Jason Momoa’s Brutal Western Series Is Your Next Binge

The Big Picture

• Jason Momoa delivers a career-best performance in
  Frontier
  as a vengeful trapper seeking revenge in the brutal and unforgiving North American wilderness.
• Frontier
  breaks away from the traditional Western formula, focusing on the centuries-long greed of white men and giving voice to underrepresented characters.
• Momoa’s portrayal of Declan Harp is a departure from his previous roles, showcasing his range as an actor and his ability to convey both action and emotion.

He’s hiding underneath the snow, he hunts through the evergreens, and he never misses his mark. Jason Momoa has never been more electric as a frontier man who sold his soul to the devil in the name of revenge. It’s kill or be killed in the Netflix original historical action drama, Frontier, and Momoa gives a career-best performance as Declan Harp, a violent trapper losing his humanity in hopes of vengeance. A Western in epic proportions — but not in the way you’d expect — cowboys and horses appear nowhere in the frigid, unforgiving North American wilderness. A joint production between Discovery Canada and Netflix, the series first debuted in 2016 and ran for three seasons. Noted for its unflinching depictions of the brutality that occurred in the late 1700s during the fur trade across North America, Brits, Scots, the French, and Aboriginals fought for power and control over the land surrounding them.

Momoa stars as Declan Harp, a half-Cree, half-Irish fur trapper, fending off the Hudson Bay Company after they infiltrate Native land and claim it as their own. The series also stars Alun Armstrong, Landon Liboiron, Zoe Boyle, Jessica Matten, Christian McFay, Evan Jonigkeit, Lyla Porter Follows, William Belleau, Breanne Hill, and Tantoo Cardinal. While there aren’t gunslingers and sheriffs roaming the streets, the various cutthroat fur trappers and greedy British men still carry the symbols of good and evil, with epic shoot-outs across snowy terrain and dingy pubs. The series rejuvenates the Western with a whole new slew of heroes and villains, and gives a voice to characters that often become nothing more than pawns and sidekicks in classic installments of the genre. As Harp and the rest of his crew, consisting of fellow outlaws, attempt to thwart the Hudson Bay’s monopoly hold over the fur trade in North America, the result is a cinematic power struggle decorated with blood and little mercy. Frontier is an inventive foray into the Western genre, and should be your next binge-watch.

‘Frontier’ Breaks Away From the Formulaic Western

Most Westerns are filled with southern twangs and scorching hot mornings, where all is quiet before a bad guy shuffles into town. In Frontier, the bad men have been here for quite some time, and an uprising has already taken place. The series chronicles the centuries-long greed of white men in North America as England’s Hudson Bay Company stole land away from aboriginal peoples who had lived on the land for centuries, and Declan Harp makes it his life’s mission to take power away from the company and reclaim what is his. Every episode is a bloody battle, and doubles down as a historical fiction drama that will scratch any historical buff’s curiosity.

Jason Momoa goes full throttle in the inventive western series as a vengeful vigilante fighting off white men who wish to steal his land, and it truly is a godless country where right and wrong are irrelevant. The series is concerned with survival and revenge, power and wealth, and there is only gray area with no redemption offered. If viewers want to stray from the formulaic box the likes of which Taylor Sheridan has re-introduced in recent years with his slew of Westerns, this is the world to venture into. There is nothing traditional or beautiful about Frontier, except for the lawlessness of mother nature.

One of the few traditional themes it shares with the Western genre is that it’s about the underdogs — only, the underdogs are not already wealthy millionaires living like kings on ranches. There are still cowboys as well, only they take a different form, sporting fur coats while living on the outskirts of civilization fending off greedy traders. It’s an unforgiving Western and extremely engaging with a fantastic performance given by Momoa, proving he’s more than just a DC superhero star. His main foe is the corrupt Lord Benton, played by Alun Armstrong, and he’s a gross, abusive member of the Hudson Bay Company leading the war against Harp and his men. Harp’s crew is filled out by Landon Liboiron, an Irish stowaway arriving in the New World who gets dragged into the war between fur trappers and becomes a spy for Harp. Jessica Matten and William Belleau round out the gang of outlaws as Sokanon and Dimanche, and together, the group of four makes for an unlikely band of vigilantes searching to steal back the land that belongs to them.

Jason Momoa Stars As a Brutal Outlaw in ‘Frontier’

Trading in green screens and a trident for withering mountains and a fur coat, Jason Momoa gives a worthy, dramatic performance in Frontier as a man dealing with a tortured past. After having everything taken from him, thanks to the Hudson Bay Company, he has nothing to lose, and only Momoa could portray the unbridled anger and pain Harp experiences with the grace he deserves. As one of Hollywood’s greatest action heroes, he utilizes his action background in his performance while getting to dive deep into the emotional wells that live behind Harp’s violent outlaw ways. It’s something he doesn’t get to do often, compared to his most recognizable roles Game of Thrones or Aquaman. While Momoa has played plenty of violent men in the past, none of them hold a candle to his character in Frontier. With a brutal, heart-wrenching backstory that is gradually revealed as the series continues, Harp uses blunt force to push back against the English, and anyone else that gets in his way as he seeks power over the fur trade.

Too often, Westerns are still confined to the century-long Hollywood idealizations of the genre, going all the way back to the ’30s and ’40s with classics like Stagecoach and My Darling Clementine. There is always a John Wayne-like hero, typically rescuing a woman with a heart of gold while administering violence to bandits, indigenous people, and anyone else who gets in his way. Frontier is a breath of fresh air as it completely re-frames whose story gets to be told within Westerns, and what the world looks like through an oppressed pair of eyes. Momoa is an outlaw with an unadulterated freedom to exhibit his rage in any way he pleases as he slithers across the screen. As the temperatures are dwindling and winter approaches, Frontier is the perfect series to cozy up to this season, where you can experience a different kind of Western set in a harsh and unforgiving new world. Get ready to binge.

Frontier is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix