''Frontier'' is a Canadian historical drama television series co-created by Rob Blackie and Peter Blackie, chronicling the North American fur trade in colonial Canada/

Rupert's Land Rupert's Land (french: Terre de Rupert), or Prince Rupert's Land (french: Terre du Prince Rupert, link=no), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin; this was further extended from Rupert's Land t ...

, sometime in the late 1700s or early 1800s. The series is co-produced by

Discovery Canada Discovery Channel (often referred to as simply Discovery) is a Canadian specialty television channel owned by CTV Speciality Television Inc. (a joint venture between Bell Media/ESPN Inc. (80%) and Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns the remaining ...

, as the channel's first original scripted commission, and

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

. The series premiered on November 6, 2016. The series was renewed for a second season in October 2016, ahead of its premiere, which premiered on October 18, 2017. ''Frontier'' was renewed for a third season on September 20, 2017, also ahead of the previous second season. The entirety of the third season premiered first on Netflix on November 23, 2018, and was broadcast in Canada between December 7 and 21, 2018.

Synopsis

The series chronicles the North American fur trade in late 1700s Canada, and follows Declan Harp (

Jason Momoa Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa (; born August 1, 1979) is an American actor. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series '' Baywatch: Hawaii'' (1999–2001), which was followed by portrayals of Ronon Dex on the S ...

), a half-Irish, half-Cree outlaw who is campaigning to breach the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

's monopoly on the fur trade in Canada, which has become corrupt and engages in illegal activities to enrich itself.

Cast

Main

Recurring

* Sean Wei Mah as Omaciw *

Graham Abbey Graham Abbey (born Graham Robert Thomson Abbey, March 24, 1971) is a Canadian film, television and stage actor, who is best known for his role as Gray Jackson in TV drama '' The Border''. History At the then Stratford Festival of Canada, the e ...

as MacLaughlan (season 1) * A.C. Peterson as Governor Threadwell (season 1) * Peter O'Meara as Peter Carruthers (season 1) * Nathaniel Arcand as Wahush (season 2) * Star Slade as Minno (season 2) * Ryan Tarran as Wadlow (season 3)

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2016)

Season 2 (2017)

Season 3 (2018)

Production

The series is co-produced by

, as the channel's first original scripted commission, and

. Filming for Frontier took place in several locations in

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, and

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada, as well as

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

and

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

in the United Kingdom.

Release

The series is produced in 4K ultra high definition; on January 8, 2016,

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

confirmed that ''Frontier'' would stream in 4K via the Discovery Go app exclusively on

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

4K smart TVs. The series premiered on November 6, 2016. The series was renewed for a second season in October 2016, ahead of its premiere, which premiered on October 18, 2017. ''Frontier'' was renewed for a third season on September 20, 2017, also ahead of the previous season. The entirety of the third season premiered first on Netflix on November 23, 2018, and was broadcast in Canada between December 7 and 21, 2018. Internationally, the series is distributed by

, with the first season available from January 20, 2017. An exclusivity agreement meant that the series would not be available on Netflix in Canada until 2017.

Reception

The first season received mixed reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

it has an approval rating from critics of 43% based on 14 reviews, with the site's consensus reading "Jason Momoa's powerhouse performance as Declan Harp is ultimately weighed down by ''Frontier'' often sluggish storytelling". Metacritic gave the series a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on reviews from 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In a positive review, John Doyle of ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' described the series as "an action-packed, uncomplicated and very entertaining yarn about the cutthroats who created this country by plundering it, when they weren't busy killing each other". Doyle felt the opening episode's handling of interactions with First Nations was handled "delicately," commenting that ''Frontier'' was "far from being a whitewashed tale about the English, Scots, Irish and French battling out for possession of fur and land". The second season was better received and has a 100% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 5 reviews.

Awards and nominations

Canadian Screen Awards

Directors Guild of Canada Awards

References

External links

*
Watch Frontier , Netflix Official Site
on

* {{Netflix original ended series (2012–2018) 2010s Canadian drama television series 2016 Canadian television series debuts 2018 Canadian television series endings Canadian Western (genre) television series Discovery Channel (Canada) original programming English-language Netflix original programming Historical television series Television shows about Native Americans 2010s Western (genre) television series