Hallmark shows like this and Signed, Sealed Delivered are not my usual viewing preference, but I do find them a pleasant refuge when I get too burned out on how meanspirited my own species really is. Watching WCTH started out as a reassuring fantasy of people learning to be kind to each other and a nice journey back into turn of the century Canadian frontier days. It became less historically convincing after the first season, but I'm not going to rag on that too much. It's squeaky clean, which must be nice for families with kids, but with a focus on romantic interests. After a while, I started following the show less as a short-term refuge from modern life and more as a social study. I'm sure people who like this show like it for different reasons, but its high ratings intrigue me.
It didn't take long for me to grow annoyed at the total subtraction of indigenous populations from this frontier epic, and unless I missed an extra in one of the rare city scenes, I didn't see the first person of color until season 4 when a new blacksmith came to town. Granted, I don't expect the Pacific Northwest wilderness at this time to be a hotbed of diversity, but so far you'd think North America was just a vacant paradise until white settlers showed up to bloodlessly claim it.
Now, I didn't expect this show to dive headlong into serious issues like the decimation of Native Americans or the wages of slavery or, like some other shows, address adult topics like homosexuality or addiction with a modern, gritty perspective. And it surely doesn't. WCTH does promote a gentle feminism (unsurprising given its target audience) that I do appreciate, even if it's likely not representative of its time and place.
But the bread and butter is the show's focus on ethics and morality, and not the expected hidebound religious morality (God is mentioned only occasionally). It actually does a nice job of showing people going through personal and interpersonal challenges and working through them, and showing how a community comes together and (occasionally) doesn't.
But the biggest surprise for me was how deftly it ties genuine morality to fairness, activism, and fighting abuse of power. Henry Gowan represents a corrupt survivor who serves as a persistent annoyance for the town that slinks out of accountability, (light spoilers here) first as the manager of the coal mine when his pursuit of profit results in a collapse that widows half the town, then replacing the mayor that was in his pocket, then getting an investigation into misappropriation of town resources suspended by promising the railroad a 100% tax break on their new line (the interim mayor promised only a 20% tax break, which was met with some resentment). The railroad helps manufacture and suppress evidence that prevents justice from interfering with its own profits, elevating and sabotaging members of the community according to their compliance with this goal. Even the protagonist, committed educator Elizabeth Thatcher, becomes a target for pushing the railroad representative to consider the impact of its activities on the community.
The show has quite often touched on the most pressing problem of our modern era--greed, and how it makes human beings treat their fellow man in reprehensible ways. It demonstrates how businesses can either be a good citizen within the community (Coulter's lumber mill) or a drain on its resources and damaging to its residents (coalmine, railroad). For this, I give it high marks.
The episode I'm watching right now (s4e7) is themed on a paraphrase of the Edmund Burke quote: "Bad things happen when good people do nothing". That pretty much sums up the show; it's about standing up for whatever is kind, fair, and just in every conflict, even if it does so in a somewhat oversimplified world. Even if I usually get more out of edgier shows, I appreciate any entertainment that sends this message cogently, and this one does.
It didn't take long for me to grow annoyed at the total subtraction of indigenous populations from this frontier epic, and unless I missed an extra in one of the rare city scenes, I didn't see the first person of color until season 4 when a new blacksmith came to town. Granted, I don't expect the Pacific Northwest wilderness at this time to be a hotbed of diversity, but so far you'd think North America was just a vacant paradise until white settlers showed up to bloodlessly claim it.
Now, I didn't expect this show to dive headlong into serious issues like the decimation of Native Americans or the wages of slavery or, like some other shows, address adult topics like homosexuality or addiction with a modern, gritty perspective. And it surely doesn't. WCTH does promote a gentle feminism (unsurprising given its target audience) that I do appreciate, even if it's likely not representative of its time and place.
But the bread and butter is the show's focus on ethics and morality, and not the expected hidebound religious morality (God is mentioned only occasionally). It actually does a nice job of showing people going through personal and interpersonal challenges and working through them, and showing how a community comes together and (occasionally) doesn't.
But the biggest surprise for me was how deftly it ties genuine morality to fairness, activism, and fighting abuse of power. Henry Gowan represents a corrupt survivor who serves as a persistent annoyance for the town that slinks out of accountability, (light spoilers here) first as the manager of the coal mine when his pursuit of profit results in a collapse that widows half the town, then replacing the mayor that was in his pocket, then getting an investigation into misappropriation of town resources suspended by promising the railroad a 100% tax break on their new line (the interim mayor promised only a 20% tax break, which was met with some resentment). The railroad helps manufacture and suppress evidence that prevents justice from interfering with its own profits, elevating and sabotaging members of the community according to their compliance with this goal. Even the protagonist, committed educator Elizabeth Thatcher, becomes a target for pushing the railroad representative to consider the impact of its activities on the community.
The show has quite often touched on the most pressing problem of our modern era--greed, and how it makes human beings treat their fellow man in reprehensible ways. It demonstrates how businesses can either be a good citizen within the community (Coulter's lumber mill) or a drain on its resources and damaging to its residents (coalmine, railroad). For this, I give it high marks.
The episode I'm watching right now (s4e7) is themed on a paraphrase of the Edmund Burke quote: "Bad things happen when good people do nothing". That pretty much sums up the show; it's about standing up for whatever is kind, fair, and just in every conflict, even if it does so in a somewhat oversimplified world. Even if I usually get more out of edgier shows, I appreciate any entertainment that sends this message cogently, and this one does.