3 out of 5

Created by: Joe Gayton, Tony Gayton

Hell on Wheels is one of those weird non-shows that doesn’t have a clearly summarizable character arc and yet succeeds anyway.  Some shows get to this point – such as, also on AMC, ‘Mad Men,’ – where they can mostly just guide us through the world they’ve established, but such shows generally have to earn that right by reeling us in first, and as HoW resolves some of its character-background mysteries pretty quickly and then barrels down the path of making its leads somewhat unlikeable… I can’t really say that’s the tactic it takes.  And yet, there’s something appealing about the show’s willingness to wallow in racism, drunkenness, mud, and murder without offering too many winks to the viewer that keeps you watching, wondering: when will this storm break?  Amazingly, though we know the general plot beats – drunken murder Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) will become our one-liner anti-hero; embittered “free man” Elam (Common) will be our common-man ne’er do well (probably, against all odds, befriending the anti-hero); money man Durant (Colm Meaney) will constantly pretend to be good only to pull a knife out from ‘neath the plotting table – the show, over the course of (at the time of this writing) three seasons, doesn’t really take shortcuts to establishing any of these tropes.  It doesn’t avoid them either, but it seems that the story of building the railroad (and life in the moving ‘Hell on Wheels’ town) is our focus, not learning to love / hate certain characters.  So we get to know everyone by way of the story, which is a pleasant change from most television.  But this also makes some side characters a bit more wishy-washy, allowing certain subplots to just drop out completely when convenient or to completely flip-flop a dynamic without much explanation.  …And as some major plot points come to a close at the end of season 2, season 3 toys with less blood and dirt and making Cullen a folk hero with friendly music (juxtaposed to the awesomely rustic and raw opening theme).  It rubs the established style of the show wrongly, but the end of the season seems to find its way back home.

Because there’s no one defining moment or episode that makes you want to tell friends that they “must watch” HoW, it’s hard to justify giving it a higher rating.  The writing isn’t especially deep so much as naturalistic, and the production design has gotten looser as things have gone on so the setting is no longer as striking.  But: I love Hell on Wheels.  I love that it’s stuck pretty defiantly to its own little world and hasn’t mucked about so extensively in common TV asides.  It’s be nice to see the creators dig deeper for a season, bringing back some of the oppressiveness of season 1, but then again, that might bring the criticism that the show never progresses.  The railroad moves forward; so does Hell on Wheels.  With similar hiccups and problems, perhaps, but positive progress all the same.