He did his job as an actor. And he did it extremely well.

Playing a 'real life' person, on top of being made by the History channel meant that these actors HAD to get it as right as possible. Now while we personally don't know the original characters, through reading up on this section of history, we can get an idea of what they were llike.
And both Costner & Paxton appear to have hit the nail on the head in this show.

I enjoy history immensely & have a deep interest in seeing 'what makes people tick' in different situations, times and places.
To watch Costner on screen here, it seems he too is a great student of the human psyche.
Throughout the whole show, you could 'see' this inward battle he has with ' I could end this if I wanted to' and history tells us that yes, indeed many times he could have. This is what makes the whole affair so tragic, his inward battle of 'end it or stand defiantly resolute'.

There's a scene with his son Johnse which just blew me away actually; first because of the turmultuous content and then because of Costner's ability to convey that turmoil without words.

Costner deserved this award, Paxton would have been next in line in my opinion.

The show as a whole is best described as a Western without the Indians. I have a complete dislike of guns and guns used in entertainment but they are a necessary prop in this show and really give an insight into the 'origins' of the gun based society in that country.
The women were portaryed in every shape & size and you cannot help but either love or hate each of the main ones individually.
The rest of the cast matched up well with 'the big names'  which overall gave it a all round star of approval from me.

I might add, there are few 'westerns' that I'd ever watch again. In that very small list however is 'Dances with Wolves'.