If you’re anything like me, the first few scenes in 1849 will remind you of some of Laura Ingalls’ adventures from the Little House on the Prairie books.
The focus could remain on the performances and emotional impact.
It doesn’t take long for the show to go in some directions that were definitely never explored in Little House, and a few of the early scenes are almost a little bit too grotesque to encourage sticking around the series.
Thanks to a few filming tricks that show the ugliness through the eyes of a barely-conscious teenager, however, a Comanche raid doesn’t feel like violence for the sake of violence, and it conveys the terror of the situation without showing every little thing that happens to a couple of the settlers.