Hatfields and McCoys (History Channel)

Need to know who won? The doctor on Star Trek was not Dr. Hatfield.

And Charlize Theron would be happy with any slice of pie.

 

As much as I ended up enjoying the miniseries, I wonder why they felt the need to make Johnse such a sympathetic character. Even in History's two-hour documentary from last year -- narrated by Costner -- experts indicate that Johnse was every bit as hard-nosed as Cap and Anse. Not only that, though slow, the same was said of Cotton Top. But from what I can gather, the miniseries stayed pretty close to actual events. Of course, truth is always stranger than fiction.

 

Because they wanted to write in a Romeo and Juliet theme of lovelorn romantics tragically torn apart by feuding families. The real Johnse Hatfield was a callous whoremongering cad and, as you noted, was paradoxically a fervent hardassed participant in the feud despite his romantic dalliances with McCoy women.

But that was hardly the only embellishment for dramatic purposes. The whole "desertion as a cause of the feud" storyline seems to be something the writers added just so that they could start the movie with some cool fictional Civil War scenes. The real Anse Hatfield was nowhere near as sympathetic or reluctant a figure as Costner portrayed in the movie's early parts (no mention at all of his Logan's Wildcats guerrilla group that been menacing the area). And the film wrote in quite a few superfluous shootings to make the body county--and extent of warfare--appear far higher than it actually was.

 

I enjoyed it, despite the liberties and shortcomings, which manifested themselves increasingly as the miniseries progressed. In this day and age, ANYTHING that can get 10 million people to feign interest in even an approximation of history is a winner in my eyes.

 

I just watched it on DVR this weekend. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Not enough to spend 6 hours watching it again, but it wasn't a waste of time.

Thought Costner was solid. Paxton was better. Tom Berenger was even better.

 

The fact that the vast majority of people are so ill-informed is the reason that fictionalization accounts of historic events bother me so much.

 

So, I was watching a marathon of Pawn Stars on Sunday and noticed the May 28 episode of the show featured a gun believed to be owned by Cap Hatfield. Of course, the genius historian Rick gave a nice little summation of the Hatfield-McCoy feud and all that jazz.

How's that for synergy? Pawn Stars features a possible Hatfield-McCoy relic the day the Hatfield & McCoy mini-series airs.

 

American Pickers tried to get in on the act, too.

They teased a former Hatfield or McCoy who got pretty riled up at the Pickers, but it turned out to be a joke. Classic bait-and-switch shit.

And the Pickers themselves? Yeah, they began a little feud in the van, which included a piece of tape down the middle, separating the two sides.

That show dropped a couple of notches for me after that blatant bullshit.

 

It's stuff like that which really turns me off about a show/network. I'm all about cross-promoting and all that jazz, but creating it is annoying as hell.

 

Two down - we need 10 more to tie, 11 to win.

 

Who do these Pickers think they are? Peter and Bobby Brady?