Hell on Wheels Season 2 *SPOILERS*
- Thread starter auntiehill
- Start date
There is a lot of laziness in the execution of this show. Especially when it comes to portraying the law.
Consider this sequence of events.
What is the law? Who is the law? If there is no law, why was there a warrant and why did anybody care about it.
Consider this sequence of events.
- Lily and Bohannon are duty-bound to adhere to an arrest warrant for Doc, although nobody but Lily and Bohannon even know he was part of the gang.
- Bohannon and Ferguson are allowed to summarily execute a member of the gang without any kind of legal authority
- The union soldiers show up to arrest and execute Doc. They have no interest in the murders and kidnapping being perpetrated in the train car right in front of them. They are content to sit on their horses and observe calmly.
- Joseph stabs Cole to death and everyone in attendance knows it. Whether Cole was Deranged or not, Joseph should at least have to explain himself to the "Authorities" that are in attendance. In that environment where all the races are pitted against each other and the Indians are considered the enemy, they see an Indian walk out of a train car with a bloody knife in his hand and just watch him ride away.
What is the law? Who is the law? If there is no law, why was there a warrant and why did anybody care about it.
Well there is Cullen knowing that the soldier who left The Big Parade would stop at that specific Catholic Church for confession on his way home.
Cullen had placed a fake ad in the newspaper stating that that church was running a confession special for returning Union soldiers who'd taken part in murdering Confederate wives.
Well, thanks to AMC's spoiler-rific previews, I know how one major plot point will be resolved, and when.
Still, I loved the conversation between the Swede and Bohannon; they do understand each other very well. It's also interesting to the see the Irish brothers starting to swap roles--the younger becoming the aggressor while the younger goes for the softer approach, perhaps due to his crush on Ruth.
I wonder if we will see the Swede again; the actor is also on True Blood now, isn't he?
Still, I loved the conversation between the Swede and Bohannon; they do understand each other very well. It's also interesting to the see the Irish brothers starting to swap roles--the younger becoming the aggressor while the younger goes for the softer approach, perhaps due to his crush on Ruth.
I wonder if we will see the Swede again; the actor is also on True Blood now, isn't he?
Well, it seems MRS. Durant is a better boss than her husband. Or, at least, a smarter one. But what will happen to Lily? They seem determined to get rid of her, for more reasons than one.
Trouble brews between the McGinness brothers. Mickey is turning into quite the useless drunk, while Sean pines for the wrong woman.
Speaking of the wrong woman, who will Eva end up with? Assuming she survives, that is?
And what exactly was Mr. Ferguson hired to do? Take over Bohannon's job? And will The Swede ever get what's coming to him?
With any luck, at least ONE of these plotlines will get resolved in next week's two-hour season finale.
Trouble brews between the McGinness brothers. Mickey is turning into quite the useless drunk, while Sean pines for the wrong woman.
Speaking of the wrong woman, who will Eva end up with? Assuming she survives, that is?
And what exactly was Mr. Ferguson hired to do? Take over Bohannon's job? And will The Swede ever get what's coming to him?
With any luck, at least ONE of these plotlines will get resolved in next week's two-hour season finale.
Mister Fandango
Fleet Captain
Despite what some people may want everyone to believe, it's actually really difficult for people with modern sensibilities to think (and therefore write) like people did during those times. The genuine belief that people of a different race were little better than beasts of burden is nearly impossible to comprehend. Sure, you can find a lot of people who are still deeply racist, but by and large most people just can't wrap their head around that mindset. Not really.
Sure, calling someone a derogative term and getting faux angry about them drinking in the same tent as you is easy enough. But even the single most racist person in the show, within only a matter of months, has largely turned around. If that's proof that the writers don't truly understand how indoctrinated those beliefs were, I don't know what does.
And the fact that the majority of the audience has gone along with it, too, demonstrates it even more.
Sure, calling someone a derogative term and getting faux angry about them drinking in the same tent as you is easy enough. But even the single most racist person in the show, within only a matter of months, has largely turned around. If that's proof that the writers don't truly understand how indoctrinated those beliefs were, I don't know what does.
And the fact that the majority of the audience has gone along with it, too, demonstrates it even more.
^^^ That's what I loved about Deadwood - it was unapologetic in its use of period colloquialisms and never strayed from beginning to end. Like it or not, it remained true to its source material. Fluffing up a show meant to be a similarly-formatted historical drama to appeal to modern sensibilities is a quick road to failure, IMHO.
With Elam it's somewhat justified: He seems to be Bohannon's friend and it's widely known he works for Durant. Everyone fears Bohannon (and they know he's saved him at least once) and no one wants to anger Durant.
Both those things would be enough to protect Elam. But he's letting it get to his head and doesn't realize how nominal his power is.
HoW isn't about the founding of a true Frontier town like Deadwood was. It's not going to deal with all the social norms of the time like DW did nor does it try to.
That said, it is trying to portray the Wild West as a more Grey place than usually thought up (even the Indians aren't just rampaging Boogeymen).
Both those things would be enough to protect Elam. But he's letting it get to his head and doesn't realize how nominal his power is.
HoW isn't about the founding of a true Frontier town like Deadwood was. It's not going to deal with all the social norms of the time like DW did nor does it try to.
That said, it is trying to portray the Wild West as a more Grey place than usually thought up (even the Indians aren't just rampaging Boogeymen).
Shows about history are never accurate, nor can they be. Hell on Wheels has basically been an explicit fable about America's metling pot right from the start, so you'd expect the racist attitudes to change in front of us: that's what the show is trying to demonstrate, the old myth that opening the west - a shared task - helped to forge a single nation out of disparate racial parts. The story they're telling has no interest in a depiction of actual, unchangeable racist indoctrination: it's an allegory for two hundred years of changing attitudes compressed into a post-Civil War setting.
WOW. Well, we'll have a LOT of new cast members next season, won't we?
That was one brutal season finale, but I didn't expect some of the deaths. I sure didn't expect
but I was surprised that
That was one brutal season finale, but I didn't expect some of the deaths. I sure didn't expect
Lily to die
Eva and Elam both survived
So, over the course of two seasons we watch Lily and Cullen get put through hell, and then, when they finally have 5 minutes of not wanting to kill themselves, we have the most asinine character in recent TV history strangle her because...what? It's edgy, dark and gritty?
I have no interest in this show anymore. They have no clue what they're doing, other than to make characters retarded in order to put their Gary Stu Herald of Chaos villain in a position to murder the heroine and make sure the hero stays dark and brooding.
YAWN.
Try watching Deadwood sometime, writers of Hell on Wheels, to see how to tell a dark, gritty period story with emotional impact without random stupidity and shock-killing main characters that manage to have a nice day for once after two seasons of oppressive, depressive abuse.
Killing off Mr. Toole was also lame. He's a decent minor character, so I guess just have him commit suicide, cause you didn't like that you'd written yourself into a corner with the interracial relationship sidestory? Yeah, you totally earned that. Wait no you didn't.
Shameful waste of a show's potential.
I have no interest in this show anymore. They have no clue what they're doing, other than to make characters retarded in order to put their Gary Stu Herald of Chaos villain in a position to murder the heroine and make sure the hero stays dark and brooding.
YAWN.
Try watching Deadwood sometime, writers of Hell on Wheels, to see how to tell a dark, gritty period story with emotional impact without random stupidity and shock-killing main characters that manage to have a nice day for once after two seasons of oppressive, depressive abuse.
Killing off Mr. Toole was also lame. He's a decent minor character, so I guess just have him commit suicide, cause you didn't like that you'd written yourself into a corner with the interracial relationship sidestory? Yeah, you totally earned that. Wait no you didn't.
Shameful waste of a show's potential.
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