Hell on Wheels - AMC goes western

Observation One: The show really ought to have opened with something brutal being done to the Sioux. Because now they're black hats and it'll be hard to come back from. There will be criticism for that.

Observation Two: However, having the Swede who is frum Nourway quote the world's most famous imaginary Dane was quite the little literary joke. I liked it, anyway.

Two episodes to get to the new status quo is reasonable and I like where it is now, though I wish that the show had gone into a little bit more detail with respect to why Cullen is back with the railroad. I assume it's to do his old job, but that was never explicitly spelled out, and the last season never gave me the impression that he was particularly terrific at it anyway, so I'm not sure why Durant would absolutely need to get him and only him to whip his railroad into shape.

I like how the fights are realistic. Four inept dudes will usually kick a relatively well built man's ass a lot of the time.

I don't like how filthy this show makes me feel. Let's have another episode in Washington for a change. If I have to see too many more people splattered like they just swam in through the latrine I may lose my will to....I dunno...hold in a fart in a crowded elevator or something.

I like Common and Anson Mount together. They need more scenes where they get shit done. The slaughterhouse scene was supremely badass.

I don't like how little sense I have of why the preacher's daughter is doing the things she's doing. I can't come up with anything better than sadism at this point, because why in the name of god would she even WANT this shitty church in the middle of nowhere, and why is she slinging crotch at John Redcrow or whatever his name is if she's not interested in actually getting with him and she's not just trying to kick her dad in the nuts a bunch.

I like the Irish brothers.

I don't much like John Redcorn. He's okay when he's not asked to strain himself too hard, but it felt like he was really physically overselling things in the one-on-one with the priest in the church.

I like how this is clearly a different time with its own rules and standards. It's not going out of its way to put a point on the racism or sexism.

I don't like how choking a whore to death is apparently in no way any sort of extenuating circumstance or indictment against a murder victim. Also, if that guy was the foreman, what the holy hell is Bocephus? Because the former foreman was still alive when Durant went to retrieve him from the stockade, wasn't he?

Question: Would getting tossed into a tub with a naked Norwegian ruin that shotgun? I ask honestly, because I thought that was the implication, but I don't know enough about vintage firearms to know for sure.

And finally, I really wish that the show hadn't made the decision to do that thing to Common's intended. She's really very pretty, but she looks like she just got done eating a pile of shit, and it's a long, long time before laser tattoo removal gets invented.

Yes. I know the show wants to play up the tension between the two of them but if they just became blood brothers and spent the rest of the series righting wrongs behind the barrel of a gun, that would be fantastic.

Yeah, I'm not sure what her deal is. Maybe the idea is that damaged people make poor decisions. Also, I'm not sure what their staying in Buttfuck on Wheels has to do with whether they can get married, would anywhere accept an interracial couple back then?

I don't think it would ruin it permanently, but he'll have to take it apart and clean it and oil it and whatnot before he can fire it again. So it's more on the knocking over a house of cards level dickishness rather than smashing a priceless antique vase.

One thing that's been bothering me, and I'm not 100% sure because it's been a long time since season 1, but I'm pretty sure some of the scenes in the "previously on..." intro were never actually in the show. Like in episode 2 when they show Bohanen being thrown in prison, I don't remember seeing that. The end of episode 1 was him getting sold out on the train. Maybe they should just say "previously in the world of Hell on Wheels" instead.

Also, I don't understand what happened between the train robbery and the beginning of episode 2, because the way I read it was his supposed compatriots sold him out to a Union soldier. So why were they torturing him asking him to give up his buddies? Ask your own soldier since he apparently knows them.

I assumed he threw it into the tub so the Swede couldn't shoot him with it. Like all the firearms on the show except the Winchester Repeating Rifle, it uses loose black powder, and a dunking would screw that up. Cartridge revolvers were still a few years in the future.

Despite some comments on the show, "Beauty" would have been a cutting-edge weapon for the time. It's a breach loading percussion cap shotgun, made in the late 1850s at the earliest.

So. That happened. I'm a little surprised. I didn't really expect this show to have sufficient sack to do something like that with a recurring character. It's not quite "nobody is safe" level daring (that would require offing somebody in the opening credits), but still - nice touch. Not entirely sure I comprehend Mr. the Suweed's motivations entirely, but I'll chalk that up to being distracted by Guild Wars 2 for some of the episode.

Oh, show. Now I get to try and not remember..."Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Alison Krauss performing, Ode to Fucking a Greasy Australian Prospector." Also, if you're going to do a montage like that, it's generally best to at least try and keep the timeframe straight, because the implication there is that Anson Mount was balls deep in Irish Actress Lady for, like, thirty six hours. And, I mean, I get it - Australian dudes and cowboys are at least seventy times the man I am, but don't you think that's a teensy bit excessive?

Question: What, precisely, was the point of Mister the Norwegian smearing otter jizz all over his face and getting the world's closest shave ever with a bowie knife? Is he just a manipulative son of a bitch or evil or on the natives' side or what?

He seemed to show a real moment of weakness when he agreed to kiss her. It was kind of weird, it was like she was petting an obedient Labrador.

More Swede usually makes for a better episode. I liked his Hannibal Lector approach he took with Bohannon. Too many characters in this show do exactly what you expect them to, so mixing it up a little helps.

I have no idea what you're talking about, because my girlfriend and I were talking about how gross it was that they were doing it and also how long it's been in coming and I didn't really watch. Specifically, I was postulating whether women in that time had constant bladder infections.

I think he's either on the side of the Natives trying to sabotage the railroad out of spite, or else because he doesn't want to see another people abused by English/American conquest the way he was.

Hey show. HEY! You look at me when I'm talking to you.

Fuck you, fuck your whole family, and, most particularly of all, FUCK YOU AGAIN. I hope you get ass herpes. That was wasteful and unnecessary and made me very angry.

Maybe I'll look back tomorrow and appreciate how good you were, but right now...super mad.

Edit: So, it's the next day. Still mad.

I'm also beginning to feel a little concerned that this show might be doing the Sleeper Cell thing to me, because I'm starting to get that bloodlust sort of feeling for Native Americans, and that's not cool. I'll be back if there's more, but if the Sioux continue to be nothing more than a savage, brutal, basically evil body of violence, I might have to be out because I don't like when shows start to make me feel like they're stoking me up for a hate crime. Hell - even Sleeper Cell had both Muslims and Arabs who weren't trying to murder innocent people. Thus far we've met precisely one Native American who doesn't want to murder, rape, and pillage, and he's an ineffectual character that I can't imagine ever actually developing any authentic affection for.

I didn't really like the way they cut the finale together, starting out by showing the aftermath and then interspersing flashbacks. I would've rather they just showed us the events in chronological order so that there was some tension as to the outcome. As it was, the big battle scene felt kind of anticlimactic, because we already knew more or less how it played out.

Overall, I still like the show, but it doesn't look like it'll ever elevate itself to Deadwood levels. Which is fine, as long as it never sinks to Walking Dead level either.

I don't find myself hating the Sioux. I can see that they're trying to present the story of the people caught on the front lines of a clash of civilizations, even if they aren't really presenting it well.

Just came across this bit of news, a bit old...

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...or-season-3-john-wirth-new-showrunner/161467/

Including Terminator in his resume for showrunner is a bit of a reach - that was 100% Josh Friedman's show from top to bottom.

That said, I'm game to see what he does. I don't know that what will come back after the events of the finale could be reasonably treated as a continuation of the same show that we've been watching (you know, given the fact that half the goddamn cast is dead), but it could still be a good show. They have some apologizing to do, though. I'm not sure I'm ready to stop being angry about that. Unnecessary, wasteful, and mean. Bad show.

Another reason not to include Sara Connor Chronicles is if you want us to believe the show won't get cancelled after this season.