Topless on Godless

Seriously, go watch Godless on Netflix, it's awesome.  

The Rifleman in Comics

What in Tarnation is That Dirty Black Bag?

 NEW WESTERN!!!  NEW WESTERN!!! NEW WESTERN!!!

Hopefully I can watch and give a review soon.

Premiers 3/10?  That's kind funny.

Quickshots- Westworld

 

Season 1- This is the best thing ever on television

Season 2- Really liked that Raj scene, couldn’t get myself to finish the season

Season 3- Is this thing still on?

Copper; or On US Maps Manhattan is in the West

So there’s a new show on BBC America called Copper that is getting a lot of attention on the Western blogs and web sites.  Interesting that, in that it takes place entirely in New York City.  It does take place in the 1860’s, and being set in the 19^th century seems to be enough to make something a western to most people (I’m looking at you, All-Star Western).   Having a lawman carrying a sixgun doesn’t make you a western, though.  Without even the idea that there is freedom over the horizon, where is the draw to move on, grow, expand?  

I’m watching the show now and looking at the fetid squalor of the immigrant tenements, lingering in the shadows of privilege.  A good part of my family ended up in the Philadelphia versions of places like that in the 19^th century, many others ended up working in coal mines not too far away.  I’m not sure which would be preferable.  They are still better than poverty, pograms, and political oppression in the homelands, but not much.

So how is the show?  Not bad.  Ain’t no western, that’s for sure. The acting is good, though, the plot is interesting, and the anachronisms not too bad.  It manages to have an Irish character without Irish nostalgia, a rare feat indeed.  If anything, an hour of watching the vile corruption in a place where the taint of aristocracy won’t die and capitalism stomps the downtrodden unchecked sure makes you respect the purity of a Utah canyonland.

Top Five Reasons I Can’t Watch Any More Hell On Wheels

I’ve tried.  Really, I’ve tried, but I just don’t think I can watch any more Hell On Wheels.  I have six unwatched episodes sitting on my DVR, and I am watching a seventh at the moment, thinking about all the other things I could be watching, reading, doing instead.  I am close to giving up.  Here’s why:

1. There are no likeable characters.  Not a one.  In most dramas you find at least one character that you like, even the villains.  Here I can’t find a one that I care about.  I vaguely cared about Lily Bell for the first few episodes, but she has become as uninteresting as the rest.
2. As I’ve said in many posts before I really look for westerns to explore a visual landscape, not just a point in time.  Here 90% of the scenes look exactly the same.  Sometimes the story moves into a place with trees, and boy that is nice, but otherwise it is one flat piece of land.  Historically accurate?  Sure, that is where you build a railroad, but it is boring as heck.
3. I can’t find a three dimensional character in the bunch.  Everyone is pulled out of the advanced stock characters barrel.  Preacher- who used to be a killer!  Grieving widow- with a secret!  Angry black man- with a clever plan!  Hooker- with a heart of gold!  Better than having them all pulled out of the basic stock character barrel, but only just. 
4. The writing is slow and plodding.  It never seems to go anywhere.  There’s the plains.  And some tracks.  And some guys working.  And the robber baron complaining.  And our hero angry.  Again.  Just like last week. 
5. The show keeps setting itself up to be this big discussion on race in the west.  It goes on and on about racism, but never really engages in it or adds anything meaningful to our thoughts on it.  “Oh, I used to own slaves but I set them free and now my best buddy is that big black guy over there,” says the main character.  Right, Johnny Reb, I’ll buy that.

Can anyone out there give me a good reason to keep on watching?

Television’s Best Western: Terra Nova & The Promise of a New Tomorrow

Lately I have been satisfying my western urges via trips to the sci-fi shelf.  Terra Nova, Fox’s flawed by fun time travel series, is the reason why I have strayed from the traditional western shelf.  As I have stated in past posts, I like westerns for the sense of exploring a new, potentially hostile, but also potentially rejuvenating land.  When I read about the trials of the early western explorers there is a sense of mystery in their journey as they ride or raft into terra incognita, the blank spaces on the map.  I know, of course, what is in those places on the map, and what will happen to the people there.  To some extent that prescience of observing from a future state takes away some of the allure of reading or watching these stories.  In science fiction, though, the future is often unknown (presuming you haven’t read spoilers or see the sequels first).  In science fiction that involves far flung colony worlds, you have the same appeal of the western frontier stories without the annoyance of knowing that the site of the story’s climax will one day be home to a Wal-Mart.  

Terra Nova is just this kind of story.  Instead of a far flung colony world, Terra Nova is the location of a city 85 million years in the past, where the good folks of Chicago in the 22^nd century are hurling pilgrims as fast as possible before the Earth becomes uninhabitable because of environmental decay (please recycle and turn off lights when not in the room; also, compost).  Terra Nova is literally sitting on the edge of world, a lonely town / fort tucked away in an inhospitable environment filled with strange wildlife, with contact back home only available in brief patches every six months.  Sounds a bit like the western frontier, doesn’t it?  In the pilot the town even picks up a sheriff, a lawman / political refugee from the 22^nd century’s population control laws, come back in time with his three kids (one over the legal limit) and his doctor wife. 

Mix a frontier town with family drama, eco-politics, and a dash of conspiracy, sprinkle liberally with dinosaurs, and you get Terra Nova.  Much of the story really is a rehash of Avatar, right down to some of the actors.  Avatar itself owes much to westerns, so much that for weeks after seeing it I called the movie “Dances with Wolves 2: Electric Boogaloo”.  Sure, the whole thing is a bit over acted, and the background music is more distracting than anything else, but it is a heck of a ride.  And unlike conventional Westerns, I don’t know what the end of the story is going to be.

Unless it is cancelled, of course.  The show’s costs are exorbitant, and it is only doing mediocre in the ratings.  The 13 episode run ends on Monday, December 12 (i.e. soon if you are reading this right after I post) and it’s still iffy as to whether it will get picked up for another 13 episodes.  Steven Spielberg may be the exec producer, but the show runner is Brandon Bragga.  You know, the guy who crashed 24, FlashForward, and the entire Star Trek television franchise.  Tune in for the season ender while the show is still on; who can say what will happen next?

(Oh, you thought this was about Hell on Wheels?  I just can't get into it.  Hopefully that will be a post for another day.)

Return of the TV Western

If I am reading this article right, there are at least five western series in the hopper for 2012.  Of course that depends on what you call a western.  This article calls Justified a western- love that show, but is eastern Kentucky the west?  It is wild, but not quite west.  Regardless, it looks like 2012 is going to be a good year for television westerns.  Really have to get around to finishing the first episode of Hell on Wheels...

Hell on Wheels Early Reviews

Hell on Wheels still has a few hours to go until it starts, but it is already getting mediocre reviews.  See below.

http://news.yahoo.com/hell-wheels-amc-revive-tv-western-173300805.html