Wild, Wild West

I caught a majority of the History Channel's excellent 'Hatfields & McCoys' mini series.  By majority I mean that I missed all of part one, so I have no idea what sparked the feud outside of what Wikipedia tells me.  However, I did watch most of part two and all of part three.  Here are some takeaways:

Kevin Costner should stick to doing westerns from now on. His stoic reading aloud of other people's words fits in perfectly with the strong silent types that westerns are contractually obligated to include in their scripts.  Plus, he can grizzle himself up with the best of them.  Costner was perfect as Devil Anse Hatfield.

Bill Paxton can't help but do Bill Paxton things.  He's not a bad actor (he was great on HBO's 'Big Love'), it's just that he's always Bill Paxton...getting lost in a character isn't his strong suit...he's always Bill Paxton.

There really wasn't a 'right' side to the family feud.  Both sides committed atrocities, but in the end I think the Hatfields won in the body count department...if you can call that winning.

Former indie rock darling Juliana Hatfield is a direct descendent of the feudin' and fightin' Hatfield clan.

If I were transported back in time to the wild west days, I think I'd last about a week before getting shot or dying from the general stink of things.  For some reason, while watching the show, I couldn't get over the notion that everyone stunk to high heaven in the olden days.  Everyone wore natural fiber clothing, it was hot, everything was cooked using wood stoves....I mean, I'm pretty certain even the most hygiene conscious back in the day smelled like a bar rag dipped in bong water that was then dried by a smokey fireplace.  Not good.  But the 'Hatfields & McCoys' was a very well done mini series...don't let the stinky looking people fool ya!