What makes it different from others?

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Should be titled "The American West In Movies". I love both westerns and the real history of the west but the aim of this show seems to be to convince viewers that the entertainment turned out by Hollywood is historically accurate, anyone with a passing knowledge will know that it is not. Fails to present facts to the point of embarrassment, too afraid to show many of the "heroes" depicted as they really were rather than the romanticised ideal. A missed opportunity.

Re: The American West. I normally enjoy programs like the American West and rarely challenge quoted 'facts'. However, I must take exception to one glaring error which the narrator (I believe to be Robert Redford) quotes about 20 minutes into the first program in the series. He states "from the Missouri River to the coast of California the frontier is almost 500 million square miles of wide open land". Whilst I appreciate that correct grammar is often sacrificed in order to provide the viewer with the basic facts, this statement is clearly wrong. The entire surface of the Earth is just under 197 million square miles which is well short of "almost 500 million square miles". Please keep the program factual. Bob Langridge

If you're going to make a documentary series about the same old people as every other documentary series, at least be accurate. Find something new. Offer perspective. Reveal details and nuance which make the information fresh. This series does none of it. It's dull, boring, trite and poorly produced at all levels. After an interesting series like "Hell on Wheels", AMC embarrassed itself by running this waste of time. The director, producers and writers should be ashamed of themselves for the shoddy, lazy product they put together.

I was looking forward to seeing this series, but after the first three episodes, I think I will pass on the remainder. Being a student of western expansion history, and in particular the Little Bighorn battle (off and on for the past forty two years). Each June 25th usually refreshes my interest. And having read the narratives from participants in the battle in the past several years, all I can say is I was disappointed. I will just say, I observed too many inaccuracies to take this series too seriously. From the rail road spike in backwards and improper tools used to on the railroad to inaccuracies in the equipment and tactics during the Little Bighorn segments. Even "image flops" making right handed tools appear left handed. Just too many "plot holes", in my opinion. Hopefully it will inspire folks to further research the parts they found interesting.