Heartland is a Canadian modern Western family drama, about an extended family and their friends, foes and horses in a small town in Alberta. It is the longest-running dramatic TV series in Canadian history, with a 15th season already playing in Canada (due for release next year in the USA), and a 16th season still to be made. Despite all that, we’d never heard of the show until it went up on Netflix. We binged this one for months! And we loved it.
As the series opens, the central character, Amy Fleming (played by Amber Marshall) is a 15-year old girl living on a horse farm with her divorced mother, her older sister and their grandfather. Unfortunately, Amy's mother dies in the first episode, with Amy in the car beside her, while trying to rescue an abused horse.
From there, we see Amy grow and mature as a young woman coming into her own as a gifted "horse whisperer", trainer and rider, just like her mother, while we get to know all the extended family members, including several generations of foster kids and other young strays and friends that end up on the farm and in the local community.
There's so much to love about this series: the characters, their lives and loves, the gorgeous Alberta scenery, and the studies in complex family relationships and child development that run throughout. There are also lots of Western-style adventures, including probably every use of a horse anyone has ever imagined, and plenty of humor.
It was interesting to discover that Amber Marshall, and several of the other actors in the show, are accomplished equestrians in real life, who actually perform many of the stunts and riding scenes showing horses (and riders) doing amazing things.
There is also an intrinsic Canadian "niceness" to the show -- the limited amount of violence rarely goes beyond fisticuffs, sex is usually no more than fully-clothed passionate kisses and hugs followed by scene changes, and conflict is usually resolved through slowly working things out. A delightful long-running treat, which got us through many long evenings in 2021. Highly recommended.
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