The Televangelist: ‘Hell on Wheels,’ Season 1, Ep. 8
If it looks like a Western and acts like a Western, it’s a Western! Right? Eh.
- AMC.com
- Gear Up for Winter with Western Wear, Now On Sale!
After taking a holiday hiatus, “Hell on Wheels” returned last night with a bang, literally, and a very sudden stand-off. With Bohannon’s hat riding low on his brow, and the camera focusing on the barrel of his gun, he decides after a day spent out on the prairie that life as a vigilante is overrated. He then shows up right as a passenger train is horrifically derailed. Bohannon has no care for the suffering of the wounded around him, though! He need not bother to consider, “well maybe this isn’t the best time for a revenge killing” - he just rides up, cocks his gun, and the Swede is reduced to a sniveling and pathetic figure, pleading for his life as Elam looks on in satisfaction. There’s something about this scene that sums up the show entirely. If it looks like a Western and acts like a Western, it’s a Western! Right? Eh. It feels like a show that wants to be a Western, but is too self-aware of being a “progressive” type of Western (minus the use of the N-word) that it gets confused in the swirl of modern preoccupations. This is embodied completely in that later scene set to swelling score of the Rainbow Guard: Bohannon, Elam and Joseph Black Moon riding up like 1860s United Colors of Benetton Musketeers, heralding unity among the races! All those who challenge this shall be pistol-whipped into submission!
A highly criticized and praised aspect of the show has been its attention to race. But is the very preoccupation with race, both on the show and in discourse about it, distracting from a real sense of the show? It’s been two weeks since my television series have been on the air - a long, cold, lonely two weeks - and I should have been far more excited to hop back in the “Hell on Wheels” saddle. But it’s an odd sensation: as the season has progressed, the viewing has started feeling more like an obligation than a pleasure. Yet, once the show gets going (which - sidebar - how many friggin’ commercials were there last night? The show could barely get through one scene without being cut off for an interminable ad break), I find myself becoming, if not engrossed, pretty entertained. There are always a few moments of redemption, mostly revolving around Bohannon or the quickly developing Eva. Bohannon’s takedown of every jerk in the camp - and there are quite a few of the - is always satisfying. Even though I see it coming from a mile away, I relish in its execution. But it’s much too easy to get pulled out of the historical world of the show by the more modern issues it dwells upon, and the “heck yeah!” moments don’t hit the sustain pedal hard enough to keep a decent momentum into the next episode.
Back to the themes of “Hell on Wheels,” there’s race, and then there’s gender. And the latter brings us to Lily. I want to like you, woman, but you make no sense. She comes back to the camp to Durant to see the completion of the project her husband gave his life for. This is already on shaky ground, but it’s not so far-fetched that it’s utterly unbelievable - she’s lonely and confused. Then, because Bohannon ribs her about it, she decides to turn her back on cleanliness and safety from rape and murder to pitch a tent in the mud. Of course, Lily doesn’t actually pitch the tent, she gets some gentlemen to do it for her. Except gentlemen are hard to come by in the encampment, and everything has its price. Lily thinks that without money she can do things. Really, Lily? The “gentleman” tells her she can barter something else, and apparently in the currency of Hell on Wheels, a tent will cost you a romp, but wooden floors will cost you two.