“INTO THE WEST, a six-week television event from TNT, Executive Producer Steven Spielburg and DreamWorks Television, explores one of the most powerful and defining chapters in American history.”
I’ve really enjoyed the first two episodes of Into the West. I’ve only caught bits and pieces of the first episode, saw all of the second, but missed the third. There will be six, two-hour episodes altogether. This weekend they’ll show the fourth episode. You can see the new episodes Friday, Saturday, or Sunday evenings (8/7c) with an encore presentation of the previous episode on Sunday evenings (6/5c) just before the new episode airs.
One of the main character’s name is Jacob Wheeler who originates from Virginia. He rescues a Lakota named Thunder Heart Woman from being sold to a mountain man. They eventually get married, move back to Virginia, then move back out to California again (with tons of other things going on in between). The whole show doesn’t focus on the two, but so far they seem to be the two common links between the settlers and the Native American’s. Here’s a preview of what this weekend’s episode entails:
“Jacob Wheeler’s children witness history as the transcontinental railroads bring east and west together. Margaret Light Shines, Jacob’s daughter, is captured by the Cheyenne, and is adopted by the tribe. But when their village is brutally attacked by U.S. soldiers, she turns her back on her old life and escapes with her new Cheyenne family.”
As the many different stories have unfolded, we get to see the settling of the West from many different perspectives, and the good and bad aspects of both the newcomers and native people are presented. You can read a very detailed synopsis of each episode that has aired as well as brief descriptions of what is yet to come at the Into the West website:
I’m also looking forward to the final two episodes of the series. Episode 5 will be about Crazy Horse and Custer at Little Big Horn, and the series will culminate with the massacre at Wounded Knee in episode 6.
It’s unfortunate that you have to have cable or satellite to watch this. But I’m sure that the DVD will be available shortly. I’ll most likely at least rent it on DVD when it’s available so I can watch them all together. And hey, it could possibly the first made for TV anything that I purchase on DVD.