A major undertaking in the just-ended Civil War era, the TV series is equally ambitious in trying to forge a narrative that explores themes touching on reconstruction, immigration, slavery, corruption, genocide, and man's destruction of nature.
Unlike the town at the center of HBO's decadent Deadwood, which was physically set in South Dakota, Hell on Wheels is a rolling residential revue as the railroad progresses slowly along its course. At the middle of the mobile bivouac: Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) a former Rebel, whose northern wife was raped and killed by Union soldiers, leaving him focused on revenge. Noting that he doesn't deserve redemption, Cullen, like many Western protagonists on the range before him, is a laconic, loner, only dispensing glimpses of his haunted existence....
Certainly much broader in scope than the centered milieus in which Mad Men and Breaking Bad have unspooled so brilliantly, Hell on Wheels, as it attempts to get the rails underneath it, should lay out a larger audience for AMC than either of those acclaimed dramas.
Two episodes in, I'm still on board, interested to see how the storylines develop and if Joe and Tony Gayton, the writers and series' executive producers, can hammer a stake that will make the show connect fully.
I'm looking forward to this, because I was actually a big fan of Deadwood. But since Deadwood's been gone I've been lost without a trace. I dream at night, I can only see it's face.
Al Swearengen: "We're *illegal*. Our whole goal is to get annexed to the United fucking States. We start holding trials, what's to keep the United States fucking Congress from saying, "Oh, excuse us! We didn't realize you were a fucking sovereign community and nation out there! Where's your cocksucker's flag? Where's your fucking navy, or the like? Maybe when we make our treaty with the Sioux, we should treat you people like renegade fucking Indians - deny your fucking gold and property claims, and hand everything over instead to our ne'er-do-well cousins and brothers-in-law."
"My friends have always been the best of me." -Doctor Who
"Well,whenever I'm confused,I just check my underwear. It holds most answers to life's questions." Abe Simpson
I can tell by the position of the sun in the sky, that is time for us to go. Until next time, I am Lothar of the Hill People!
"Batman is only meaningful as an answer to a world which in its basics is chaotic and in the hands of the wrong people, where no justice can be found. I think it's very suitable to our perception of the world's condition today... Batman embodies the will to resist evil" -Frank Miller
"Conan, what's the meaning of life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!" -Conan the Barbarian
"Well, yeah." -Jason E. Perkins
"If I had a dime for every time Pariah was right about something I'd owe twenty cents." -Ultimate Jaburg53
"Fair enough. I defer to your expertise." -Prometheus
I just finished the first season.....I can't tell if it's...good or not.
I like the idea immensely, but the moment it got into slavery and how Bohannon was an outlier slave owner that freed his slaves and paid them wages, I just couldn't stop rolling my eyes.
Apparently, it's one of those shows where the writers have the balls to portray a very flawed main character, but it's too insecure not to make concessions to keep the protagonist's likability from being jeopardized.
"The guy's a bloodthirsty sunnuvabitch, but he's cool with minorities. So he's a good guy."
Rockstar pulls that shit with their games all the time, and it is FUCKING retarded. It's no less retarded in this instance. I wouldn't expect Bohannon to call every black guy he sees "boy" or "nigger," but giving him an immediate 'I'm okay, you're okay' attitude was entirely disingenuous.
I find it more than a little bizarre that people typically get pissed off if such a character were portrayed as a "post-racial" great white hope, as though racism didn't exist, but they'd get hopping mad if the protagonist was an unrepentant slave owner-cum-white supremacist. Would not this fantastical, happy middle ground they're shooting for--benevolent, non-supremacist slave owner--seem more disingenuous?
Not to mention there was this one part in the show that stuck in my craw, irritating me to no end: when Toole and his posse were about to lynch Ferguson, he added some interesting perspective to the scenario that called into question Ferguson's constant whining. When he told him, "the Irish have been the niggers of the British empire for hundreds of years," it was a good moment to demonstrate to Ferguson that the world's misery isn't spawned by racism (you don't get much whiter than the Irish). Forseeably, Ferguson took that as a cue to belittle the full implications of what Toole was saying by claiming that this just meant he wasn't "at the bottom of the barrel anymore." Instead of having him argue the point, the writers just decided to make Toole go into total scumbag mode and confirm Ferguson's claim. What a fucking waste.
And there were these asinine contemporary 20th century anachronisms uttered by Ferguson: "lily-white ass" and "ass-whoopin.'" Those were clearly for our sake, and not for purposes of historical accuracy. Quite frankly, Ferguson is the penultimate token black guy in the sense that he's the white protagonist's 'black friend,' and yet he still tries to be the Malcolm X of the West. His character has no redeeming values whatsoever. Every time he speaks, it's like whiny nails on a chalkboard.
Another thing that irks me is that there's little to no open discussion about the cultural west beyond whoring, mud-trudging, former-slaving mercenaries: another statement on the horrors of capitalism. I liked what Meaney had to say at the end of the first episode and the larger implication that we wouldn't have the rails without enterprise. But it ticked me off to listen to him drone on throughout the episode about how being mercantile is an inherently dishonest, if necessary, disposition that demands you take from others to successfully gain anything--as though capitalism actually worked that way.
And, of course, they used the Indians' shock and awe to stress-test the town's living conditions against their own--as though living in the wilderness is so much cleaner and more sanitary.
Anywho, regardless of the problems with the first season, I hear the later ones are pretty aimless and crappy. Anyone have an opinion on them?
It goes back and forth. It's never been a great show, but it hasn't been a terrible one either. It's pretty middle of the road. The third season's finale is pretty bad, though. The writers keep see-sawing Bohannan and Durant to the point that they're just constantly swapping them from one scenario and back again. Watch it if you have time, but I wouldn't make time to watch it.
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet."
In the third season they have to contend with Mormon settlers over land and such. They don't go after them a lot, but they don't paint too pretty a picture most of the time (with the exception of one Mormon family traveling in a wagon). I expect more of that for the fourth season.
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet."
