Hell On Wheels

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Hell On Wheels takes place in 1868 as the Union Pacific attempts to win the race to get to the West Coast and complete the transcontinental railroad. And in this endeavor the Union Pacific has employed Cullen Bohannon. Cullen Bohannon is a Mississippi man who fought for the south, had freed his slaves a year before the war, who had lost his son and wife to the Northern troops, and a man to be reckoned with.

Cullen Bohannon is the badest, badest, badest bad-ass there ever was. He makes John Wayne look like Bruce Jenner.  This guy could kick the crap out of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Kevin Costner in like 2.4 seconds. BAD-ASS.

Anson Mount plays Cullen Bohannon in this incredible series. And he is surrounded by a wonderful cast of characters. There is Elam Ferguson a newly freed slave who brings himself up to be the Marshall of the Railroad police, played by the hip-hop artist Common. There is Thomas C. Durant the underhanded, unethical, snake in the grass head of the Union Pacific Railroad who connives and does diabolical things in his endeavor to make his fortune on the railroad. There is the diabolical and evil psychotic killer and head of security at one point, Thor Gundersen known as The Swede and played by Christopher Heyerdahl. And there is Eva, the one time whore, who was once a captive of Indians who tattooed her chin and made her unwanted by most men. And on and on. The show has back stories about the whores, the newly freed black men, the bureaucrats, the newspaper people, the Church people, and the saloons that make up the traveling railroad camp known as Hell On Wheels.

Bohannon starts as a laborer, eventually becomes a boss, and finally becomes the owner of the railroad, only to have it stolen away by the original owner the cunning and evil Thomas Durant played by Colm Meaney. This guy could not have a more appropriate last name. Durant is despicable. Just an evil piece of work.

Eventually as the town of Durant, later General Grant renamed it Cheyenne, is invaded by an underhanded pack of carpetbagger wolves sent by Washington - a territory Governor John Campbell, a Federal Marshall and others. And all the while Bohannon has been captured by the Mormons and ends up marrying a Mormon girl that he impregnated. This is the only thing that keeps him alive. He soon enough gets to return to Cheyenne with his new wife and baby son William. And he starts at the bottom again. Much to the chagrin of the Church lady Ruth who had serious designs on Bohannon.

And then there were the McGinnes brother Sean and Mickey. In time Mickey kills Sean and becomes the owner of a casino-bar-brothel.

And this isn't even scratching the surface. I haven't even talked about Indians. surveyor Lilly Bell, the black walking-boss Psalms, the Union Soldiers that Bohannon hunted to kill for murdering his wife and son, and how much General Grant likes Bohannon.

This is the second biggest show that AMC ever produced. That means that the darling of the critics, "Mad Men" gets demoted to number three. "The Walking Dead" is the most popular show on cable, and then "Hell On Wheels." Sorry "Mad Men" fans.

So please take a look from the beginning on Netflix to "Hell On Wheels." I am already wondering what the heck can replace this while I'm on the treadmill at the gym. This will be hard to replace. I love this stuff, but then again, I'm a western fan.

GRADE: A