The History Channel once again upholds its tradition of creating rewarding, interesting specials that both entertain and enlighten with Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower which explores the separatists movement away from the Church of England and subsequent settling of Plymouth Colony in North America.

Through the common use of narration, voice over from first party sources and interviews with historians Desperate Crossing begins with the movement away from the recently founded Church of England which saw the King denounce the Pope and place himself as the figurehead and leader of the church. Of course this wouldn’t sit well with everyone and a separatist movement was founded which ultimately lead to a group of different-thinking individuals boarding the Mayflower and setting sail for “the New World” where religious persecution couldn’t find them.

Anyone who progressed through elementary school is familiar with the story of the Pilgrims, their trek across the Atlantic Ocean and peace accord with the native peoples which ultimately led to the first Thanksgiving (or harvest festival as it was known back then). What they don’t necessarily teach you is the deep circumstances which lead the Pilgrims to leave England and the Netherlands to settle the virgin New England coast. What Desperate Crossing does in its three hour runtime is bring in several high profile, and historically accurate, characters for the viewer to follow through the trials and tribulations of the new colony.

What is equally impressive is the program’s runtime of 180 minutes never really feels that long as the pace in which the specials is produced serves up very little downtime and moves along briskly focusing on events and years of significance that helped to shape one of the fledgling colonies of what would become the United States.

The acting is generally good throughout sans some dramatic overacting by the actor portraying King James I, but as a period piece all of the pieces fit together into a believable setting that almost makes you forget you are watching a reenactment.

Two interesting points worth mentioning here are the insight from descendants of the Native Americans who meet and were entertained by the Englishmen at the first Thanksgiving and the fact that that event plays a very small roll in the special’s story. The focus of the program is on setting up the voyage, the reasons that lead up to such a voyage being attempted, and the first, deathly, year here in America which is quite refreshing for those who have seen and heard the story of Thanksgiving dozens of times.

Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower premieres Sunday, November 19 at 8PM/7C on The History Channel. 

Starz Comedy’s new series, Stand Up or Shut Up! takes a backstage look at what it takes to be a standup comedian and how different topics are address by comics. The screener provided delved right into one of the most poignant and hot topics in the comedy world today, politics. The comics interviewed for the micro series, and host Michael Somerville, give their opinions on how political humor is address in the industry and how they use such topics in their own act.

The series breaks things up by showing the comics talking to the camera either walking through a park or walking down the street and also in workshop classes at the American Comedy Institute in New York City complete with small standup sessions with their classmates.

One of the great things about the series is it isn’t afraid to show the would-be-stand-ups fail in some of their jokes, in fact, a great majority of them aren’t particularly funny to start off by even over the course of a 10 minute episode you can see them become more comfortable with some of the material the show addresses.

Standing out amount the comics featured on the show is Aussie-native Josh Zepps who had me laughing hysterically when he compares gay marriage to shellfish and how the Bible doesn’t seem to distinguish any difference between laying with another man and eating crab cakes.

The series has been running since July 21 for a 10 week run culminating in the graduation of the comics from ACI. There’s a lot to like about the series, including its condensed, no-nonsense time frame that gets you in for a few good laughs and leaves you wanting just a little bit more.

Stand Up or Shut Up! runs on Starz Comedy every Friday at 7:50PM. Check your local listings for actual time and channel.

For more information on the series, check out the official website.

The unusually named Broken Trail has nothing to with gay cowboys on the old frontier but everything to do with persevering in the Old West when lawlessness was everywhere and men thought only about themselves and worldly pleasures. The AMC mini series stars Academy Award Winner Robert Duvall and Academy Award Nominee Thomas Haden Church as uncle and nephew, respectively, bringing a herd of wild horses across the frontier to make money and set out on an adventure. But while the story starts with just the two of them, I certainly doesn’t end there as series of unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how you look at it) events bring to men together with five Chinese girls sold into slavery among other accomplices in need of assistance.

Writer Alan Geoffrion’s story is fleshed out and interesting enough to keep you interested but after the first hour you may wonder why the mini was expanded to three hours (four with commercials). In fact, the story doesn’t really start going until well through the first night of the two night event when the main antagonist makes herself evident. There is a lot of character development, and while it’s much appreciated by everyone in the audience, some portions of the film, once again, feel as though they are slightly padding. As the movie goes on the heart and honesty that these seemingly rugged cowboys possess becomes ever the more apparent.

The brutality of the Old West isn’t shied away from either as gun battles, hangings, and attempted rapes are a staple of the conflict the main characters must face every day during their adventure. One particularly surprising moment is a bloody shoot-first-explain-later battle in which Duvall’s character Print Ritter opens fire for seemingly no reason on another man. Its only after his corpse lays before the men do we learn why these events took place.

Walter Hill’s direction and cinematography takes advantage of the untamed wilderness with some amazing shots showcasing beautiful sunsets and vistas, just as they would have appeared before the skyscraper seemed to block out all the mountains from view.

Duvall, who also produced the film, still has a lot in him playing his signature old, wise character he’s played in many movies before, but the character suits him well and he fills the role wonderfully. The soon-to-be-Sandman Church plays the role of the slightly troubled, but adventuring Tom Harte equally as well. The supporting cast, including the five Chinese girls who come to join the troop, are played very well as their actions and facial expressions must speak for them due to their lack of English skills. Even without the subtitles on portions of the film you’d still be able to figure out what was going on due to the quality of the acting.

The immense amount of talent associated with this production has the high production values oozing out, and it defiantly shows in almost every facet. Writing, direction, and acting, the movie definitely sets a bar for made-for productions.

Billing itself as AMC’s First Original Movie, Broken Trail is a worthy addition to the channel’s original content and a great overall film that brings you believably back to the Old West which shows it in the most dramatic light possible with an unflinching no-holds-barred look into a way of life that once dominated a great portion of our country.