Tuesday, August 09, 2011

An emotional thrill ride through the day-to-day chaos of the city's newest state-of-the-art trauma center and into the lives of the courageous doctors, nurses and staff who hold it all together. This is one of those days.

District 21 of the Chicago Police Department is made up of two distinctly different groups. There are the uniformed cops who patrol the beat and go head to head with the city's street crimes. And there's the Intelligence Unit, the team that combats the city's major offenses - organized crime, drug trafficking, high profile murders and beyond. These are their stories.

The American Gilded Age was a period of immense economic change, of huge fortunes made and lost, and the rise of disparity between old money and new.

Against this backdrop of change, the story begins in 1882 — introducing young Marian Brook, the orphaned daughter of a Union general, who moves into the New York City home of her thoroughly old money aunts Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook. Accompanied by Peggy Scott, an accomplished African-American woman, Marian inadvertently becomes enmeshed in a social war between one of her aunts, a scion of the old money set, and her stupendously rich neighbors, a ruthless railroad tycoon and his ambitious wife, George and Bertha Russell.

In this exciting new world that is on the brink of the modern age, will Marian follow the established rules of society, or forge her own path?

Sheriff Country focuses on straight-shooting sheriff Mickey Fox, the stepsister of Cal Fire's division chief Sharon Leone, who investigates criminal activity as she patrols the streets of small-town Edgewater while contending with her ex-con father, Wes, who is an off-the-grid marijuana grower, and a mysterious incident involving her wayward daughter.

The Dutton Ranch, home to Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler, is a testament to the peace they sought, fought for, and nearly died for, as they've come to cherish their 7,000-acre land. With tough times and stiff competition, Beth and Rip do what they must to survive, all while ensuring Carter becomes the man he's supposed to be.

As Beth and Rip fight to build a future together - far from the ghosts of Yellowstone - they collide with brutal new realities and a ruthless rival ranch that will stop at nothing to protect its empire. In South Texas, blood runs deeper, forgiveness is fleeting, and the cost of survival might just be your soul.