Television
connoisseurs have long considered American Movie Classics (AMC) the Pixar of
the small screen: Everything the nearly twenty year-old network touches turns
to gold. But much like Pixar, AMC has recently revealed itself to be only an
imperfect vehicle for screenwriting genius. For Pixar, the first evidence of
decline was the trifling Cars (2006), though the company’s four
subsequent masterpieces (Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy
Story 3) were nearly enough for fans of big-screen animation to forgive
Pixar its latest and most underwhelming efforts: Cars 2 (2011), Brave
(2012), and Monsters University (2013). AMC hasn’t yet experienced quite
the downturn Pixar has, though it’s worth noting, despite the current
popularity of The Walking Dead, that no one would ever confuse either
its writing or its plotting for that of network standouts Mad Men and Breaking
Bad. And that’s why when Hell on Wheels came along in 2011, it
suddenly began to seem like the middling scripts and occasional hammy acting of
AMC’s zombie-apocalypse thriller were something less than coincidental. Hell
on Wheels, whose third season premiered just two weeks ago, is widely and
justifiably regarded as the worst offering on AMC to date. The reason? Bad
acting, bad scripts, a bad concept, and a long line of small- and big-screen
Westerns that have done everything Hell on Wheels aims to do, but
exponentially better.
Hell on Wheels centers around Cullen Bohannon
(Anson Mount), a former Confederate officer who’s predictably mysterious and
charismatic, though he also has—of course—the heart of a gentleman. Bohannon
leaves his Mississippi home to work on the railroad, an inauspicious life
decision that shortly takes him to Hell on Wheels, the tent city that follows
the leading edge of the Union Pacific railroad. The landowning Southerner
Bohannon released all his slaves prior to the onset of the Civil War; this is
hammered home repeatedly in the show’s early episodes, lest viewers begin
questioning the likability of a man whose sole occupation at present is
murdering former Union soldiers he has a grudge against. Of course, even
Bohannon’s half-secret homicidal agenda is entirely in keeping with the ground
rules for a television anti-hero: he’s trying to track down the men who
assaulted and killed his wife. However, the fact that he doesn’t know his wife
was murdered when he begins his rampage (incredibly and inexplicably, he
believes her to have committed suicide after being raped) undercuts his steely
determination somewhat.
It’s
not entirely clear what there is about Cullen Bohannon to draw admiration or
even interest. Like thousands of others of his era, he’s a reasonably
good-looking former soldier who occasionally led men in battle capably, who in
the postwar era soon discovered that the homeland he’d once fought for no
longer existed. If it weren’t for the focus of AMC’s cameras, one would expect
such a man to live and die anonymously doing hard labor somewhere in the
American West, or drinking himself to a stupor in Dixie. Given even the
dull-witted viewer’s near-certainty that Bohannon will find and ultimately
execute his wife’s murderers—coincidentally, he’s only got one man left to kill
by the third episode of the series—it’s not at all clear where the character’s
story should go, and there’s no particularly compelling reason for a viewer to
stick around and find out. Anson Mount may be an attractive and suitably
understated leading man, but even a likely suspect for the role can do little
with such thin gruel.
The
show’s supporting cast is equally uninspiring. Tom Noonan plays Reverend Cole,
the obligatory fish-out-of-water evangelist tasked with converting sinners
obviously beyond his reach; as in his appearances elsewhere (ranging from the
great Manhunter to the criminally
underrated films What Happened Was
and Synecdoche, New York), Noonan plays “creepy” exceedingly
well but “ethereal” and “wise” with a glaring ineptitude.
You’d hardly let the man babysit your children, let alone shepherd you to
eternity. Colm Meaney plays a vaguely Irish heavy the way he always has: By
raising his voice and indulging in a series of facial tics that would make
Elmer Fudd blush. Common—a rapper, not an actor—does his level best as recently
freed slave Elam Ferguson, but his every utterance is so charged with
bitterness and dormant rage that it’s a wonder anyone in 1865 would hire him in
the first place, let alone make him de facto spokesman for Union Pacific’s
overworked and underpaid black linemen. Dominique McElligott, clearly slated to
be Bohannon’s love interest from the moment she appears on screen—her bookish
land surveyor husband is predictably written out of the script almost
immediately—is a talented enough actress, but the presence of a British lady in
the midst of Cheyenne territory in 1865 is so contrived as to offend even the
most credulous of viewers. The less said about the show’s heavily-accented
comic relief the better: Ben Esler and Phil Burke do yeoman’s work bringing
outrageous Irish stereotypes back into vogue, as two entrepreneurs whose
unlikely business plan involves a “magic lantern” and blurry slides of Irish
vistas. As AMC has a long history of airing the best ensemble shows on American
television, it’s not exactly clear what’s happened here. Of the ten to fifteen
regulars on Hell on Wheels, it seems all but two or three were chosen by
a ear-plugged and blindfolded talent scout who’d never seen any of their
previous work nor watched even a single specimen of the Western genre.
One
exception to the above is Christopher Heyerdahl, who plays Thor Gundersen, a
ex-Union quartermaster from Norway whose experiences as a POW in Andersonville
prepared him well for his new life as a Union Pacific enforcer. Appropriately
spectral and menacing, Heyerdahl’s performance is undercut by the fact that he
hasn’t actually been given much to do except illegally skim from the company
and shadow Bohannon as he moves about the camp. It’s bad enough that Gundersen,
known in Hell on Wheels as “The Swede,” suspects Bohannon of killing
a company hack on little evidence, as it undercuts viewers’ confidence in his
(strongly implied) intelligence. Far worse are his repeated and coyly cryptic
intimations, to anyone who’ll listen, that “there’s something strange”
about Bohannon. In fact, what supposedly makes the show’s leading man unusual is
the same hackneyed revenge plotline we’ve seen in everything from Django
Unchained to Gladiator.
What’s
most surprising about Hell on Wheels is how poorly written it is.
Meaney’s Thomas Durant is so hamfistedly villainous that he actually slanders
the just-murdered husband of Lily Bell (McElligott) and tries to
ingratiate himself with her romantically during the same horribly contrived
dinner-date. The racial animus between Elam Ferguson and several white Union
Pacific men, much like the cross-racial sexual attraction between Ferguson and
Eva (Robin McLeavy), a former white slave turned prostitute, is so awkwardly
handled and woodenly written it makes the scriptwriters of Glory seem
screenwriting prodigies by comparison. Even Bohannon, who’s been given some of
the show’s better lines, turns in such a desultory performance as a railroad
foreman and selfless do-gooder that he receives from even credulous viewers
only slim credit for either role. One suspects the show’s writers simply had
too much confidence in their creations to realize they’d given them nothing
actually interesting to do or say–a circumstance made all the more surprising
by the fact that watching any previous Western would have offered
sufficient guidance on what mustn’t be done yet again. Instead, there’s hardly
any Western trope that Hell on Wheels fails to not only exploit but
wallow in: a hero of few words; a helpless lady; hapless immigrant sidekicks; a
cunning and humorless adversary; a greedy and unscrupulous businessman; a
“converted savage” (Eddie Spears as Joe Moon, a baptized Cheyenne
whose soul-searching is tiresome and trite); a preacher out of his depth; a
dark secret that leads to many deaths; and so on. Deadwood this is not;
that show, the best small-screen Western this side of Lonesome Dove,
gave us fully-realized characters whose eccentricities and complex moral codes
were entirely novel, and whose alternately dastardly and heroic deeds were, in
consequence, entirely astonishing.
Yet
the real culprit behind the lackluster presentation of Hell on Wheels
is the show’s central conceit: A mobile city of tents that follows the Union
Pacific railroad as it makes its way slowly West. The show makes virtually no
use whatsoever of the transient and ephemeral nature of Hell on Wheels, as not
only does the cast remain fairly static, there are also no major plotlines
associated with having to strike camp and move the entire town every few days.
Nor can the show do much with its 1865 setting, as the fallout from the Civil
War was—at that early point in the Reconstruction process—more or less
predictable, presaged as it was by similarly sudden cessations of military
hostilities in other nations throughout the eighteenth and seventeenth
centuries. 1865 is simply too early for America to have done much
soul-searching with respect to its recent near-dissolution, and consequently
the former soldiers of Hell on Wheels are left asking one another easy
questions like “Who did you fight for?”, “Did you own
slaves?”, and (worst of all) “Did you have sex with any?”
Meanwhile, Durant’s ambition to squeeze as much money as he can out of Union
Pacific’s manifest destiny-driven enterprise is little different from that of
any other war profiteer or shifty-eyed businessman. That the expansion of the
nation’s railroads to California represented for war-torn America a chance to
self-realize its grand ambitions has been so thoroughly investigated in all
forms of media that Hell on Wheels would need to go to extraordinary
lengths to add to that narrative, and it doesn’t.
AMC
has, by now, earned enough trust from its viewership, including this author,
that one finds oneself searching for some complicated explanation for the noxious
badness of Hell on Wheels–rather than simply accepting that AMC
greenlighted a project it should not have. Did the network, one wonders, worry
that it hadn’t yet ventured into Westerns, and was it thus predisposed to pull
the trigger on Joe and Tony Gayton’s flimsy script? Was it hoping to stand on
the coattails of the nation’s abiding interest in Southern culture, as
epitomized by present ratings king Duck Dynasty? Did it see, in the
moderate success of A&E’s Longmire, a possible opening for yet another
cowboy hero? Were the lush settings promised by a Western like Hell on
Wheels simply too much for a cash-flush operation like AMC to resist? Were
AMC executives seduced by writer Tony Gayton’s pedigree, a pedigree that
includes a film-school diploma from USC and an apprenticeship to John Milius, who
was, among other things, the creator of HBO’s excellent but equally
expensive Rome? Certainly, the network must have seen something in
the Gaytons, Tony particularly, yet it’s not at all clear what: Tony’s previous
television work was limited to a single made-for-TV movie in 2006, and he’s
been credited on only five feature films, none of which were notable (the only
exception being 2010’s Faster, which starred Dwayne “The Rock”
Johnson yet grossed only $35 million worldwide).
Critics have been predictably unkind to Hell on Wheels. The
Huffington Post called
it “tedious,” TV Guide “heavy-handed,”
USA Today “as
subtle as a sledgehammer,” The San Francisco Chronicle “cartoonish,” The Philadelphia
Daily News “meandering,”
and Variety “diluted
and herky-jerky.” Slate, The New York Times, and The Los
Angeles Times said much the same. Two glowing reviews from The
Washington Post and The Boston Globe notwithstanding, even the
positive write-ups in Newsday, The Chicago Sun-Times, The
New York Post, The Miami Herald, and The Wall Street Journal
seemed to conclude that the show was solid if unspectacular, a significant
come-down for a network accustomed to scooping up Emmys by the handful.
The
final nail in the coffin for Hell on Wheels is that scourge of all
television programs that begin slowly: Most viewers simply won’t have the
patience to find out if the show’s writers ultimately find their footing. And
given that the aggregate reviews for the second and third seasons of Hell on
Wheels are not so different from those for the first–Metacritic lists
Season 2 as a middling 60, and (with only four reviews thus far) Season 3 as a
possibly promising 74–it’s not certain that Hell on Wheels can offer
viewers much payoff, even with the long runway it’s been given. If you
absolutely love Westerns; if you’re an AMC completist; if you’re willing to
laugh out loud at dialogue you know isn’t intended to be funny; if you find
either Anson Mount or Dominique McElligott eye-catching enough to warrant
squandering much of your down-time, by all means see if you can muster the
energy to make it to Season 3 of Hell on Wheels. The rest of us will
just have to be satisfied with the final episodes of Mad Men and Breaking
Bad, and remembering fondly the network’s other triumphs: an episode here
and there of The Walking Dead; the first season of The Killing;
and much if not all of the single-season run of Rubicon. As
cable-network track records go, that’s still a pretty good one.
Seth Abramson is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Thievery (University of Akron Press, 2013). He has published work in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Best New Poets, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, New American Writing, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, and The Southern Review.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Harvard Law School, and the Iowa
Writers’ Workshop, he was a public defender from 2001 to 2007 and is
presently a doctoral candidate in English Literature at University of
Wisconsin-Madison. He runs a contemporary poetry review series for The Huffington Post and has covered graduate creative writing programs for Poets & Writers magazine since 2008.
Press Play Video Blog 
I’ve never understood why people that hate a particular genre…can find such a volume of vomit to spew about it. It’s a decent show…but I guess since 90% of the cast isn’t gay, the Kardashians aren’t exposing themselves, some liberal pantywaist isn’t spewing on about global warming and your mommy locked the basement door, then it’s a bad show. A Want a lollipop?
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Let’s see, Pixar started to decline when? Come on you know, I know you did a little research before writing an article.. Let me help you, it was when STEVE JOBS sold the company to Disney. Ok, That’s all I have to say!
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Wonderful show, I don’t want it to end!
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I’ve just started season 5 and I absolutely love this show,I think this reviewer has no idea what he’s talking about and if he aspires to be a professional critic he needs to get his senses tested as I don’t know what he has seen or heard. The only thing I’m disappointed about with this show is that there’s only 1 season remaining �� P.S Seth Abramson as I have expressed above your a total knobhead who shouldn’t of had the privilege of watching such an epic show
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I love this show! I guess I must be the only one. I have never watched Westerns, so I don’t catch any tired references nor cliches. The stories DO go nowhere, and most everyone dies. That’s frustrating. But overall, I have loved this show. So, there’s that.
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I LOVE THE WHOLE SERIES. So do my neighbors. I watch a lot of movies .I have a college degree.
I enjoyed the acting and the plot.
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Well, guess I am just a stupid knucklehead. I enjoy watching the episodes on Netflix. I find all of the antics amusing and would recommend over several other mini-series.
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I think you probably have since been fired because you don’t know good television,i think your view’s are terrible but some people just don’t understand art
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I loved LONESOME DOVE. Did not see DEADWOOD. I think a lot of people have enjoyed this series. I DOUBT YOU UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE SOUTHERNISMS . You may be "BIG TIME EDUCATED" ; however some things that are enjoyed about HELL ON WHEELS are not taught in ACADEMIA.
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I think the real problem with Hell on Wheels is it has a confederate Hero! Therefore, it is politically incorrect! Which waters down drama and anything else it touches!
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In my opinion…
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Oh yeah? And what do you think, pray tell is good acting, and writing? Hell on wheels is a very well done period piece. But there’s probably no convincing someone like you, another a****** critic. Graham Parker said it best: some people are in charge of pens, that shouldn’t be in charge of brooms.
That would be you!
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Thank for you an accurate portrayal, at in my opinion, of this series. Initially enthused, increasing satisfaction set in such that I won’t watch beyond the current episode, Season Two, Episode 3.
The series just has drama for the sake of drama with no connection to the larger story, whatever that may be. Large gaps exist between episodes, the character’s persona’s wander all over the lot, etc., etc.
Not at all a series worth watching.
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This article couldn’t be any more far from the truth. Great writing, solid acting, and a great pace. The characters are really fleshed out. A great character study, too. So many different themes run through the show, hitting on so many things. Racism, redemption, guilt, regret, hate, love. Great show.
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Where do you get off saying it is the worst offering on amc? My husband and I happen to like it very much, there are few westerns and too much reality shows, we need more of these types of shows, they may not be popular with the younger generation, but we count too. As for foul language, that is all over regular tv. Over half of the shows on air have profanity in them. If you dont like it, find another hobby.
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This series made it to season 5. Take this critic’s advice that as a viewer, you’ll need patience through the Pilot. The show also re-establishes itself once more through 4 seasons. On 5he contrary, if your not looking for a history lesson, but rather mere entertainment, Hell on Wheels via Netflix is a binge worthy original that pays dividends!
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i found this show rather good considering most of the other rubbish on tv..i think your standards are to high if you consider this a Bad series..imo as stated much better than alot of others.
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It’s reviews like this that remind me not to read reviews until after I’ve seen the show because, often as not, they are just filled with phrases that their author’s mistakenly think at astute. They shouldn’t take themselves so serious. They are usually more pathetic, as in the case of this reviewer. Needless to say, I’ve enjoyed all four seasons and hope for more.
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You are opinionated for certain. I know this is a late comment, but Hell on Wheels actually is incredibly underrated. You seem to not understand the true concept and feel of the show. I suppose you are one of many who do not grasp the feel the show was trying to give off. You have to come from a place where you can truly understand this show for what it is and the feelings it hopes to portray. Normally, I wouldn’t comment on such a post, especially so late. But, the show is one of few I choose to watch. I am sorry you do not seem to be the kind to grasp the message and ambiance it hopes to portray.
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Boy, were you wrong, Seth Abramson. LOL
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I don’t agree with your general assessment of the show, but some points we are in line with. I know I am coming into this pretty late, so it’s unlikely this comment will be seen, but I still feel the need to say it. The first season of Hell on Wheels was actually pretty damn good. The direction was enjoyable, the characters were fun, and I found a lot to like in Cullen. His private mission was, while perhaps a bit cliche, interesting enough to hold my interest, and the rest of the cast served as good window dressing for it. I think where the show lost a lot of draw for me was the way that his mission was quickly forgotten. Sure, it cropped up there and again, but it felt like the show started to focus way too much on the window dressing, and after awhile it seemed like Cullen was more interested in what was going on with the railroad and the people there, something that I always felt was really out of character for the man the show had given us. He changed too much and too quickly.
Gunderson was also the worst. I can’t believe you marked him as the standout. Why? Because he was so odd? The Reverend was a far better character if only for the irritating portrayal of him, which came off as terribly accurate. Yes, there are stereotypes, but they exist for a reason and sometimes that isn’t a bad thing. Men like Cullen, so out of touch 98 percent of the time with their own emotions really existed back then, as did the corrupt and rich, and the poor and downtrodden. The entire show is built upon the fantastical ideas that would arouse a teenager’s sense of action, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a good show that sadly falls short in a number of areas, but I don’t think they are the ones you pointed out, in general.
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So.. I disagree with your article. I feel that you have everything backwards really. You completely bashed on every single character, then praised the Swede.His prescence in the show is both annoying and confounding. Also, thanks for calling all of the viewers stupid, great way to inspire your readers to finish your article, really. Now I would agree with a toned down version of your comments about the shows writers, if and only if you were discussing events from season 3 and 4, instead of just the first three episodes. I found season 4 to be very dissapointing considering Cullen worked for the entire season to get his job back only to quit after Ruth hangs. Granted she hung because she killed a murderer, BUT MAINLY she ruined the DUEL that they were setting up ALL SEASON between Sid and Cullen. That was just annoying, then they wasted a whole episode on Ruth crying. But anyway, the whole random wife thing was kinda sideways too for Cullen at the Season 3 finale. I mean sure it shows that he’s honorable but it seemed like they just decided to throw all of his ambitions away as soon as they start taking him somewhere.
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Surely Cotton
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it sounds like you don’t actually watch this show
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Welp. Looks like this article has been proven even more wrong by now. It came back for season 4 and was great, Has a steady and admirable viewership that never changes, A loyal core group of fans, and is coming back for an even further expanded Fifth and final season of 14 episodesing a full and complete story, and getting a full run. Can’t ask for more than that. I think this is one of the most admirable shows on TV. Started out ehhhh then got good, Then got great. Just by sticking to it’s guns and not letting self important loud mouth pretentious dumbasses on the internet run it’s life. Kudos to Hell On Wheels.. Basically, You are wrong. The show has succeeded where so many have failed. It is tell
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good show
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This review reminds me of those NASA scientist criticizing the Gravity movie for accuracy. Hell on Wheels is not a documentary. As long as the ratings are high enough it’s all good man.
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The reason the reviewer does not get the show is because it is the ONLY story on television or in the theaters that does not portray Southerners as unadulterated bad guys and exposes some of the true motivations of the Yankee conquerors.
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Time has proven this review wrong .. one of the best shows on television, and no one on the show was as they seemed. The initial criticism was that everything was cliché, the show eventually turned all of those clichés on their heads!
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With any series there are characters you like and those you abhor. I think that Hell on Wheels shows an authentic view of the 1800’s. Not every film needs to have elaborate subplots and story lines. Sometimes a raw, guttural, perspective is what is called for. There is a good and bad side to everyone and Hell on Wheels reflects on this. As for the Swede……….I’d gut him like a pig myself for Bohannan. I love the show….it’s a different and needed change.
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…lets cut all the smart assed intellectual bullshit……..HOW is good’n’ entertainin’………….Bohannan makes Clint Eastwood look like a f**k’n quaker………long may you run…..;)
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I love this show and don’t understand the bias that this writer has for the show. Its ppl like this that ruin shows for other ppl.
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Completely disagree with this! my husband & I love this show!
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This scathing review — and I use this term loosely — seems more an attack on what he has come to expect with a passing, condescending nod to the show’s fans. Abrahams seems to assume that all viewers who like westerns like ALL such shows to follow a predisposed pattern that he himself has devised. Our family likes the show precisely because it chugs along like a partially built railroad . . . The going is slow but steady. The pace reminds me of a professional baseball game, which requires patience. To thre people who agree with the reviewer, don’t watch it. To those of us are fans, let us enjoy it without the continuous criticism.
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Best stick to poetry.
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I don’t think this was a Season 3 "review" since there was no reference to the current season’s shows. I think the writer threw out a bunch of diatribe to see what kind of reaction he could get, which is not reviewing. Perhaps he should seek another line of work.
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My husband and I have watched Hell on Wheels from the very beginning and have and still do find the series to be very interesting and entertaining. We love the characters, the scripts, and even find the actual filming to be quite innovative. The series reminds me a little of Deadwood – both of which are not for the weak of heart. It can be improbable for people to be entertained by shows they have not experienced or worse yet are unable to fathom such a lifestyle as what is depicted in this series to be entertainment. But, my husband’s grandparents grew up as surveyors for the railroad tracks from the Rio Grande to Nebraska City. They, like many of our ancestors, left many a stories. There is always something to be learned from the portrayal of history. In reality, life can be crass. The trick is to endure it with a sense of humor that leaves something better behind once you are gone.
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Have been watching Hell on Wheels, my husband and I are addicted, we rented the DVDs ,
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Well, I don’t like many shows on television, but i adore this one. It’s perhaps my favorite. I am glad AMC doesn’t share your views, no mater how eloquent they may be.
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I not only completely disagree with this reviewer but wonder why this person is reviewing anything at all since he clearly hasn't seen an episode in years. Why is he going on about three year old episodes? Why is he parroting old bad reviews by others and ignoring the many favorable reviews? His recapping of reviewer's predictions was a poor choice as viewership had grown and the series was very shortly to be renewed with expanded episodes. Was this review dug out of an old rejection file just to fill space? The show is beautifully shot, the characters are a remarkably broad cross-section of the period and I find both the acting and the stories quite compelling.
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Just finished Season 2 of this train wreck of a show. Cartoonish, lost, bad acting complemented with even worse writing. Plotting that is beyond incredulous to plain bizarre fantasy. The above review is spot on and perfectly written. Will not be returning for Season 3 or 4. Thinking of having my head examined just for actually sticking it out and wasting the time watching the first two seasons.
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This guy is nuts! I love this show! Yeah, some parts are goofy but unreal but Bohannon reminds me of a Sackett in a Louis L'Amour novel.
Tons of action and excitement. I don't believe this pretensious and arrogant Seth Abramson would know either if it hit him in the face!
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Has this writer been sleeping? This is one of the best shows I have ever watched! Season 4 just started so I guess it does not matter what this idiot says anyway!
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Seth, I think your review is beyond pedantic. The show, the characters, story lines, scenery, etc., are engaging, dynamic, even riveting. The negative reviewers should remember that it's a TV show! I started watching the show last week on Netflix and couldn't turn it off until the last episode of season 3. It's an awesome show!
I agree with Sammy – it was quite obvious that the show was taking viewers on a journey, not only on the map but in the characters' development and stories.
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Well, It is about to come back tomorrow for a 4th season and an expanded one at that so, I guess you were wrong. Viewers have patience. Why is it that these reviewers feel so inclined to make themselves seem more than the average viewer? We are not retards. We know that shows sometimes take a little while to come into their own. Yes, I know the first 2 seasons were not great. They were still plenty watchable and enjoyable. Season 3 was great however. It has turned into a completely different show (new showrunner) and a much improved show. As you said, 74 on metacritic. As well as good reviews most everywhere else not included on Metacritic. The reviews for season 4 are also great so far. In short, You are wrong.
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I simple love this show and it's cast. You apparently don't know a good thing. As fare as Colm meaney's role I think its good even award winning (He's always been a good actor even in his trek days) .
I like how they don't make the west like they do in romance books (Where the hero saves the woman extra). This is the nitty gritty west folks and the west wasn't a pretty place not at all and that is why I like this show, cause it shows the real side of the west.
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I've watched all the shows mentioned in this review. Hell on Wheels is better. Its gritty, its coarse, it lets our imaginations take a peek at history. I'm sorry your favorite shows got cancelled, and take an unbiased view at what television is producing.
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This review is very wrong
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I agree this reviewer has an opinion but it's definitely not the majority. As far as the idea that other's have panned this show as meandering, jerky, etc…I don't know what else they were doing when watching this series. I can't wait for season 4. I grew up on westerns and have not missed them until now. I've watched the Walking Dead and cannot do any more than the 3 episodes, love MadMen and Breaking Bad. Loved Prison Break as well. Hell on Wheels is a keeper so bring it on…
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This is a great show. I disagree with most of what this reviewer has to say. It's easy to turn your nose up at the creative efforts of others. "Hell On Wheels" is an exciting, unpredictable, and well-acted show – with great dialogue, thrilling sequences, and truly great character exploration. I'm really looking forward to the next installment.
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