Last night I finished the Paramount+ show, 1883, from the prolific creator and writer of the hit show Yellowstone. My husband and I started cycling streaming services a few years ago - we sign up for one, watch the shows we want to watch, then cancel it until the next season of said shows come out. This frees up our subscription monies to get the next streaming service to watch what we want there and then cancel - and so on. This has ensured that we get to watch ALL THE SHOWS. Which, if you didn't know, is necessary for my general happiness.
1883 is an epic coming of age story. But not just coming of age - the protagonist, Elsa Dutton, comes of age, lives an incredible life, and dies a hero, all in the span of 6 months while her family assists in guiding a caravan of German immigrants on their way to Oregon.
Elsa Dutton is easily the best female protagonist I've seen in a long time. A loooooooong time. She starts the story as a naïve girl just coming into her womanhood - she falls in puppy love with a cowboy in the caravan and becomes a cowboy herself. She goes from proper lady to wild pioneer overnight. But tragedy strikes and her first love dies, which leaves her heartbroken and adds an edge to her gentleness. She then falls in true, adult love with a Comanche whom she marries (in as much as Comanches got "married") and then leaves him to continue assisting the caravan. She becomes not just a skilled cowboy, but a warrior and when she is shot with an arrow stopping an attack on her group - you can't believe she could possibly die. Not this girl - she's too tough.
But she does die. And while it's incredibly sad and I definitely cried my face off, it doesn't feel tragic really - which is strange when witnessing the death of an 18 year old girl. She lived the most incredible life in her 6 months on the trail. She became a woman, she became a respected cowboy, she fell in love twice and was loved back by those men fiercely. Her story is narrated by her, even after death. Her heaven sees her reuniting with her Comanche husband in the place she promised to meet him the following summer. And it's so lovely you think for a minute that maybe he died too - the scene is much like the final scene of Titanic when Rose goes to Jack at the top of the staircase. Beautiful.
Elsa Dutton is a goddamn icon and I won't forget this character and her journey any time soon.
I haven't even mentioned the rest of the cast. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are phenomenal as her parents, James and Margaret Dutton. Tim McGraw is a really good actor and I hope I see him in more great shows. The one and only Sam Elliot plays the caravan guide and leader who has a slightly antagonistic relationship with James Dutton (and basically life, itself), but in the end they become incredibly good friends. Sam's story is likewise fantastic, and I can see why he agreed to do the show after declaring he was done playing cowboys years ago.
This was a truly incredible show. It watched like a classic novel and it ended like one too. There were times the flowery narration seemed a little...much. But more often than not the narration and much of the conversations laid out beautiful and poignant lessons about life that I'll carry with me the rest of mine.
This show gets 100% from me. A+ It is a must-watch. So cycle those streaming services and make it happen.
Overall grade: A+