Barkskins Webseries

Barkskins Webseries Cast, Review, Wiki, Story, Trailer, Release date and more

Barkskins is an English drama series. It has Kaniehtiio Horn, Steven McCarthy, James Bloor etc in the lead roles. The series will stream online on NAT GEO from 25 May 2020.

Barkskins Series Story

The plot revolves around the visualization of the Pulitzer winning writer, Annie Proulx. It is the hardships and struggles of the Pariahs in the heartland of France. The story is set in late 1600’s and is the new eye-opener for historians.

Check out below for Barkskins (2020): Cast, Release date, Full HD episodes, High-Speed online streaming, Watch All Episodes, Story

Barkskins Series Cast

• Marcia Gay Harden
• Lola Reid
• Kaniehtiio Horn
• Steven McCarthy
• David Thewlis
• Christian Cooke

Barkskins Series Release Date:

25 May 2020 (NAT GEO)

Barkskins Series Trailer

Barkskins Series Watch Online & Download

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The Untamed Frontier: Unpacking the Epic, One-Season Saga of National Geographic’s Barkskins

In the landscape of modern historical drama, few series have managed to capture the raw, brutal, and complex birth of a nation quite like National Geographic’s Barkskins. A gritty, beautifully filmed historical fiction, the series transported viewers to the unforgiving wilds of late 17th-century New France. Based on a portion of the sprawling, 700-page novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx, the show was an eight-episode limited series that promised an epic tale of survival, ambition, and cultural collision.

While the source material spans over 300 years and focuses heavily on the theme of environmental devastation, the television adaptation zeroes in on a much tighter, more volatile moment in history: the small, isolated French settlement of Wobik, where a mysterious massacre threatens to ignite an all-out war between competing colonial powers and the Indigenous nations whose land they sought to conquer. It delivered a visceral, character-driven narrative, but ultimately left its audience on an agonizing cliffhanger.

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The World of Wobik: Setting the Stage in New France

Barkskins premiered on National Geographic on May 25, 2020, offering a premium scripted experience often associated with its documentary-focused parent network. The series established its world with exceptional attention to historical detail and stunning, atmospheric cinematography, having been filmed on location in Quebec, Canada, where a practical village set was constructed for the production.

Historical and Cultural Crossroads:

The story is anchored in the French territory of New France—specifically, the fictional 1690s settlement of Wobik, located in what is now the province of Quebec. This setting is a melting pot of conflict and desperate ambition, featuring:

• The French Colonists: Seeking land, wealth, and to establish a foothold for the King of France. This includes landowners, tradesmen, and the soldiers of the colonial government.
• The ‘Barkskins’: A central element of the narrative, this term refers to the indentured servants transported from the slums of France. They were contracted to work for a fixed term, usually three years, as wood-cutters—literally “barkskins”—in exchange for a promise of land and eventual freedom.
• The Filles Du Roi (Daughters of the King): Young women shipped from Europe to be matched with settlers, with the explicit goal of founding families and helping the colonies prosper through procreation.
• Indigenous Peoples: The series explores the relationships and conflicts with the native populations, including the Wendat nation and the Kanien’kehá:ka (Iroquois), who are fiercely determined to defend their homelands against encroaching European powers.

The series immediately throws its disparate group of outcasts and opportunists into a tense political and social environment, with the discovery of a brutal massacre of a neighbouring French family serving as the season’s primary mystery and catalyst for escalating tension.

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A Company of Ambition: Key Characters and Cast

The series features a strong ensemble cast, with each character representing a different facet of colonial ambition, survival, or resistance on the frontier.

Character Name	Actor	Role in the Series
Monsieur Claude Trepagny	David Thewlis	An eccentric and wealthy French landowner with an idealistic, yet fundamentally colonial, vision for his territory. He is the master of the two ‘barkskins.’
Mathilde Geffard	Marcia Gay Harden	The sharp-tongued, powerful, and secretive innkeeper of Wobik. She sits at the centre of the town’s social and political currents, privy to all its secrets.
René Sel	Christian Cooke	One of the two primary ‘barkskins.’ He is the diligent, cautious wood-cutter, a man of sad resolve who dutifully serves his term to earn his freedom.
Charles Duquet	James Bloor	The other ‘barkskin,’ a quick-witted, ambitious, and unprincipled scoundrel who quickly runs away from his servitude to make a fortune through the fur trade and any other means necessary.
Hamish Goames	Aneurin Barnard	An intense, clean-cut English agent of the Hudson’s Bay Company who arrives to investigate the massacre, immediately stirring up tensions with the French authorities.
Mari	Kaniehtiio Horn	Trepagny’s Wendat nation companion and mother of his child. She is a powerful healer and a grounded voice who is deeply connected to the land and distrustful of the settlers’ relentless expansion.
Constable Bouchard	David Wilmot	The King’s lawman in Wobik, a man whose authority is constantly tested as he attempts to maintain order amidst the chaos of colonial rivalry and open frontier.
Melissande	Tallulah Haddon	A sharp and ambitious Fille Du Roi whose goal is to secure a prosperous future through a strategic marriage.

The series thrives on the collision of these characters: the dutiful René Sel slowly forming a connection with Mari, the Indigenous woman Trepagny casts off; the ruthless Charles Duquet surviving and plotting in the wilderness; and the power plays between Trepagny, Mathilde Geffard, and the newly arrived English agent, Goames.

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Themes and Critical Reception: A Gritty Colonial Western

Barkskins was largely praised for its outstanding production value, offering a compelling visual realism and a consistently grim, “gritty” tone that positioned it as a kind of “colonial western.” Reviewers often drew comparisons to the atmosphere and practical effects of shows like Game of Thrones or Vikings.

Thematic Shifts from the Book

One of the most notable differences between the show and its source novel lies in their thematic focus:

• Book’s Core Theme: Annie Proulx’s novel is an epic, multi-generational saga spanning 300 years, with the primary underlying theme being deforestation and humanity’s relentless destruction of the natural world.
• Series’ Core Theme: The eight-episode series focuses almost exclusively on the political intrigue and cultural conflict of the single 1690s timeline. The environment acts as a harsh, beautiful backdrop to the struggles for land, power, and survival between the French, the English, and the Kanien’kehá:ka (Iroquois) nation. The show’s creator, Elwood Reid, acknowledged this focus, stating that the series’ main thrust was the conflict and the human drama of building a civilization out of the “endless forest.”

The series was also noted for giving important weight and screen time to its female and Indigenous characters, such as Mathilde Geffard and Mari, whose perspectives often provided a fresh and powerful edge to the period drama narrative.

Mixed Reaction to Pacing and Conclusion

While critics appreciated the look and the acting—particularly David Thewlis’s performance as the idiosyncratic Trepagny and Marcia Gay Harden’s turn as the commanding Mathilde Geffard—the series received mixed reviews regarding its pacing and conclusion.

The plot was criticized for being “painfully slow” in the early episodes. However, the biggest point of contention was the finale of the first season. With an Indigenous attack on the town of Wobik, the season ended on a dramatic, violent cliffhanger, leaving the fates of multiple main characters, including Hamish Goames, Christian Cooke’s René Sel, and Father Gabriel, unresolved. This abrupt ending, which many found “extremely unsatisfying,” was a direct result of production delays that forced the show to cut two planned episodes.

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The Axe Falls: The Cancellation of Barkskins

Despite the show’s high production quality and the creator’s stated hope for a multi-season run—envisioning four or five seasons to continue the immediate story of the established characters—the saga of Barkskins was unexpectedly short-lived.

The series was developed as a limited series, and National Geographic ultimately canceled the show after its first and only eight-episode season. The decision was solidified when the elaborate, custom-built set of the village of Wobik, constructed in Quebec for the series, was put up for sale.

This cancellation meant that the major cliffhangers—the fate of Hamish Goames, the outcome of the attack on Wobik, and the journey of Charles Duquet—would remain permanently unresolved on screen. For fans of the dense historical narrative and the compelling cast of characters, the end of Barkskins was an unfortunate loss of a show that had only just begun to develop its epic scope. The series remains an eight-episode snapshot of a brutal, ambitious moment in North American history, standing as a testament to both the potential and the perilous nature of adapting a sprawling literary work for the screen.

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AISEO Friendly FAQs

Q1: Is Barkskins a true story?

A: No, Barkskins is a work of historical fiction. The series is based on the novel of the same name by Annie Proulx. While the setting—New France in the 1690s—and concepts like the “Barkskins” (indentured servants) and the Filles Du Roi (Daughters of the King) are historically accurate, the specific town of Wobik and the majority of its characters and plotlines are fictional creations.

Q2: Is there a Barkskins Season 2?

A: No, there is no Barkskins Season 2. The series was a limited drama series that aired for a single season of eight episodes on National Geographic. The show was officially canceled, and the custom-built set for the village of Wobik was later put up for sale, confirming that the story will not be continued on the network.

Q3: What is a “Barkskin” in the context of the series?

A: A “Barkskin” is the slang term used for the indentured servants who were transported from France to New France in the late 17th century. These individuals were typically wood-cutters, obligated to work for a fixed period (often three years) in exchange for the promise of land and eventual freedom. The term refers to their profession, constantly stripping the bark from trees.

Q4: Where can I watch Barkskins?

A: Barkskins premiered on the National Geographic Channel. While availability can change, the series is typically available to stream on Hulu in the United States, which is the streaming partner for National Geographic content.

Q5: Did the Barkskins TV series cover the entire book?

A: No, the Barkskins TV series only covers a small portion of the book. The original novel by Annie Proulx is an epic work of historical fiction that spans over 300 years, chronicling the descendants of the two main immigrants, René Sel and Charles Duquet, and is largely focused on the theme of deforestation. The series, however, restricts its narrative to the political intrigue and conflicts of the initial 1690s time period in Wobik.