Heartland
Ok, so I know I have a tendency to occasionally ramble on about TV shows, but this one has to do with horses. It's amazing. I love it. You'll love it; I can almost guarantee it. Whether you're a horse lover or not, it's got a little bit of something for everyone.
Heartland is a fun family drama about a girl's work with abused, abandoned, or problematic horses. She learned everything she knows from her mother and continues her work while learning her own life lessons and her own inner strength in the process. While Amy is the main character, the show also focuses on her family (her grandpa, Jack; her sister, Lou; her estranged father, Tim) and those close to her (stable hand and potential love interest, Ty; precocious younger neighbor, Mallory; best friend, Soraya; and competitive, cruel neighbors, mother and daughter, Val and Ashley; (and starting from the second season to the present, stable hand Caleb)).
This TV series was originally based on a book series by Lauren Brooke by the same name. There were somewhere around 20 books with a few special editions. I read all of them growing up, so imagine my surprise a few years ago when I learned that they had been made into a show! Granted, the show has a few key differences that are obvious from the beginning, and it takes a lot of different turns as far as storylines go than the books did. But I love it. I don't think the differences take anything away from the books. I look at them as two things that I love that are inspired by each other but have different things to offer. And honestly, the same theme is present in the show as in the books - a family who comes together to heal each other during a terrible situation and continues to mend their broken bonds and continue to help each other through both life's everyday difficulties and the bigger road bumps that they come across, while in the process healing and helping the troubled and sometimes broken horses that come to them.
I'm writing about all of this today because I realized I still have an Amazon gift card to use, and I've decided to finally purchase the first couple seasons on DVD!
This has been more difficult than it sounds. Mind you, everything that has been shown in the US so far (we're a season and a half behind the Canadian airings because we picked it up a lot later) is on Netflix. If it's been show on TV in your country, Netflix will put up the episodes/seasons that have been shown. I always come across people who complain about the fact that Canada is on *insert season here* and their country only has up to *insert earlier season here*. It's simple. Netflix can only rightfully put up what's been aired in your country already, and for a good long while, Canada was the only one showing this show. Everyone else was late to the game in realizing how good it was, so everyone else was behind in picking it up. Now fans are all in a tizzy because they've become hooked on it and realize that they can't watch on Netflix all that has been aired in Canada.
Now, this is not to say that you can't get the Canadian DVDs, which is what I want to do. If you can find them online, you can buy them and watch up to wherever they have released to. The newest completely aired season is usually released on DVD around the time the new season airs. The reason I want the Canadian DVDs and not the US's GMC/UP-aired DVDs is because they have the seasons laid out differently. Apparently season one in the US had more episodes than season one in Canada or something like that, so if you bought Canada's season one DVD and the US's season 2 DVD, you'd have a 9-episode gap missing between the two because the US's season 2, episode 1 is actually Canada's season 2, episode 10.
So this is why, to avoid all that confusing crap, I just want to go straight to the original source and buy the Canadian DVDs. I watched them based on the Canadian seasons, and that's how I remember them, so why not just get the DVDs from there too? They're a little bit more expensive, but I don't plan on buying them all at once, so I'm not really worried about it. Plus, I'm using a gift card this time around, so no harm done to my bank account!
*Also, all of the links to the DVDs that I put up on here are for the Canada DVDs. The US DVDs will have an orange band at the top in place of the red band that the Canadian DVDs have. If you do decide to buy them, just be careful to make sure you get the same ones that will line up with each other properly.*
**Since my 24th birthday is coming up in less than 3 months, if anyone wants to get me a gift and doesn't know what to buy, Amazon gift cards are something you CANNOT go wrong with for me. If I don't use it for something like this, I usually use it for books or things for my critters. Hint hint, wink wink. :) **
So does anyone else out there watch Heartland? What do you think of it, and why would you recommend it to others, whether horse people or not?
Heartland is a fun family drama about a girl's work with abused, abandoned, or problematic horses. She learned everything she knows from her mother and continues her work while learning her own life lessons and her own inner strength in the process. While Amy is the main character, the show also focuses on her family (her grandpa, Jack; her sister, Lou; her estranged father, Tim) and those close to her (stable hand and potential love interest, Ty; precocious younger neighbor, Mallory; best friend, Soraya; and competitive, cruel neighbors, mother and daughter, Val and Ashley; (and starting from the second season to the present, stable hand Caleb)).
This TV series was originally based on a book series by Lauren Brooke by the same name. There were somewhere around 20 books with a few special editions. I read all of them growing up, so imagine my surprise a few years ago when I learned that they had been made into a show! Granted, the show has a few key differences that are obvious from the beginning, and it takes a lot of different turns as far as storylines go than the books did. But I love it. I don't think the differences take anything away from the books. I look at them as two things that I love that are inspired by each other but have different things to offer. And honestly, the same theme is present in the show as in the books - a family who comes together to heal each other during a terrible situation and continues to mend their broken bonds and continue to help each other through both life's everyday difficulties and the bigger road bumps that they come across, while in the process healing and helping the troubled and sometimes broken horses that come to them.
I'm writing about all of this today because I realized I still have an Amazon gift card to use, and I've decided to finally purchase the first couple seasons on DVD!
This has been more difficult than it sounds. Mind you, everything that has been shown in the US so far (we're a season and a half behind the Canadian airings because we picked it up a lot later) is on Netflix. If it's been show on TV in your country, Netflix will put up the episodes/seasons that have been shown. I always come across people who complain about the fact that Canada is on *insert season here* and their country only has up to *insert earlier season here*. It's simple. Netflix can only rightfully put up what's been aired in your country already, and for a good long while, Canada was the only one showing this show. Everyone else was late to the game in realizing how good it was, so everyone else was behind in picking it up. Now fans are all in a tizzy because they've become hooked on it and realize that they can't watch on Netflix all that has been aired in Canada.
Now, this is not to say that you can't get the Canadian DVDs, which is what I want to do. If you can find them online, you can buy them and watch up to wherever they have released to. The newest completely aired season is usually released on DVD around the time the new season airs. The reason I want the Canadian DVDs and not the US's GMC/UP-aired DVDs is because they have the seasons laid out differently. Apparently season one in the US had more episodes than season one in Canada or something like that, so if you bought Canada's season one DVD and the US's season 2 DVD, you'd have a 9-episode gap missing between the two because the US's season 2, episode 1 is actually Canada's season 2, episode 10.
So this is why, to avoid all that confusing crap, I just want to go straight to the original source and buy the Canadian DVDs. I watched them based on the Canadian seasons, and that's how I remember them, so why not just get the DVDs from there too? They're a little bit more expensive, but I don't plan on buying them all at once, so I'm not really worried about it. Plus, I'm using a gift card this time around, so no harm done to my bank account!
*Also, all of the links to the DVDs that I put up on here are for the Canada DVDs. The US DVDs will have an orange band at the top in place of the red band that the Canadian DVDs have. If you do decide to buy them, just be careful to make sure you get the same ones that will line up with each other properly.*
**Since my 24th birthday is coming up in less than 3 months, if anyone wants to get me a gift and doesn't know what to buy, Amazon gift cards are something you CANNOT go wrong with for me. If I don't use it for something like this, I usually use it for books or things for my critters. Hint hint, wink wink. :) **
So does anyone else out there watch Heartland? What do you think of it, and why would you recommend it to others, whether horse people or not?
I LOVED the books, but I didn't like the show because it was so different. Now that it's been so long since I read the books maybe I should try the series again and not try to compare them lol. :D
ReplyDeleteDefinitely watch it! It IS very different from the books, but it's an awesome show in it's own right. I like to just think of it as it's own thing, different but with the same awesome characters. Just a different storyline. Lou is still an OCD control freak (but awesome sister once she and Amy get past their crap). Amy is still working with horses and does eventually take on the work as her own. Scott is still a vet. Ty is there, though his storyline is a little different; he and Amy are still an item, though. Grandpa Jack is more of a cowboy than what I remember in the books, but he's still Grandpa Jack. And it's a ranch with a lot more Western-style stuff than a more English-oriented barn. Amy does still do show jumping, but it's not as much of a thing in the show as it was in the books. There are a lot of details the same and a lot of details that are different. And plot lines are similar in some parts of the show and different in others. I pretty much just look at it as a different thing, and when stuff from the books pops up, I get all excited like when there's an Easter egg thing in a video game. lol
DeleteIt's totally worth watching. Just keep an open mind and don't expect it to match up with the book series, and I'm sure you'll like it!
Cool! I will definitely try watching it again. I think the reason I didn't like it is because I had just finished reading the series. The part with Ty being a bad boy and the whole western themed thing just really threw me off. I will keep an open mind and try it again though! Thanks!
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