Television series

Frontier

Name: Frontier
Genre: Drama, Action, Adventure
Released: 2016
Cast: Jason Momoa, Alun Armstrong, Landon Liboiron, Zoe Boyle, Jessica Matten

Frontier is a violent, sweeping drama set in 1700s Canada where Irish newcomer Michael Smyth gets pulled into a brutal power struggle over the fur trade. Jason Momoa commands the screen as a ruthless outlaw fighting against a corporate empire. It's grimy, bloodstained period television—operatic in ambition, visceral in execution, made for people who want their historical drama messy and uncompromising.

TVMaze rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like historical sagas built on rival schemers, where the fur trade's money and menace drive every scene and the frozen wilderness feels like a character rather than a backdrop.

Skip it if you need a tidy, self-contained plot, since this sprawls across many factions, or you flinch at brutal violence.

What it asks of you: Episodes run about 47 minutes, and eighteen of them across three seasons ask for steady attention, since alliances shift and loyalties need tracking.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Peaky Blinders2013

A transformative vehicle for a charismatic lead navigating criminal networks during a specific historical moment. Both shows build their worlds through family loyalty, brutality, and the collision of old power and new ambition in richly textured settings.

But Peaky Blinders demands patience through slower early episodes. The accents can be challenging, and the violence, while purposeful, accumulates into relentless grimness.

The Last Kingdom2015

An outsider carving out survival and authority in a time of conquest. Both immerse you in a specific historical period through intimate character conflict rather than sweeping battles, with a protagonist who refuses to belong to anyone's rules but his own.

But It's a long commitment—five seasons of varying quality. Some historical liberties frustrate enthusiasts, and the pacing occasionally slows beneath its scope.

Deadwood2004

Raw, lawless frontier life where language crackles and every conversation negotiates power. Like Frontier, it treats historical brutality as the texture of daily life, not spectacle, building empire through negotiation and blood.

But The dialogue is intentionally dense and profane—dialogue-heavy episodes can feel stagey. It's unrelentingly bleak and won't resolve most threads in ways that satisfy.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Frontier

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Black Robe1991

Both explore how European power projects collide with Indigenous sovereignty in early colonial Canada, but Black Robe interrogates the spiritual cost while Frontier examines the commercial mechanics.

A Jesuit missionary navigates 1600s Canada through Indigenous territories during the fur trade era. It's the precise historical and geographic space Frontier inhabits, but told through the colonizer's spiritual crisis rather than commercial ruthlessness—the moral weight lands differently.

But It moves slowly and contemplatively, opposite Frontier's kinetic violence. Religious existentialism won't engage viewers looking for plot momentum, and the spiritual framework can feel distant.

Vikings2013

Another Jason Momoa vehicle steeped in historical expansion and tribal conflict. It shares Frontier's interest in how cultures collide when one tries to dominate the other, with similarly potent violence and sexual politics.

But Momoa's later seasons feel like a different show entirely. The first two seasons carry most of the weight; what follows is diluted and increasingly melodramatic.

Hell on Wheels2011

Anson Mount leads a violent character study of railroad expansion through conflict and revenge. Like Frontier, it's obsessed with how power consolidates in frontier spaces and what violence costs those who wield it.

But The supporting cast wavers in quality, and some subplots feel repetitive. Production values improve as it progresses, which means the first season looks cheaper than it deserves.

The Terror2018

A superbly crafted exploration of survival and authority breakdown in a hostile environment. Both shows treat historical settings with serious visual commitment and understand that isolation breeds moral compromise.

But The supernatural elements divide viewers—some find them essential, others feel they undermine the historical grounding. It's deliberately slow and can feel suffocating.

Taboo2017

Tom Hardy embodies a dangerous outsider navigating colonial power structures. Both shows are fascinated by how individuals exploit empire's gaps and contradictions, wrapped in atmospheric, morally compromised storytelling.

But Taboo is cryptic to the point of opacity. The plot withholders information deliberately, and a second season took years to arrive, leaving threads suspended indefinitely.

Banshee2013

A con artist claiming a new identity in a lawless frontier territory. Like Frontier, it's interested in how outsiders remake themselves through violence and cunning, with commitment to action and moral corruption.

But The tone veers wildly between camp and darkness—not always intentionally. It's messier than Frontier, which some find liberating and others find sloppy.

Godless2017

A limited western about power, survival, and the fragility of frontier communities. It shares Frontier's visual commitment to harsh landscapes and its understanding that civilization is just a performance violence maintains.

But It's only one season and doesn't fully resolve its narrative. The pacing stumbles in places, prioritizing atmosphere over forward momentum.

Come and See1985

Both refuse the consolation of heroism. They show violence as the default language of their worlds, changing everyone it touches into something diminished.

A devastating war film about brutality and innocence destroyed. It shares Frontier's refusal to glamorize violence and its conviction that trauma rewrites who we are—but it's a different register entirely, stripping away the commercial intrigue for raw human deterioration.

But It's one of cinema's most difficult watches. The violence is not spectacular—it's mundane and horrifying. Most viewers will find it unbearably bleak rather than cathartic.

The Revenant2015

Both understand the fur trade as the engine of North American expansion and treat landscape as a character that punishes human ambition equally across faction lines.

A frontier survival narrative obsessed with landscape, revenge, and the brutality of frontier commerce. Unlike Frontier's ensemble intrigue, it's a solo odyssey through wilderness—but it shares the conviction that 1700s North America is a space where civilization evaporates.

But It's visually overwhelming and narratively thin. Some find the repetitive survival sequences exhausting rather than meditative, and the revenge engine doesn't carry emotional weight for everyone.