Haha I was glad to see this, I watched Lonesome Dove the series because someone mentioned it to me and I thought it was fantastic. It depends on who you are though, I wouldn't think the younger generation would be much into it but I'm kind of old school in a way. It's old fashioned and obviously western, but has some twisted content along the way. I say it's fantastic because it keeps you watching it, and the character Robert Duvall plays makes you really want to invest time in completing the series. IMO he kind of made the movie what it is.
I didn't even know at the time there was a novel written, I told my wife she had to watch the film with me but she found out there was a book and decided to read it first. Like you, she was captivated with the book and couldn't wait to watch the series to see if it would hold up. I was surprised how fast she knocked out the book! (it must be good)....She loved the movie, but felt the novel was a bit better. She thought Duvall did an excellent job, she did hate the character that played Jake Spoon lol, so did I. That was her biggest thing, she thought he didn't fit the part well compared to the book. Diane Lane is one of her favorite female actresses and to me she played a great role in that movie.
Anyways my wife and I like to break out the DVD from time to time and sit through it, I think I finally got sick of it after watching it a hand full of times but honestly I love the old style slow scene movies. Nowadays movie scenes are just too fast and jumpy it gets on my damn nerves. Everything seems to go too fast, I mean endless panning is cool and all but it's overdone in a lot of cases. Especially fight scenes, I love martial arts movies too but the modern ones, they are just too jumpy most of the time.
I have yet to read the novel, not sure if I will TBH....It seems like I'm already familiar with the story but my wife swears the book is really good. Do you think it's worth reading after seeing the film 5 or 6 times?
