Hell on Wheels

Hell on Wheels follows Cullen Bohannon, a former Confederate soldier whose search for revenge brings him to the construction of the Union Pacific railroad. The settlement beside the tracks moves with the work: a temporary town where wages, ambition and survival keep everyone in each other's business.

Anson Mount is the main reason to settle in. He gives Bohannon a convincing toughness without making him endlessly talk about it. Colm Meaney is just as enjoyable as railroad entrepreneur Thomas Durant, a man whose enthusiasm for national progress never seems to leave his own interests very far behind.

The camp is a strong setting for a long-running Western. There is work to be done and money to be made, so characters have reasons to cross paths beyond the next personal feud. Common's Elam Ferguson, Dominique McElligott's Lily Bell and Christopher Heyerdahl's unsettling Swede make it worth looking beyond the lead.

I recommend it for the performances, the frontier setting and the time it gives its characters. The pacing can wander, and some developments are less convincing than the people acting them, but there is a lot here to enjoy across its five seasons. Treat the historical setting as the basis for a drama, not a promise of documentary accuracy.

Read the full Hell on Wheels review for more on Bohannon, Durant and life beside the railhead.