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George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Showing posts with label Hell on Wheels. Show all posts

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Hell on Wheels Finale: From Rail to Sea

A most fine and satisfying finale to Hell on Wheels tonight, with Bohannon doing just what I'd hoped and predicted (see my previous reviews) in the end: taking a boat to China to find Mei.

It wasn't that hard to predict, but was still very good to see. Being a Union colonel, killing Indians, of course didn't suit him for at least two reasons. But neither did working on a much smaller railroad in California. Only finding the love of his life - or at least his recent life - made sense.

Durant came across very well, too, which made me sorry we had to see his ultimate decline in the flashforward a few weeks back. But every word Durant said in his testimony rang true. He lied, cheated, stole, all in the service of building that railroad, and he succeeded.

And the railroad Durant had built with Bohannon's help is the vehicle that gets Bohannon from Washington to San Francisco, where he boards a boat to China, in the end. That was one of the nicest touches in this finale, that Bohannon used what he built to help his personal dream a reality. In other words, Bohannon helped make Durant's vision real, and in turn used that reality to get his own dream underway into reality.

Seeing Custer was fun, too - though knowing what's going to happen to him makes this not quite fun, either. But it's Custer's style and swagger than convinces Bohannon he isn't a soldier anymore, and doesn't want to be one again.

And so this wonderful series ends. I still miss Lily, and would have been happier if the Swede had been dispatched much earlier, but hey, we were treated to a few years of a great Western with real history and some memorably personal stories to boot. How about a movie, say, five or ten years from now, which shows what Bohannon and Mei are up to?

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Hell on Wheels 5.13: Almost Grinds to a Halt

The penultimate episode of Hell on Wheels was on tonight. And a real downer of an episode - 5.13 - it was.

In a nutshell, we see Bohannon and the Central Pacific beating Durant and the Union Pacific to Ogden. That part of the story was uplifting, featuring the Chinese workers coming back from the mines and the African-Americans leaving Durant to join forces with Bohannon to win the race.

Inspiring. But Durant wins anyway by threatening to get the Central Pacific rails inspected. It's apparently vulnerable to what government inspectors might find. Presumably both sides did shoddy work here and there, but the Central Pacific has more to lose than the Union Pacific.
So Durant's business brutality wins the day, and Bohannon is left drunk and screaming on the floor.

Since history records that the Union Pacific won, I guess Hell on Wheels had no other choice but to play it this way, with Bohannon winning but Durant getting the credit. And who knows what might happen next week.

Truthfully, at this point, I care less about the railroad and more about Cullen Bohannon's ultimate happiness. Since he's a fictional character, all can end well for him, or at least relatively well, next week.

I'm pulling for him to be reunited with Mei, and the two of them get a homestead and have a bunch of kids and live happily ever after somewhere. Or maybe a townhouse in New York City, or a houseboat in San Francisco Bay.

I'll see you here next week with my reaction to what Hell on Wheels brings us. I'll need some cheering up, in any case, with the Trump GOP convention just concluded.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Hell on Wheels 5.12: Sailing Away

Sailing away can sound like a good thing. In the last scene of the excellent episode 5.12 of Hell on Wheels last night, it was not so good, or maybe a mixture of good and bad, with hope for some good sometime in the future.

Bohannon has just told Mei Fong that he loves her. He's also said that he was lying when he said he's lost everyone he's loved - lying, because he actually left them, at least at first. This was the case with his wife before he left to fight for the South in the Civil War, then Lily of the West, and most recently his Mormon wife. Bohannon says he's not going to do that, again.

Mei loves him, too. Perhaps too much. Because she's witnessed how close Bohannon came to death when he protected her - making like the great gunslinger that he is, which was good to see - but Mei does not want to be the cause of her beloved's death. So the last scene shows her on that boat to China, in place of Chang's woman. Hey, she's still alive, while there's life there's hope, so we may yet see Mei and Bohannon back together before the series ends.

I have no idea how long it takes to sail to China and back - months? It doesn't matter. We've already seen Hell on Wheels skip to the future with last week's powerful Durant story, so it can do the same with Bohannon. He's a fearsome man now - his limp only makes him more so - and there's certainly every chance that he will survive.

Of course, since Durant is a true historical character and Bohannon is not, Durant's survival after the rail is completed is assured, while Bohannon's is not. I assume Durant dying alone which we saw last week is historically accurate. Now Bohannon is alone, too, but there's no real history to insist that that this sad symmetry be the final fate of Bohannon, too.

Just two more episodes left in the series, right? I'm betting we'll see him standing in the end, and if not with Mei, on a boat to China to find her.

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Hell on Wheels 5.11: Durant and Shakespeare

As Hell on Wheels winds down with its final few episodes in one hell of a last season, we get a memorable hour devoted almost solely to Durant, in which Bohannon doesn't even appear.

The intro flashforward to Durant's death in New York a decade after the railroad is finished sets the tone, tells us a lot of things, and is true to history. Durant died a poor man. His dreaming and scheming completed the railroad but eventually caught up with him. The rest of the hour details why he got just what he deserved.

As I mentioned last week, it was good to see Durant finally in bed with a good woman. She was strong, loving, intelligent, capable - the best partner Durant ever had, including likely his wife - and his scheming unintentionally killed her.

He needed money. He had himself kidnapped as a way of getting this cash. What he didn't count on was the woman he loved selling her property to raise this cash, and getting killed when she came to deliver it to free Durant. The story had real Greek tragic and Shakespearean overtones.

Mickey's story is Shakespearean, too. He earlier killed his own brother. Last night he kills his cousin, to stop him from killing Durant. Campbell of course doesn't buy the story (it was good to see him again, too), but can't possibly figured out exactly what happened. As consolation, Mickey at least gets Eva, and they do make a good if mutually desperate couple. Eva's embracing of Mickey provides the tenderest moment in the episode.

They'll be no consolation when Hell on Wheels ends in the next few weeks. It's been uniquely original and satisfying television, a worthy successor to the golden age of Westerns on television in the 1950s.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Hell on Wheels 5.10: Nitroglycerin and Love

Well, I have to hand it to Hell on Wheels in 5.10 last night, delivering one of the best loving-making scenes ever, on television or the movies, as Bohannon and Fong make love with bottles of explosive nitroglycerin teetering on the counter. They do it passionately but with just the requisite amount of quiet and stillness, and the scene will go down as one for the ages.

The rest of the night showed the awesome explosive power of nitro, in terms of moving the railroad construction along and killing workers if they even breathe too hard in the wrong direction. Bohannon had another good night, with no one that he cared a lot about - including, especially Fong - getting hurt.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the rail, the one approaching from the East under Durant's leadership, we also get some good amorous scenes. Durant is not my favorite character, but it's good to see him getting a little, and seeing the humanizing effects it's having on him.

Also on AMC, in the hour after and before Hell on Wheels, depending on when you watch, we're being treated to a pretty good docu-drama in The American West. At this point, Jesse James and his train robberies is one of the main stories - along with Custer, Crazy Horse, and the Indian Wars - and it was fun seeing this paralleled in Hell on Wheels. Durant kidnapped, and even being brave about it, was good to see.

Of course, Durant is much further west than where Jesse James attacked trains, and it will be interesting to see who this train robber is and how Durant gets out of this. He obviously no longer has Bohannon to save him, but you never know ...

See also Hell on Wheels 5.1: Rails and Truckee ... Hell on Wheels 5.2: Mei and Cullen ... Hell on Wheels 5.3: Prejudice ... Hell on Wheels 5.8: Letting Him Live? ... Hell on Wheels 5.9: A Good Night for Bohannon

And see also Hell on Wheels 4.1-2: Rolling Again ... Hell on Wheels 4.5: New Blood ... Hell on Wheels 4.6: Bear and Sanity ... Hell on Wheels 4.7: Why? ... Hell on Wheels 4.8: Aftermath and Rebound ... Hell on Wheels 4.9: High Noon ... Hell on Wheels 4.10: A Tale of Two Sicko Killers ... Hell on Wheels 4.11: The Redemption of Ruth ... Hell on Wheels 4.12: Infuriating and Worthwhile ... Hell on Wheels Season 4 Finale: The Buffalo

And see also Hell on Wheels 3.1-2: Bohannan in Command ... Hell on Wheels 3.3: Talking and Walking ... Hell on Wheels 3.4: Extreme Lacrosse ... Hell on Wheels 3.5: The Glove ... Hell on Wheels 3.6: The Man in Charge ...Hell on Wheels 3.7: Water, Water ... Hell on Wheels 3.8: Canterbury Tales ...Hell on Wheels 3.9: Shoot-Out and Truths ... Hell on Wheels Season 3 finale: Train Calling in the Distance

And see also Hell on Wheels: Blood, Sweat, and Tears on the Track, and the Telegraph ... Hell on Wheels 1.6: Horse vs. Rail ... Hell on Wheels 1.8: Multiple Tracks ... Hell on Wheels 1.9: Historical Inevitable and Unknown ... Hell on Wheels Season One Finale: Greek Tragedy, Western Style

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Sunday, June 19, 2016

Hell on Wheels 5.9: A Good Night for Bohannon

A very satisfying Hell on Wheels 5.9 last night, as Bohannon finally ends up in bed with a woman he loves.

Let's face it - that woman was not Naomi. The only reason he married her was because he got her pregnant, and wanted to do the right, honorable thing. He came to love her in a way, and of course their boy William, but it makes sense that he would ultimately accept her decision to go with Isaac, painful as it was for all concerned.

The only woman we've seen Bohannon truly and fully love up until now was Lily, and her murder by the Swede was one of the worst moments both for Bohannon and the show. But there has been something building up between him and Fong all season, and it was good to see it finally explode into action last night.

Maybe love is too strong a word for what Bohannon currently feels for her, but he certainly feels something far different than what he felt for Naomi. With the series close to ending, we can now hope for a happy ending for Bohannon, even with Naomi choosing Isaac.

Meanwhile, it was good to see Durant back in action again, if not quite - as always - in solvent and totally legal business. We know of course from history that he did complete the railroad, and continued to be beset by financial scandals and sanctions for his wheelings and dealings before, during, and after the final completion of the track. But it will be fun to see exactly how this plays out as this unique series comes to a close.

See also Hell on Wheels 5.1: Rails and Truckee ... Hell on Wheels 5.2: Mei and Cullen ... Hell on Wheels 5.3: Prejudice ... Hell on Wheels 5.8: Letting Him Live?

And see also Hell on Wheels 4.1-2: Rolling Again ... Hell on Wheels 4.5: New Blood ... Hell on Wheels 4.6: Bear and Sanity ... Hell on Wheels 4.7: Why? ... Hell on Wheels 4.8: Aftermath and Rebound ... Hell on Wheels 4.9: High Noon ... Hell on Wheels 4.10: A Tale of Two Sicko Killers ... Hell on Wheels 4.11: The Redemption of Ruth ... Hell on Wheels 4.12: Infuriating and Worthwhile ... Hell on Wheels Season 4 Finale: The Buffalo

And see also Hell on Wheels 3.1-2: Bohannan in Command ... Hell on Wheels 3.3: Talking and Walking ... Hell on Wheels 3.4: Extreme Lacrosse ... Hell on Wheels 3.5: The Glove ... Hell on Wheels 3.6: The Man in Charge ...Hell on Wheels 3.7: Water, Water ... Hell on Wheels 3.8: Canterbury Tales ...Hell on Wheels 3.9: Shoot-Out and Truths ... Hell on Wheels Season 3 finale: Train Calling in the Distance

And see also Hell on Wheels: Blood, Sweat, and Tears on the Track, and the Telegraph ... Hell on Wheels 1.6: Horse vs. Rail ... Hell on Wheels 1.8: Multiple Tracks ... Hell on Wheels 1.9: Historical Inevitable and Unknown ... Hell on Wheels Season One Finale: Greek Tragedy, Western Style

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Sunday, June 12, 2016

Hell on Wheels 5.8: Letting Him Live?

The beginning of the concluding episodes of Hell on Wheels last night - 5.8 - featured the Swede ("I'm Norwegian!") versus Bohannon in an ultimate battle.

In many ways, the very start of the episode was the best, giving us a graphic, stomach-turning explanation of what made the Swede so demented and so filled with hatred for anyone Confederate. You could almost feel sorry for the Swede, even knowing he killed Lily and so many others, until-

Well, until he becomes the Swede with a vengeances, and goes after Bohannon's family. And here I have trouble suspending my disbelief. The Swede has killed Bohannon's father-in-law, and come within a hair's breath of killing his wife and little baby - not to mention Bohannon himself - so why does Bohannon not take his wife's good advice and kill the Swede right then and there?

The answer in a good narrative should never be that we needed the Swede alive to tell the rest of the story for the hour, but this is the only convincing explanation that comes to mind. If you're willing to swallow that, the rest of the hour was as harrowing and riveting as it gets on this blood-and-guts series. If not, well, then, there's always next week.

As a result of Bohannon taking the Swede to justice, with Bohannon on the very edge of his own life and death, we do get another powerful view of the inexplicability of this hero/anti-hero. And I suppose that's good. From the very first episode, Bohannon's motives have not been clear and his actions therefore not predictable, except that he's fundamentally a good man. Because of that, I can sort of see why Bohannon would risk his life to bring the Swede to hanging justice - but I still don't get why he would allow his family to be at risk, which is what not a killing a psycho, persuasive killer such as the Swede inevitably does. So far on the series, Bohannon has been nothing but devoted to his new family.

Whether or not Bohannon's motives will become more clear in the episodes ahead remains unclear. I guess, in an odd way, that this lack of clarity makes the story that much more provocative and appealing.

See also Hell on Wheels 5.1: Rails and Truckee ... Hell on Wheels 5.2: Mei and Cullen ... Hell on Wheels 5.3: Prejudice

And see also Hell on Wheels 4.1-2: Rolling Again ... Hell on Wheels 4.5: New Blood ... Hell on Wheels 4.6: Bear and Sanity ... Hell on Wheels 4.7: Why? ... Hell on Wheels 4.8: Aftermath and Rebound ... Hell on Wheels 4.9: High Noon ... Hell on Wheels 4.10: A Tale of Two Sicko Killers ... Hell on Wheels 4.11: The Redemption of Ruth ... Hell on Wheels 4.12: Infuriating and Worthwhile ... Hell on Wheels Season 4 Finale: The Buffalo

And see also Hell on Wheels 3.1-2: Bohannan in Command ... Hell on Wheels 3.3: Talking and Walking ... Hell on Wheels 3.4: Extreme Lacrosse ... Hell on Wheels 3.5: The Glove ... Hell on Wheels 3.6: The Man in Charge ...Hell on Wheels 3.7: Water, Water ... Hell on Wheels 3.8: Canterbury Tales ...Hell on Wheels 3.9: Shoot-Out and Truths ... Hell on Wheels Season 3 finale: Train Calling in the Distance

And see also Hell on Wheels: Blood, Sweat, and Tears on the Track, and the Telegraph ... Hell on Wheels 1.6: Horse vs. Rail ... Hell on Wheels 1.8: Multiple Tracks ... Hell on Wheels 1.9: Historical Inevitable and Unknown ... Hell on Wheels Season One Finale: Greek Tragedy, Western Style

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Sunday, August 2, 2015

Hell on Wheels 5.3: Prejudice

An especially relevant Hell on Wheels 5.3 last night about ... prejudice, something which still obviously afflicts our society today.

In the case of Hell on Wheels, it's against the Chinese workers, who are being depicted as the real backbone of the feverish attempt to get the railroad west to east. The whole situation, ever on edge, comes to a boil, and along the way elicits Cullen's comment that this is America, where no one is owned by anyone.

Coming from Cullen and his Confederate past, that's a wildly significant statement. We already saw a lack of prejudice in his growing friendship with Elam - which ended badly, to say the least, but not because of Cullen. And we've seen Cullen's respect for Native Americans, too.

But hearing Cullen say point blank that people don't own people in America was eye-opening, and, although welcome as a statement from the heart of our central character, might have been better packaged with a statement from Cullen that, earlier in his life, he fought for a society that did indeed believe deeply in owning people.

Meanwhile, before the episode concludes, Chang is almost hung, and Cullen is instrumental in saving him, along with Ma's timely intervention. Indeed, Cullen seems more at home Ma and Mei, and even Chang, than with most other groups in the history of this series.

Cullen's certainly not at home with the demented part of white culture represented by the Swede, and, for that matter, the Mormons in general, of which his wife is still some sort of part. As I said in my review 5.2 a little while ago, I wouldn't mind at all if Cullen became even more closely connected with this Chinese culture.

See also Hell on Wheels 5.1: Rails and Truckee ... Hell on Wheels 5.2: Mei and Cullen

And see also Hell on Wheels 4.1-2: Rolling Again ... Hell on Wheels 4.5: New Blood ... Hell on Wheels 4.6: Bear and Sanity ... Hell on Wheels 4.7: Why? ... Hell on Wheels 4.8: Aftermath and Rebound ... Hell on Wheels 4.9: High Noon ... Hell on Wheels 4.10: A Tale of Two Sicko Killers ... Hell on Wheels 4.11: The Redemption of Ruth ... Hell on Wheels 4.12: Infuriating and Worthwhile ... Hell on Wheels Season 4 Finale: The Buffalo

And see also Hell on Wheels 3.1-2: Bohannan in Command ... Hell on Wheels 3.3: Talking and Walking ... Hell on Wheels 3.4: Extreme Lacrosse ... Hell on Wheels 3.5: The Glove ... Hell on Wheels 3.6: The Man in Charge ...Hell on Wheels 3.7: Water, Water ... Hell on Wheels 3.8: Canterbury Tales ...Hell on Wheels 3.9: Shoot-Out and Truths ... Hell on Wheels Season 3 finale: Train Calling in the Distance

And see also Hell on Wheels: Blood, Sweat, and Tears on the Track, and the Telegraph ... Hell on Wheels 1.6: Horse vs. Rail ... Hell on Wheels 1.8: Multiple Tracks ... Hell on Wheels 1.9: Historical Inevitable and Unknown ... Hell on Wheels Season One Finale: Greek Tragedy, Western Style

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- Entertainment Weekly

e-mail received from a reader:
Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchildren. Thanks! Tom

I of course happily replied...

42 reviews of The Plot to Save Socrates!