My review of Paramount+’s 1883 Series. This ain’t even the hard part yet. Or I could have also titled it “Paramount+’s 1883 Series Review: I wanted to like it. With stars like Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw and beautiful Isabel May, and cameos by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Hanks, I had my hopes up.
Paramount’s 1883 TV Series appears at first to be an authentic period series. Made to show the gritty side of the wild west and a prequel to the successful TV Series “Yellowstone”. But my perspective of this streaming TV Series was as a new viewer who had never watched “Yellowstone.”
My Biased Oppinion.
My personal biases. I grew up watching hundreds of hours, if not thousands of hours of westerns with Dad who loved such films and TV. When I got older, I quick found my favorite genre of westerns, such as Tombstone, The Unforgiven, Lonesome Dove, and many more. I like a gritty but sometimes romanticized retelling of the old west.
Great initial mood to 1883.
So on viewing the pilot episode of “1883” it impressed me. They had the setting and wardrobe done very well. Sam Elliott’s performance hooked me in the very first episode. Binge watching, here we go! Also, in the very first episode, we have our narrator Isabel May playing Elsa Dutton foreshadowing what appeared as her death, as they showed her being shot by an arrow through the stomach.
This had my girlfriend and I going from each episode wondering how will she survive being shot with an arrow through the stomach? And is the episode that will show it? I Love cliffhangers.
Our story begins with Texas Ranger “Captain” Shea Brennan played by Sam Elliott, saying goodbye to his wife and daughter who have just died of smallpox. Next, Shea reluctantly agrees to take a group of tenderfoot German immigrants to Oregon.
Mildly xenophobic.
First off, there are good and bad people of all races and sexes. But this group of German immigrants are helpless to defend themselves, unable to follow orders, thieves, greedy and can’t use logic to save their lives. It’s hard for me to believe that out of an entire wagon train of german immigrants, some of them would be capable fighters and leaders.
Second, this ethnic minority had no character development. This could have been a great story arch by showing characters from the german immigrants who learned to overcome their weaknesses and become tough.
Third, we are a nation of immigrants and I live in Texas and I am a fan of history. Several towns in Texas were founded by German immigrants like Shiner, and Schulenberg, New Braunfels, Texas. Historically, Germans have been very tough and adaptable, industrious people. I thought the portrayal of the German immigrants as weak and cowardly was a very poor choice. 1883 Series review. This ain’t even the hard part yet.
Shea needs men.
Well, Captain Shea is gonna try to take the weak, helpless German immigrants to Oregan, but he needs some men who have guns and know how to use them. This is where Tim McGraw’s character, James Dutton, comes in. Shea and Thomas see him defend his wagon from a band of rustlers all by his lonesome. FYI, they did not offer to help. They just watched from the hill as he was nearly killed and robbed. My guess is it was the writer and director’s intention to show how dark and gritty the west was, that Texas Rangers in Texas would not even try to stop armed robbery in progress.
But eventually, James Dutton agrees to take his family and go along with the wagon train, led by Captain Shea eventually.
Anything men can do Isabel May can do better.
This really could be the whole theme of this series. Isabel May plays Elsa Dutton, James Dutton’s daughter, who can shoot and run cattle and ride horses better than any man. She is also our narrator. She get’s in a lot of trouble throughout the series. This is when the story became a MTV made for millennials show and less of an authentic western period TV series. Spoiler alert: Elsa Dutton dies in this first season. Yes, our beautiful teenage drama queen dies leaving no legacy. And things get weird before she does.
Her troubled love life.
She falls in love with a cowboy and sleeps with him on the first date, no there was no date. But he is killed by cattle rustlers, and she is devastated. Until two weeks later she meets and young Native American and marries him. Then she starts dressing like a native, wearing fewer clothes and painting her face. This is when this story lost me, because not only did she not seem like a teenager from 1883 but more like one from 2022.
Bad Narration.
Elsa Dutton, being our narrator, was a poor choice in my opinion, because an angsty teenager writing in her diary did not what the whole of the story. The narrative monologues were just bad writing and slowed the story down but also her forced southern accent seemed over played almost comical. 1883 Series review. This ain’t even the hard part yet.
Failed Promises.
Brandon Sanderson explained in one of his lectures that at the beginning of a story you make promises and in the middle and end you keep those promises and pay off the readers. When you do that, readers are happy and feel fulfilled at the end of the story. I felt like this promise was not kept. Becaus with Sam Elliott and great build up at the beginning, I thought I was going to be watching an authentic period western but instead I got an MTV adaption of the wild west, which was only focused on Elsa Dutton’s sex life and her cowboy exploits.
She dies anyway and does not seem significant to the story. If I had known this was going to be a story about a teenage girl experiencing the wild west in 1883 through the lense of 2022, then okay I would have been prepared. But that was not the implied promise of the series.
This isn’t even the hard part yet!
This is referring to a phrase Shea Brennan keeps repeating after every disaster that befalls the wagon train. Someone’s wife dies, or all their possessions are lost, or their child dies, but sooner or later Elliott will say the line. “This ain’t even the hard part yet.” Damn, well, what is the hard part? It’s finishing the series after you find out that it is woke and unrealistic. Based on the action in the story who was doing the action, James Dutton should have been the main protagonist and the narrator. Having Elsa Dutton as the Narrator was confusing and shallow.
1883 Series review. This Ain’t even the hard part yet.Nihilistic and dark.
This series gave the viewer little to feel good about at the end. The writing was poor. But Sam Elliott gave an impressive performance as Shea Brennan. But the series was dark and seemed to glorify suicide. Shea Brenan puts a bullet in. his head when he gets to the Pacific Ocean. Elsa Dutton dies needlessly from a Native American’s arrow. James Dutton buries her in the place he will build the Dutton ranch.
Only one of the German immigrants makes it to Oregon, but he loses his wife and one leg. They led us to believe he will build a log cabin with one leg all by himself. It wasn’t dark in a good way; it was just dark and unrewarding. No redeeming moral to the story. The land will kill you. 1883 Series review. This ain’t even the hard part yet.
It could have been so much better.
That is a direct quote from my girlfriend and I couldn’t agree more. If you decide to watch the Series 1883 on Paramount+ have low expectations, you will enjoy it more and know it’s going to be made through the woke lense of 2022.
