Hell on Wheels: Season 1 (2011-2012)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 34
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 13
Its Old West setting and central revenge plot may be overly familiar, but Hell on Wheels holds just enough intrigue to keep things interesting.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 6
Its Old West setting and central revenge plot may be overly familiar, but Hell on Wheels holds just enough intrigue to keep things interesting.
Season Info
Former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) and his quest for revenge on the Union troops who killed his wife are followed in this Western series. Season 1 sees Cullen head west to take a job helping to construct the first transcontinental railroad, a project spurred by scheming entrepreneur Thomas "Doc" Durant (Colm Meaney). After being hired as a foreman, Cullen meets crewman Elam Ferguson (Common), an emancipated slave who butts heads with Cullen after impeding Cullen's search
Genre: Drama
Network: AMC
Cast
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Anson Mount
Cullen Bohannon -
Colm Meaney
Thomas "Doc" Durant -
Common
Elam Ferguson -
Dominique McElligott
Lily Bell -
Ben Esler
Sean McGinnes -
Phil Burke
Mickey McGinnes -
Eddie Spears
Joseph Black Moon -
Wes Studi
Chief Many Horses -
Ted Levine
Daniel Johnson -
Robin McLeavy
Eva -
Christopher Heyerdah...
The Swede -
Tom Noonan
Rev Nathaniel Cole -
Gerald Auger
Pawnee Killer -
Kasha Kropinski
Ruth -
Dohn Norwood
Psalms -
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Episodes
Pilot
A former confederate soldier journeys to the transcontinental railroad to seek vengeance.
Immortal Mathematics
Cullen fights for his life as he answers for his deadly actions. Lily struggles to survive in the wilderness, as Durant attempts to spin tragedy for political gain.
A New Birth of Freedom
Cullen's search for the sergeant is diverted by an unexpected obstacle. Durant organizes a search party to retrieve the missing Lily Bell.
Jamais Je Ne T'oublierai
Cullen closes in on the Sergeant. Durant pursues a hidden agenda while helping Lily recuperate.
Bread and Circuses
Durant's answer to the railroad's latest financial problems spurs a bare-knuckle brawl between Cullen and Elam.
Pride, Pomp and Circumstance
Durant attempts to end ongoing negotiations with the Cheyenne by challenging them to a competition. Meanwhile Cullen and Elam scramble to prevent bloodshed in town.
Revelations
With Elam's life in the balance, Cullen must decide how much he's willing to risk. Meanwhile Durant faces financial ruin as Lily confronts the family of her late husband.
Derailed
Durant dispatches Cullen and Elam on a mission of vengeance. Lily struggles to find her place in Hell on Wheels.
Timshel
It's all hands on deck as Cullen and Lily work to meet the railroad's looming deadline. Elam and Joseph deal with the consequences of their violent mission.
God of Chaos
Cullen's new life on the railroad is put in jeopardy when he is forced to choose between his past and his future.
Critic Reviews for Hell on Wheels: Season 1
Too often, this show goes all gassy and fizzles: a humorless Blazing Saddles.
The characters - including Meaney's monster - are promising, the racial tensions are bracing, and the atmosphere is transporting.
Cue the music, enter Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannan on AMC's new and intriguing Western, Hell on Wheels.
The pilot isn't very good. It's flat, has flashes of action, then ends with a thud.
Though imbued with epic sweep, Hell on Wheels is a western at heart, even if that heart is cold.
For all the unlikely things the Gaytons make happen in order to get their characters into place, and the dogged refusal of a couple of those characters to become interesting at all, the show gathers steam as it goes on.
Its failings go far deeper than the phony words coming out of the mouths of an otherwise able cast.
Like a runaway train plowing into a station, Hell on Wheels is all noise and flash and blood and guts - and never mind surviving the ride, let alone enjoying it.
Hell on Wheels is a big and ambitious stab at the genre, with a lot going on and much to recommend.
It's not original, not witty, and not creative.
It could become the kind of cult success that inspires fierce fan loyalty and runs for a long time
The net result is only fitfully compelling, and for a series about trains periodically runs out of narrative steam.
However predictable, there are plenty of things to enjoy in Hell on Wheels, and sex and violence are only two of them.
None of Hell on Wheels' juicy eruptions of pulp or sporadic glimpses of soul impedes the myth-belching progress of a story about the little engine of empire that could.
A dark, complex and intense drama about a group of damaged people who come together after the Civil War to help build the Transcontinental Railroad.
May prove to be just interesting enough: justice served Western-style, with a quick draw or sharp knife, as evil men get their due.
Maybe it's good to know your limits.
As familiar as this tableau may be, Hell on Wheels finds enough beauty, danger and emotion to make some part of every episode seem fresh and worth waiting for.
Wheels just feels like a hell of a long, glum slog.
Whatever its destination, I won't be along for the ride.
Hell on Wheels will eventually gather enough steam to get somewhere.
Solid cast, intriguing premise, and - best of all - the Old West.
This one's hell by any measure.
Likely to earn the nickname "Dull on Wheels," the show moves at a glacial pace and introduces a bevy of unconnected characters.
It's not quite good (other than The Swede), but it's also not especially bad (though it has occasional terrible moments), and I'm a sucker for Westerns.
If you're a viewer in the market for a straight-ahead Western drama with some basic-cable violence and darkness, you may find it a serviceable visionist Western.
This ambitious but wildly uneven cable drama is a drearily paced collection of cowboy cliches, saddle-sore plot twists and hackneyed characters with all the appeal of stale oats.
Damned if the thing didn't have its hooks in me.
Co-creators Joe and Tony Gayton have turned out a solid series that got stronger with each of the five episodes I watched.
It gets moving quickly in the subsequent episodes, and turns into a grim frontier revenge saga, with intriguing personalities and interconnecting storylines.
At the end of the day, Hell on Wheels is beautifully-filmed project that offers exceptional attention to detail on everything but the main character.
The show at its best is compelling enough that you may root for it, hoping that it can pull its sprawling plot threads together in a way that will make it all add up to something greater than the sum of its parts.
Hell On Wheels might not be groundbreaking, but it is captivating and eager to tell multiple stories of the men and women struggling to find purpose after the end of the Civil War.
Taking on a titanic subject, Hell on Wheels has a lot of potential, but needs work to reach it.
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