Howdy cowpokes! Today I thought I'd give you an inside look at what's been my guilty pleasure for the last month and a half.
I've been binge watching a Canadian show named Heartland. The show is based on a book series by the author Lauren Brooke. It is now the longest running Canadian drama series ever, surpassing Street Legal in 2015. It originally aired in October 2007 on the CBC, they're now filming it's 11th season.. which I'm pretty excited for to say the least. Clearly I'm not the only enjoying this show but I don't know if that makes me feel any better, I'm pretty sure most of its viewers are women and children?..😊
I thought I'd give you some background as many people on Discord have heard me blabbering about it by now in the chats.
First of all the show takes place on a ranch in Alberta, Canada. Tragedy brings the family together when Amy's mother gets killed in a car accident. Two kids, Amy and Lou Flemming grow up on a 600 acre ranch that's owned by their grandfather Jack Bartlett, he's a tough but caring cattle rancher/cowboy.
Amy, the youngest of two girls, discovers she's got her mother's gift for training and communicating with horses. She's a sort of horse whisperer I guess...people from all over bring her troubled or injured horses and she helps get them back to good.
Amy's older sister Lou, is an aspiring business professional who moves back to the ranch after her and her husband split and she helps run the business side of the ranch. The two sisters go thru highs and lows depending on the show, I find it riviting, plus there's no shortage of beautiful horses and rugged Canadian nature shots which is pleasing to the senses.
Some episodes are heartwarming and others are quite tragic. There's no shortage of drama on this ranch but it all seems to work out in the end. Which is good because my heart can't handle being broken after the cancelation of my other other favorite Canadian show, The Littlest Hobo 🐕
Also on the ranch is a troubled teen named Ty, he got in some trouble after his parents split and his bastard of a dad goes to jail. He's living on the ranch as a sort of probation/community service under the care of grandad Jack. You see it's not only horses that get healed here.. it's also people. 😊 Ty learns alot about himself and also falls in love with Amy and becomes a vet. Ofcourse he's still got an edge so before that he gets in a few dustups and a bunch of compelling storylines like a motorcycle wreck and even a plane crash! ✈ 😱
Without giving too much of the plot away there's also Amy and Lou's Dad, a rough around the edges cowboy named Tim Flemming. He's a former rodeo champion but falls out of their life shortly after the girls mom dies. He gets injured and becomes addicted to pills and alcohol so the transition back into the girls life is rocky to say the least. Jack, the grandad of the girls and owner of the sprawling ranch, doesn't want the girls being hurt so for a longtime tries to keep Tim out of the picture. What drama!
How the hell did this show become my life you may ask? Great question..
Basically I quit my job so I have no shortage of spare time. My wife was watching one of the newer seasons one day and I happened to get caught up in one of the episodes. When I made the mistake of asking Melissa about one of the characters she said she would start the entire show over and before you know it I was hooked!
So she went from watching season 10 to going back to the very first episode and rewatching it all with me again. Netflix has 10 seasons of this Canadian treasure and I think we're up to season 6 now? We watch a few every night depending on how much my heart can handle lol
Well there you have it, my Heartland addiction explained for everyone. I'm not sure how long they're gonna keep this show going but it doesn't seem to be slowing down yet?! For me that's great news because I can't get enough 🙌
I dare anyone to check it out on Netflix and see if you don't get addicted to the captivating storyline and breathtaking scenery. It's got everything, action, drama, suspense, comedy and ofcourse tons of beautiful and majestic horsies!
Ok I think that's enough..
Thanks for reading,
*Pictures courtesy of CBC
