First off I love Teddy Roosevelt's story and most people wouldn't believe he did what he actually did. From tracking down outlaws to storming San Juan Hill to exploring the Amazon but this production was just bad. Poor set design poor acting and cheesy dialog. My first peeve is the choice of Mason Beal (who?) for the lead role. In real life Teddy was a sickly child who overcame that through "living the vigorous life." This included vigorous exercise, boxing, rowing and hunting trips to name a few. He was a husky man of 5'10" 190-200 pounds not the 5'7" 145 pip squeak Mason Beal. I feel his acting occasionally hits the mark in speech type and high reedy pitch but he wasn't the weak fragile little man shown here. He radically reformed the New York police department while commissioner during a time of extreme corruption. He was a very capable man who never backed down
The acting here is categorically bad and often painful to listen to. Very stereotypical portrayals of the characters and at times very cheap backlot sets make this feel like an after school special. The antagonist Marquis de Morès is portrayed by an American actor with a horrendous French accent that borders on comical. In reality the 2 did clash occasionally, once over land rights and once over cattle sale, the Marquis did kill a cowboy in a gunfight but not over land purchases.
Elkhorn was made for the INSP cable Network which I've never heard of and it shows in production value. If you like Hallmark Channel quality production you may like this Series because his story truly is incredible. I just hope one day that story can be told by more capable hands.
