Heartland

First off, I'm a 32 year old man living in Upstate New York. I drive a truck and have seen a horse up close maybe 3 times. I love this show. The acting is great and the script is written very well. Every now and then, you can predict something, but very rarely can you be specific. Everyone talks about the horses and the heartwarming tales. I agree with all of that. I'm writing this as of the completion of the 8th season. Ty's character was my favorite. I loved Amy as well, but Ty is the kid with the troubled past. I enjoyed how his past became relevant more than once. It's not like he moved and everyone back home forgot about him. He grew as a person and a man. Great things were portrayed in this show.

Also the message Heartland and nature portrays. There is more to live than city living. There's more out there. And it's a richer life.

I strongly recommend this show.

Heartland is a heartwarming, and exciting family series. My daughters and I love the show - it has become a real mother - daughters time for us. We love horses and the "Healing Horses / Healing Hearts" theme is really inviting and enduring to us. We have a large number of friends and family that share our feelings and interest in the show - which makes watching it even more exciting because my daughters love going to school the next day to talk with all of their friends about what happened on the last episode. We just finished watching the season finale and my daughters begged me to go online to find out if the first season will be coming out on DVD and when the second season will possibly start. We find the show very well acted, and extremely well written - the story line is infuriatingly enticing (we can hardly wait to see what will happen to the characters next). The fact that it is based in the Canadian Rockies is just a bonus and certainly must make filming the beautiful landscapes easier. The camera angles and lighting certainly create the right mood for the moment and really make the characters and setting believable. It is hard to believe that a story based on such a tragedy can bring such feelings of love and happiness to the surface, but this show really pulls it off. There is just the right combination of action, drama, romance and comedy to make it enjoyable for everyone watching. We look forward to the next season (we are saddened that the first season is over already). We surely hope that the first season will be brought out on DVD very soon as it is the type of show that one can watch over and over again.

Great story-telling in this series and every aspect is well produced: acting, writing, and the incredible scenery. I'm about halfway through the 12-season show, and am simply enjoying the heck out of it. The horses are great actors, too, and should win awards. It does seem everyone is doing most of their own riding, they make it all so very realistic. The lead Amy played by Amber is incredible, who knew one person could do so many different types of riding and do it well? Horse dancing, to dressage, to jumping, to rodeo, to racing, to communicating deeply with horses in a genuine heart-felt way gets conveyed incredibly well. There's lots of topics that reveal ranch life in today's world that is interesting as well. From wild horses to oil, class war, business vs. family life, addiction, native people's oppression and resilience, death and loss, relationship dysfunction, craziness and creative solutions (no sex). Then there's the whole healing aspect that comes from living in and/or visiting the land where the heart rules. The therapeutic work with the horses affects the people and vice versa in sometimes amazingly touching and profoundly metaphorical ways. The show goes deep and is lighthearted too. It cannot be an easy show for the actors to do because it is quite physically demanding. There's violence, though not too bad, fires, explosions, shooting, avalanches, rescues, fights, lots of action. The characters, including repeating characters and are so well-drawn and acted, you end up taking them to heart. There are a few places where what they do doesn't quite fit with them, what they know or would do in just a few situations, but otherwise the character arcs, their growth and development over the years is an incredible journey of the heart. Totally enjoyable for the whole family, too. If you don't love horses when you start this series, you will.

I read the books when I was little and never knew they had been made into a TV series until this year so I had some major catching up to do! I can't really remember too much of the books just the basic bits which is probably a good thing.

I found this show totally addictive. The characters were brilliant, there was not a single one I didn't like, which adds to its watchability. Jack what a man; so well acted and such a great character. I would say my one problem with the series so far is that they have not used Caleb as well as they could of. Especially in the last few series where he was pretty much forgotten about.

I am a horse person but I could quite easily watch the series without the horses, they are an added bonus. The plots, although at times very predictable, are incredibly heart warming and I challenge you to watch some episodes without crying.

My only niggles (apart from the Caleb thing) would be just general stuff you know from having horses... your finger nails never stay lovely and manicured for more than 5 minutes and if you manage to stay clean you obviously haven't done things properly!Other than that its a brilliant show and I look forward to the next series!

Living where I am in Buffalo, New York I'm fortunate to get a few Canadian television shows from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which is on my cable package. If I didn't I wouldn't be seeing Heartland which I'm informed is Canada's longest running television series.

Family patriarch is Shaun Johnston who is a man of the land and in his way of living land means you grow things and or you feed animals off the things you grow. He's a cowboy and still a working one at that. But he's smart enough to bend with the times and part of his land is now a dude ranch for dudes who want to pretend. Not thrilled with the idea, but it's an income and the family works at it as a family enterprise.

My favorite of the characters is Chris Potter who is best known for the role of Peter Caine in Kung Fu - The Legend Continues. He's Johnston's errant son-in-law, a former rodeo star who can't forget the roar of the crowd and hasn't quite matured. As this series is almost a decade old Potter and the rest have really honed their characters pretty good.

Heartland is a really nice product from Canada and we Americans who can see it should be grateful.