Texas Rising - review

A 5 episodes, 1.5 hours long each, series that was recently aired by the History Channel (you can watch it on their website), this prestigious series details the Texan War of Independance.

That`s Sam Houston for you not so history buffs.  

Starting right after the well known events that had transpired at The Alamo, the series focusses on the initial refusal (for good reasons) of Houston taking the battle to Santa Anna, while the `Napoleon of the West` ran rampage through Texas, which back then was still under Mexican control.

The series is filled with strong actor names, like Bill Paxton, Ray Liotta, Kris Kristofferson... but unfortunatly, also some `former` greats that, sorry to say, didn`t really shine here, Brendan Fraser for one.

While the series does of course has to take some artistic freedom and add some fictional characters (Anderson, Lorca, ...) to the roster to have some background stories going on, it is rather well made and rather accurate.

Heck, in episode 4, which in a way is the `finale` with the battle of San Jacinto, they could have actually done, if they wanted, a second by second recollection of the battle.  Sam Houston needed a full 18 minutes with his small Texan force to defeat a Mexican host many times their size.

It`s an intense episode, and even the `wrapping up` episode 5 has it`s sheer drama, and leads to the tale of how the Texas Rangers came into being, the setting up of the Comanche Wars (their next project it seems) and... the tale of the Yellow Rose of Texas.

Go watch it, it`s definitly worth it!