Let’s call 1883 what it is: Oregon Trail: The Series marked with the Yellowstone brand. That doesn’t make it a bad show, but something about the unnecessary synergy sours me for some reason. That weird personal gripe aside, the series is best when it focuses on the ex-soldiers  (Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, and LaMonica Garrett) leading the group west. However, they take a backseat to main character Elsa Dutton (Isabel May), a free-spirited 18-year-old girl who falls in love way too easily and narrates the series with an awful accent and laughably cheesy monologues. That narrative choice threatens to derail an otherwise watchable western.