Television has had a lot of pelts-and-hides dramas in recent years: rugged historical or fantasy series full of characters dressed in fur and leather. Vikings. Game of Thrones. The Last Kingdom. The latest addition doesn’t merely feature such clothing; it is, in a sense, about the clothing.
Frontier, a lively Canadian import that went up on Netflix on Friday, concerns the fur trade in barely settled areas of North America in the 1700s. As with many of these series, lawlessness prevails; violence is frequent and graphic; most of the main characters are male; and too many of the female ones are there only for their cleavage.
The sexism aside, Frontier is an enjoyable representative of the genre if you can embrace its ambiguity. After two episodes, it’s still not clear who, if anyone, has redeeming value in this rough wilderness. Are we supposed to be rooting for the young stowaway who accidentally finds himself in the Americas? Or perhaps for the renegade fellow of mixed ancestry? Or perhaps for no one?
As the series opens, the Hudson’s Bay Co, the real trading concern created by royal charter in the 1600s to work a large chunk of North America, is seeing its monopoly eroded by interlopers. Lord Benton, played with deliciously ruthless haughtiness by Alun Armstrong, crosses the ocean to try to restore the company’s dominance.
He is especially concerned about Declan Harp (Jason Momoa, who made quite an impression as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones and does so again here). Harp is a goliath who, as one of Benton’s aides puts it, is “half-Irish, half-native” and lives a shadowy existence in the woods, pestering the British with guerrilla tactics and hoping to form a trade alliance with the local Crees.
Aboard Benton’s ship is Michael Smyth (Landon Liboiron), a petty thief who ended up there unintentionally and, once discovered, is put to use by Benton as a sort of spy: He is to infiltrate Harp’s camp and provide Benton with intelligence. It is presumably this young fellow we’re supposed to be emotionally invested in as he tries to figure out his allegiances and play both sides, and he gets most of the early focus, though other intriguing characters are lurking about who may emerge.
One is Grace Emberly (Zoe Boyle), who owns a tavern because, well, in these wilderness dramas there always seems to be a female tavern owner. She’s the only female character of substance in the early going, and she’s interesting: savvy, beautiful and scheming. Also of note: an opportunistic priest (Christian McKay) who never met a drink he didn’t like.
The series, a joint effort by Netflix and Discovery Canada, is refreshingly free of pretension, unlike some in the genre. Yes, there are serious themes to be drawn from it if you’re so inclined — it’s about greed, and empire-building, and exploitation of a land and its native inhabitants — but you can also feel free to take it as simply an action-packed, rather bloody tale from those frothy preindustrial days.
Don’t miss it!
Frontier is now streaming in the UAE.
