When Will Saints and Strangers Air Again

Worthy themes and a thoughtful tone only go so far in "Saints & Strangers," a sobersided miniseries that seeks an honest recounting of the starting time Thanksgiving betwixt the Pilgrims and Native Americans. This two-nighttime National Geographic Channel event tin't be faulted for its earnest, intelligent examination of how unlike cultures unavoidably come up into disharmonize. Simply rather than giving the eventual clash a despairing inevitability, the storytelling is simply perfunctory, failing to pull many insights out of an all-besides-familiar societal truth.

Debuting Sun and last the following evening, "Saints & Strangers" wants to add together a little historical accuracy and a dose of common cold reality to viewers' upcoming Thanksgiving festivities. Longtime television episodic director Paul A. Edwards ("Sleepy Hollow," "Lost") goes for a stripped-downwardly, realistic atmosphere in his portrayal of the English men and women who fabricated it to North America in 1620 looking for everything from a fresh start to religious freedom. From the miniseries' outset, nosotros option up on unmistakable tensions among these Pilgrims, as Vincent Kartheiser'south soft-spoken, securely religious William Bradford butts heads with Ray Stevenson'due south Stephen Hopkins, a fibroid human being who had been found guilty of wildcat during a previous trip to the New World.

Of course, the challenges aren't simply betwixt each other: The Pilgrims volition also face harsh weather condition, an inhospitable New England terrain and, of course, the ever-present danger of Native Americans, personified by Massasoit (Raoul Trujillo), the stoic but honorable leader of the fearsome Pokanoket tribe. Although Edwards' photographic camera captures the untamed beauty of this virgin land, "Saints & Strangers" never strays too far from a sense of edgy uncertainty, ensuring that we ever feel the life-or-expiry urgency of these Pilgrims as they labor to build a life from scratch at the Plymouth Colony. (That feeling of doubtfulness is only heightened past the fact that not all the miniseries' higher-contour names, including Anna Camp, Ron Livingston and Natascha McElhone, will survive Role 1.)

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Once the English encounter the Pokanoket, the bear witness'southward primal conflict comes into focus: The Pilgrims initially fright what the Native Americans might do them — referring to the Pokanoket as "savages" probably didn't help soften relations — while Massasoit wonders if he should accept their offering of peace and friendship. Edwards works hard to give the two sides of this tense stalemate the proper shading, insisting we come across the situation from both perspectives.

Likewise, the performances, though sometimes a bit one-dimensional, strive to reveal the shared humanity in the Pilgrims and Pokanoket. "Saints & Strangers" probably tilts its sympathy slightly toward the Native Americans, but Bradford and his comrades aren't demonized in order to score like shooting fish in a barrel P.C. points. Kartheiser, in detail, exudes measured, conscientious decency that, as we'll find, doesn't forestall his character from having his judgment compromised by misjudged loyalties.

However, "Saints & Strangers" plays out every bit an overly glum cautionary tale about the perils of mistrust, Edwards slowly setting into motion a predictable concatenation of events in which a delicate truce between the two peoples volition gradually crumble. Much rests in the hands of Squanto (Kalani Queypo), the sole surviving member of another tribe that was wiped out by disease, who serves as interpreter between the English language and the Pokanoket, although the histrion's fiendish expect suggests early on that Squanto's intentions aren't as noble as they appear.

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That lack of dramatic subtlety affects "Saints & Strangers" as a whole: Whether it'south the miniseries' criticism of bullheaded religious devotion or the escalation of tensions between the two peoples, the storytelling (with a script credited to, amongst others, Walon Green and Scrap Johannessen) tends toward the obvious, equally if the historical events necessitated a somber, blunt, pedestrian treatment in gild to dramatize them faithfully. There'due south an aching sadness in the margins of "Saints & Strangers" — how people of practiced intention can still destroy themselves, and how this land's founding was forged in claret and genocide — but the ho-hum execution doesn't do plenty to give America'southward bittersweet origin story the emotional wallop it deserves.

"Saints & Strangers" premieres Sunday at nine p.thousand. on National Geographic Channel.

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