Hell on Wheels: Miss You Already!

It’s always annoying when you get to the end of an excellent book or something good on Television that has been keeping you entertained. The world of the box set has a lot to answer for. Each time Steve and I get to the end of a really riveting series we groan and think that we have seen the very best and nothing is ever going to be as good again. We have all but given up on everyday TV and are ravenous for more of the stuff that we can get through in a few weeks rather than having to wait for a series that is still stuck in the old world of one episode per week. If there is a series that we do fancy on the Beeb or ITV then we will save them until they are finished with the weekly teasing nonsense. Homeland and The Night Manager are top ranking for our own tastes.

 

We have just finished watching Hell on Wheels and have to say that we lapped that up and loved every episode even though we will admit that it does not compare to bare faced, eye opening nerve of Breaking Bad or House of Cards.

 

 

Hell on Wheels ticks a lot of boxes though; it is bursting with colourful characters and has kept us seated comfortably in a recliner for a couple of hours before we fall into bed at night, well actually we climb into bed because our bed in is three foot high but we won’t go there just for the moment.

 

 

 

We had never met Anson Mount before this series, and that man certainly knows how to pose, surely he must have been a model and on this show therefore, granting eye candy to the ladies and well as a strong, gritty, scruffy railroad construction man for the blokes. Actually we have enjoyed the story very much and the cast are all excellent and varied in interest and appeal. The scenery has been wonderful too and there are a number of true-ish stories and suggestions all linked into this brutal tale of the bad old days of taking the first transcontinental railway right across America. I have always been enthralled by the great train journeys and would definitely love to have travelled on that one; I think it’s the Union Pacific they are speaking of. It is a wonder that any of those pioneers survived the cruelty, torture and plain hardship of everyday life in those times. I would like to pat the show producer John Wirth heartily on the back for giving us this sheer entertainment of a work. We are left wanting much more.

 

 

 

So many great characters turn up is this and not many of them with any redeeming features at all. Anson Mount plays the handsome, not quite hero, Cullen Bohannon and has been quite delightful as the one person with a pocketful, or at least a tiny inkling of good inside him. The fabulously wicked Christopher Heyerdahl as the Swede is utterly horrendous and as low as they go. Colm Meaney was the only actor in the series that we knew well from British made films and TV and the stage of course. He was so very cringe makingly dis-likable in Hell on Wheels and that takes talent too of course. We loved Robin McLeavy as Eva, with her previous ownership tattooed upon her lovely face and whose wretched life has treated her in the most horrible way, but not crushed, her fighting spirit, inner strength and resilience carry her through her own hell.

 

 

 

The last episode that we saw left the option of another series or more episodes at least, wide open but I am shocked and disappointed to have read recently that they do not intend to continue with the story that I for one am hungry to see and hear more of Hell on Wheels. Please change your mind Mr Wirth.

 

 

 On the left here is
 the lovely Robin McLeavy
 An Australian by birth
 who plays the very hard done
 and facially tattooed
 bar girl/madam Eva.


Then below is Christopher Heyerdahl
Looking like a nice guy
when not in the of
character of The Swede


Then a photo of Star, Anson Mount
Looking pretty cool
I think anybody would agree

 

 

 Another view of the character of Eva, it is kind of strange how quickly you get used to the tattoo.