I am not always a stickler about things being "to the book," but when it comes to history, accuracy is important. 1). Where are their belongings? The brutality of hiking the Chilkoot was the requirement to have 2000 pounds of goods, per person + enough supplies to build a boat at Bennet Lake, unless frozen at which point one needed a sled. 2). Soapy Smith never set foot on the Chilkoot Trail, let alone was he ever in Dawson City. He was shot to death in Skagway by Frank Reid. That would have made a great part of this story, had they developed the storyline in Skagway. They could have included Molly Walsh - as well as showing the camps at Canyon City and Sheep Camp to demonstrate how long it took these people to haul 2000 lbs per person to each camp (several trips back and forth). 3). The great Avalanche disaster happened on April 3, not at the end of June. The graveyard at Dyea is quite profound, considering how far away it is from the site of the actual disaster. The least the writers could have done was used the correct date. 4). Though the Pass was difficult, it was the lowest pass, cut through the mountains with a lake on the other side. In this show, they have them climbing up some mountain edge, in an endless mountain range that makes it seem as though these people were mountain climbers. In fact, they were entrepreneurs who chose the easiest route, so the film makers could have focused more on the hardships these people really did suffer, such as sever chafing, frost bite, horses who literally jumped from the cliffs, etc. 5). What about the scales? That was the neatest aspect of the trail. Once everyone got to the scales, if they had more than 2000 lbs, they immediately started throwing stuff away, right on the mountain. Today, it is an interesting garbage dump! Sad that the writers missed just about every aspect of the trail that was significant, important and perfect for great storytelling. Some reviewers have said it was too short and I agree. Someone should make a mini- series out of Pierre Burtons "Klondike" because that was a compelling story.

Klondike is one of those series I picked up because it looks fascinating, with a somewhat unorthodox setting. With gold digging as the historical background, you assume that this is what the series will also be about mostly - aside from all the frauds and the harsh climate. Alas, everything seems to be addressed only once throughout the series, because there isn't time to remind the viewer what's so perilous about the environment, and what's at stake. Instead the show aims to be a classical Western story featuring cold weather. The gold digging itself is also left completely out of the story. While I wouldn't want to watch a 6 hour series about digging gold, it's striking that a 20 page chapter of "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" is more detailed in the process of extracting gold, than a 6 hour series produced by Discovery. At times it's easy to forget that the show is even taking place in Klondike, and not just any saloon in Santa Fe.Despite a good crew of actors, the characters are one-dimensional and there is little room for any character development. Although some of the characters undergo transitions, there's no development - they simply go from A to B while not giving the viewer any credible reason for their transition. The same goes for the relationships between the characters. Some characters that take up a lot of screen time are even completely redundant, and a waste of the precious time of a 6 episode mini-series. I can think of at least two subplots, without which the show would have lost virtually nothing, while gaining both time and coherence. "Klondike" bit off more than it could chew. A mini-series of 6 episodes is not equipped to deal with profound questions on the true value of gold, while also dealing with the position of females, the suppression of Native Americans, the presence/absence of hope and God, and so on. This series could and should have been a lot better.

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.

To the reviewer Scott1-921-252003, you offered the best review out of anyone. Thank you for supplying the historically accurate parts of the story and offering your other comments.I personally found the mini series entertaining even if it was historically inaccurate. I'm not really sure why so many people expected it to be overly accurate anyway. Sometimes you just need to enjoy something for what it is. Plus, the movie was pretty clear about calling itself a "docudrama". I also don't understand the reviewers who clearly didn't like it, felt that their time was wasted on it, yet sat through the entire mini-series anyway. If you don't enjoy something, stop watching it lol. I thought the man who played Bill Haskel was a good actor and honestly, very hot. I enjoyed Belinda's character but it would have been nice to know a little more about her, such as why she was there to begin with. I guess because she had more freedom there? I don't know. I didn't think the actress who played Belinda was as good an actress as the man who played Bill, even though I found her entertaining, but perhaps it was because of the way they wrote her character. Female characters on film do not seem to receive the same emotional depth exploration as male characters in film do. It's not often we truly get to see strong female characters on TV and she gave a hint of that. I don't think our society is yet ready to see likable female characters explore a wide range of emotional depth and gabble with morality (unless it's regarding sex) yet, unfortunately. I wish they had developed it more to counter the usual female narratives we see.I really enjoyed the scene where Belinda confronted Sabine who got pushed outside by Tim Roth's character. It's not often you see scenes like that between women on TV either. I thought the dynamic of it was very interesting. Although, I will admit I am getting tired of seeing casts of older distinguished men with one or two young women thrown in. I did enjoy the juxtaposition between Sabine and The Superintendient with the way they both "whored" themselves out. Again, it's not often on TV where the way men "whore" themselves out is so clearly defined. Yet, it's often a common story line when it comes to women. So I enjoyed the way they tied their two life experiences together in that and the morality of the Superintendent. Although again, Sabine was considerably younger than the Superintendient. Once again proving that we are only interested in women's stories when they are young and men's stories no matter their age. I thought the bit where Father Judge got measured for his coffin was oddly endearing and was a nice light reprieve. I enjoy Sam Shepard as an actor. Clearly it was not historically accurate, based on almost everyone else's comments, but I enjoyed the mini-series and as someone who doesn't really read books about the history of the Klondike, it did spark my interest to research it on the internet. I think I might go buy some books on the topic even because of how it sparked my interest. And perhaps that's a better gift then simply having something be historically accurate.