Into the West (Season 1)

Into the West (2005) is a six-part historical miniseries you can watch online on iFILM. Produced by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Television for TNT, it moves across six decades of American expansion — from the Rocky Mountain fur trade of 1825 to the final Lakota conflicts of 1890.

The story tracks two families: the Wheelers, white settlers pushing into the frontier, and a Lakota band whose world shrinks with each new government treaty. Matthew Settle plays Jacob Wheeler, the white settler whose life becomes bound to the Lakota people. The ensemble includes Josh Brolin, Keri Russell, Skeet Ulrich, Eric Schweig, Sean Astin and Alan Tudyk, with individual episodes directed by Tim Van Patten, Jeremy Podeswa and Simon Wincer, among others.

The series doesn't romanticize westward expansion. It accounts for what the process actually cost on both sides — which is what separates it from the standard frontier adventure. Stream all episodes of Into the West online on iFILM.