Ah, the miniseries. They just don't make them like they used to: Epic, character-driven and involving.

TNT's 12-hour, six-part "Into the West" (8 tonight) at least gets the epic part right. "West" tries to develop characters, but too many are introduced and given too little to do. As to whether or not it's involving, well, "Into the West" does better than most miniseries today, but that's damning with faint praise given the lousy state of modern minis.

A story of two families that spans almost 100 years, "Into the West" begins its journey by introducing the principal characters, members of two clans that eventually blend together.

In 1825, Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle), one of three sons of a Virginia family of wagon-wheel makers, dreams of life beyond the family business and gets entranced by the idea of helping to settle the Western half of a growing America. He sets out and eventually joins legendary mountain man Jedediah Smith (Josh Brolin), who sagely advises him, "The West is a place on the map, not a way to live."

Among the Lakota Tribe, Loved by Buffalo (Simon R. Baker) attempts to thwart an old man's vision that many hardships await the tribe. His sister, Thunder Heart Woman (Tonantzin Carmelo), marries Jacob Wheeler.

They return to Virginia in next week's episode and then head West again with Jacob's brother, Jethro (Skeet Ulrich), and three female cousins, one played by Keri Russell ("Felicity").

"Into the West" uses both the Wheeler family saga and the Lakota story to explore how the West became wild, with trappers and traders providing various Native American tribes with rifles.

But it's no "Deadwood," where a feeling of dread and danger prevails.

"Into the West" is far more politically correct and feels as if it's been sanitized for viewer protection.

Your enjoyment of "Into the West" will depend, in part, on how much Indian folklore and/or family soap opera you can stomach.

Too often this miniseries introduces characters haphazardly and for no immediate discernible reason.

It later becomes clear they're simply targets to be knocked down -- the equivalent of a red-shirted ensign on "Star Trek."

Because they're only used as plot devices, when they get trampled, run over by a wagon or however they meet their demise, there's little reason for viewers to care because up till that point these characters had few scenes and even less dialogue.

Although Steve Spielberg's name is in the credits as an executive producer, there's nothing magical in the first two semi-sluggish episodes of this miniseries to suggest he was actively involved in its production.

TNT premieres "Into the West" over the next six weeks with each installment premiering at 8 p.m. Friday and repeating at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

'30 Days'

Morgan Spurlock gained fame by eating only fast food for 30 days in the docu-flick "Super Size Me," and now he's taking a similar approach to various societal ills with a short-run FX series, "30 Days" (10 p.m. Wednesday).

In the first episode, Spurlock and his fiancee, Alexandra Jamieson, spend 30 days in Columbus, Ohio, living on just a minimum wage.

The hourlong episode depicts just how difficult that is, to "live right on the edge of a knife every single day" in a way that calls to mind "TV Nation," with Spurlock as a gentler, more rational and less angry Michael Moore.

Future episodes don't feature Spurlock as the guinea pig. He hosts the five additional installments that focus on other people undergoing 30-day immersions, either in a new culture (conservative guy moves in with a gay roommate, a Christian lives among Muslims) or lifestyle (a thirtysomething father and husband tries to get in shape through the use of testosterone injections and the Human Growth Hormone).

"30 Days" offers interesting testimony to the difficulty of living on minimum wage or the lunacy of taking unnecessary drugs, but the results are not particularly surprising nor revealing.

Of course minimum-wage life is difficult; of course there will be nasty side effects of taking some drugs whose only purpose is to improve one's appearance.

Spurlock is an entertaining, magnetic personality, which keeps the first hour engaging. And even though the outcome of his experiment is not unexpected, he does a good job of showing enough particulars about the degree to which minimum wage affects one's life to keep the hour somewhat informative. But the second episode on the drug-fueled anti-aging regimen is a lot less compelling.

TV Q&A

The online TV Q&A column takes a vacation this week but will return next Friday.

Channel surfing

GSN, formerly Game Show Network, has acquired rerun rights to "The Amazing Race" with the first season airing daily at 9 p.m. beginning July 11 . . . WNPA will air a "Bewitched" marathon, 8 to 10 p.m. June 18 and 5 to 9 p.m. June 19, in anticipation of the upcoming feature film. . . . Locally produced lifestyle show "Pittsburgh 365" moves from WBGN to PCNC June 29 at 7:30 p.m. . . . Author David McCullough will be the guest on Pennsylvania Cable Network's "PA Books" Sunday at 9 p.m. discussing his latest book, "1776."