With a Memorial Day debut on History Channel, Texas Rising has ambitious aims. But sad to say, the 10-hour multi-week miniseries just doesn’t hit the target. Brought to the small screen by some of the team behind the blockbuster The Hatfields And McCoys series, the Roland Joffe-directed tale of Lone Star warfare and revolution ends up, as my video review above says, being shrill instead of strong.

Not that Texas Rising lacks a Texas-sized cast as it picks up this piece of American history in 1836 almost right after the massacre at the Alamo. There’s Texas-born Bill Paxton as General Sam Houston, Oliver Martinez as the brutal Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Emily West, the Yellow Rose of Texas herself. Brendan Fraser, Ray Liotta, Crispin Glover and Jeffrey Dean Morgan also star in the series penned by Darrell Fetty and Leslie Greif. And, oh too briefly, there is Kris Kristofferson as President Andrew Jackson. The Oscar nominee and Country Music Hall of Famer also does an old Tom Petty song on Texas Rising’s soundtrack – one of the highlights for me, I might add.

So, before you lock in your TV plans for the long weekend take a look at my review of Texas Rising and tell us what you think.