism I have of "Lonesome Dove"? I felt that some of the subplots didn't live up to the main emotional backbone of the whole thing. I was underwhelmed by the July Johnson angle, I didn't like Blue Duck's character at all (it felt to me as if he were shoe-horned in because the producers thought an Indian presence was needed), and I felt that a bit too much time was spent on Dish Boggett (D.B. Sweeney), a ranch hand on the drive. The one sub-angle that works in spades? Newt (Ricky Schroder), Call's unrequited son. There was some real emotion there. Other than that though, I felt that those other auxiliary pieces (even if they were still well-acted, for the most part) distracted me from Gus, Call, and the really good material taking place on the cattle drive.So, while I can't put "Lonesome Dove" at the tip top of my list, I enjoyed the experience and would recommend it to Western film fans. When Duvall, Lane, Jones, Schroder, and Huston were on center stage, this miniseries truly was as good as it gets. The interactions feel real, not derived, and there is real drama, both physical and emotional. It strayed down a few paths that didn't hold my attention (especially in the second and beginning of the third acts), but overall easily deserving of a solid 4-star ranking.

American Crime (2015 …) is a first-rate series out of ABC, somewhat surprisingly, since its characters are more complex than we usually expect from the major networks. Like one reviewer observed, it seems much more like an HBO or some other cable original. My wife Nini and I loved the first two seasons, with different story lines each season. To our delight, we just read a report that there is going to be a third season.What I most like about the series is the way its characters are both smart and obtuse just like the rest of us. They are not stupid, as in, "How could anyone who's supposed to be that smart be so stupid?!" In American Crime, people misunderstand one another just as they do in real life: not from being stupid, but from not being sophisticated enough or just plain patient enough to consider all the angles in a complex interaction. American Crime is drama, and definitely not didactic. Yet it could effectively supplement an academic class on how people interact when under pressure in an unfamiliar situation.The mind does not naturally associate American Crime with another TV series, Lonesome Dove (1989). Yet a friend stimulated me to compare the two when he complained that the latter lacked a plot. In recognizing that he was right, and wondering why I had not experienced that as a lack, I realized that there is no plot in life. We do not usually die at the culmination of a project whose end coincides with our death and which gives complete meaning to our life. Admittedly, there is a narrative involved in driving cattle to Wyoming; but that just organizes the evolution of personalities who may or may not survive the movie. We become emotionally involved with them not primarily through any plot, but through who they are and how they relate to one another. Just like life. There may be various projects in our life, but not an overall, guiding plot. The same for Lonesome Dove. That is why Woodrow Call's (Tommy Lee Jones) taking Gus' (Robert Duvall) body back to Texas wasn't anti-climactic, which it would have been if the central engine of the movie had been a plot about their herding horses to Wyoming. The return of Gus' body was so exceptionally moving just because it was carrying forward something much more emotionally involving than a plot: the keeping of a promise to a life-long friend by a man who was left behind and facing the decline of his life.American Crime is not involving in that way, but depends more on plot. Its characters' mix of smart and obtuse is not so much emotionally involving as interesting, if you happen to notice it while following the action. But by showing the complexity of human interactions, and in a way that does not drown us in complexity by being explicit about it, it is an exceptional account of how we interact with one another.

This has been one huge disappointment. From the comments I had read before ordering "Lonesome dove" I understood this to be one of the greatest western movies/miniseries of all times. But let's see: the dialogues are corny, the acting is stilted; the tone is uncertain, going from serious (rarely) to slapstick (much too often), as if the director could not decide whether to opt for drama or comedy. The only reasons I finished it were, on the one hand, that I had paid for it, and, on the other, that I kept hoping the thing would ultimately redeem itself. Hopes were dashed. Money wasted. I certainly would not recommend it.