AMC announced they're putting out another new series, this time a Western!
There's a little blurb about it with a trailer/video for it here.
Looks to have almost a Deadwoodish vibe to it. It's also nice to see Colm Meany get some work again as something other than a bit part.
Not many transporters to chief in the old west. Colm's going to be bored.
As with all AMC series, I'll give it a shot. The Killing is starting to pay off for me, and they've only landed one real dud (looking at you, The Prisoner). That said, they gotta get this out this year, particularly with Mad Men on extended break into January because of slapfighting, or I could very easily forget that it exists.
I'll give anything AMC does a try.
AMC and Colm Meaney!?! Definitely giving this a try.
I saw trains, I will watch it! :)
I watched it last night. It has potential, but it was painfully bland in parts. I hope the lead is not aiming for Olyphant levels of excellence because he is and will fail miserably. I do like me some Common.
Not sure I liked the ending of the first episode. Won't spoil it as I assume many of you DVR's it.
Following a group of folks building a railroad may not grab me in the end, but who woulda thunk a 60s advertising agency would.
I thought it was a promising start. The very ending where O'Brien delivers a soliloquy to noone in particular kind of undercut the episode, I thought. Otherwise, it was a pretty good pilot. There was more action in this one episode than the entire season of Walking Dead so far. And the lead isn't a bland nobody like Grimm. It's hard not to compare it to Deadwood, but I'm trying to let it stand on its own merits.
Twenty minutes to Ralph Stanley. That didn't take long.
Sad to see what Captain Stoudamire or however you spell it has been reduced to.
At the halfway point, this is not the best pilot I have ever seen in my life. They're really precariously balanced between the kind of casual racism they need and the cartoonish super-racism that is Merle from The Walking Dead. The lighting and shooting is a little weird and the soundtrack needs fewer songs with words and the dialogue is entirely too expositionary and lacking of some of the art that you'd expect from other AMC shows.
I don't hate it, but it's not really trying to get my attention at this point, and if ever there was a show that needed the opportunity to whip some titties out from one of the tremendous gaggle of purported prostitutes, it's this one. I'll give it credit for being more intriguing than Rubicon out of the gate, but this might be the weakest of the full series so far. It could get better though. I hold out hope for improvement.
Stupid question. Catholics weren't, you know, popular and junk for quite a while (like, it was still an issue with Kennedy, a hundred years after this story), on account of American history being what it is. So what was the deal with the confessional? Shouldn't there have been some dudes, you know, being all anti-catholic at them?
There were a lot of Irish immigrants and I assumed he was in an area of town with a healthy contingent of Irish Catholics.Originally Posted by Brian Seiler
@Shadarr...completely agree on the O'Brien speech-thing.
I thought it was watchable, and I'm going to watch more, but I thought it did miss a tremendous titty opportunity.
Also, the main character is an ex-Johnny Reb, and I know this is TV, so I'm used to getting the same stories recycled over and over, but I wish just once we'd get a character who hadn't seen the evils of slavery and let his slaves go before the war. Or at least one like that who isn't killed off 10 minutes after we meet him. That way we could have, you know, some actual character development.
And then I saw the pointless and unnecessary Colm Meany monologue at the end. That subtracts an entire star from the episode for being pointless and making the whole sequence feel like a trailer for the real show. Ick.
So the basic pitch here is that Jonah Hex (not deformed, of course, because nobody wants to screw a dude with half a face) is workin' on the railroad, trying to chase down the people that apparently raped and now we find strangled his wife to death and kill them. I've got some significant doubts as to his competence in that regard, however, if he let Leland Stottlemeyer get the drop on him like that.
Unlike Rubicon, I'm legitimately interested to see the next episode of this show, lighting and scripting issues aside. That said, it needs to tighten up a little bit.
Meh, I made it twenty minutes into it before I turned it off. It's no Deadwood, which granted is a lot to expect from any show, but still... it's no Deadwood. Too bad, because I would have loved to have watched Tom Noonan be a gigantic weirdo ever week.
I thought this was a car show.
I'm beginning to think I'm AlexLittle. I liked Colm Meany's little monologue at the end, much as I liked his explanation of why he wanted his railroad curvy. Between this an my 180 degree feelings about what was good/bad about the last Walking Dead episode, I'm wondering if I live in Bizzaro TV land or something.
I didn't see any issues with the lighting, but they very clearly intentionally desaturated it. It's probably meant to give an "old" feeling, since we associate that look with brown, faded photographs.
It's no Deadwood, but that's really too much to ask. It's not Justified either, but it was still fun to watch.
I liked the episode. I didn't mind the monologue at the end but it did seem unnecessary. Same with the curvy railroad thing. But then again I guess it's because I already knew these things.
I did see Ian Tracey of Da Vinci's Inquest fame is in this. I didn't see him in the first episode unless I somehow missed him. So I'll continue to watch as long as he's in it.
The curvy railroad thing didn't bother me at all, because he was yelling at a guy. In fact, their were two other people in the room with him. At the end, I have no idea what that was supposed to be. I don't need to have a guy explain things directly to me, like he's a narrator in addition to being a kind of minor character. I don't want to see The Railway Wonder Years.
I think the writers thought it was going to be some fancy speech that struck a nerve in some way, but he just did not sell it. They wanted it to be more than just exposition. A better actor may have done more with it.
I am not sure I made it this far. The bad guy character was terrible and his scenes made me turn it off. So cliched and unconvincing, the bribe scene with the senator and then the smash the face on the table scene was the final straw.
Yeah, I thought it was well shot but poorly written. It wasn't bad enough to make me turn it off, though, so I'll probably watch the next couple of weeks just because I love me some Westerns. 'Disappointing though.
Other than some anachronisms, I thought this was pretty good. It's nice to see a female character that doesn't just cower and cry.
So, two episodes in and I really like this show. Yes, the first episode had a lot of exposition in it, especially from Colm Meaney's character, but then keep in mind that this is television, and you have to write for an audience that you assume has little knowledge of the background behind your setting. Having Meaney do his bits helped those that never paid attention in American History class grasp why he would want a meandering railroad line and why he is playing boths ends against the middle the way he is. It also helps illustrate his character as less "evil bad guy" and more "amoral opportunist".
There was a lot less of this in the second episode, and it was better for it. While the sequence of events behind Cullen's tranformation from murder suspect and prisoner to railroad foreman was a little difficult to believe it did serve to illustrate a lot of what was going on at the railroad camp and helped develop The Sweede a lot more. The inclusion of his history at Andersonville was a nice touch.
So far I like the look, feel and tone of this show. It's not Deadwood (cocksuckers!), but it doesn't need to be. While there is room in Hell on Wheels for strong character development in the same vein as Deadwood, in this show the history and the setting are practically characters in themselves, and that allows for a lot more opportunity for interesting moments in the scripting and cinematography. My wife and I are enjoying it, and will continue to watch regularly.
Yeah, I really enjoyed the second episode, and the continuation of badass surveyor wife as well. She's one tough cookie, using a stay to sew her wound shut. She should talk to Daryl on The Walking Dead.
I had a First Blood flashback.
I agree that the show is shaping up nicely.
I like just about everyone on the show except Colm Meandering Expository Soliloquy. Do we really need him to explain precisely why he wants to stir up fear and anger at the natives? Can't the dude keep any of his schemes secret for even 10 seconds? Worst supervillain ever. "This may look like a slightly improved communications satellite, but it's actually a directional EMP!"
Similarly, the weakest part of Cullen's story in this episode was when he talked to Colm. It's unfortunate that there's virtually no chance of him dying, ever.
It's bizarre how all the villains in this show get to tell you exactly how and why they are so villainous nary a moment after being introduced.
I don't think he's a bad guy, he's just a man trying to build a railroad. What makes you think he's a bad guy?
Well, he's defrauding taxpayers and he was a war profiteer. But he's no worse than any Wall Street banker, and who could possibly be upset with them?
Exactly. I think part of the point of that character's frequent expositions is to underline the fact that he's not a villain in the normal sense of the word. He's an amoral, conniving and ruthless businessman who is willing to do just about anything to make a fortune off this venture, but he's not neccesarily evil. He seemed genuinely greived by the death of the surveyor (and even moreso over the loss of the maps), and his little speech in the first episode showed that he is perfectly aware of how history will view him, and that it bothers him (though he seems to be accepting of the fact).
This is a show about a murderer who tracks down other murderers and rapists for revenge. Other characters include a freed slave with a grudge who's not afraid to kill if he feels justified, a former prisoner of war who's experience turned him into some kind of OCD crime boss, a reverend who seems to be hiding some dark secret and an Indian who used to kill and scalp white men who now works for them. EVERYONE in this show is a bad guy in one form or another!
That's like saying Nucky Thompson on Boardwalk Empire is evil because he's been fixing elections and defrauding taxpayers, plus breaking laws and covering up murders. I have a feeling that this is one of those shows that is like Boardwalk Empire, where there is a pretty blurry line between what is good and what is evil.
My disagreement was in the assessment of him being some sort of moustachioed twirling supervillain.
I can't decide whether I am a terrible racist or if I just watched too much of The Muppet Show, because all I can think as I watch this episode is, "Chicken in the basket - two points!"
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