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POLL : What did you think of Hell on Wheels - Pilot?

7 Nov 2011

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17 comments:

  1. klutzy_girl7 November 2011 at 03:59

    It was okay. I was a little disappointed in it. It didn't live up to expectations. I will watch again next week, though, since I have nothing on after The Walking Dead.

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  2. ScottA7 November 2011 at 04:00

    Nice violence. Loved the Indian attack.

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  3. DarqueMode7 November 2011 at 04:06

    Wow!  Now THAT was an opening scene that sets a tone for the series. XD

    I guess we know what type of man Cullen Bohannan is! Cold enough to kill a man who's in a church to confess, but calculated enough to not waste a second bullet once he's positive he is dead! XD

    Colm Meaney as Doc Durant looks to be a very fun character! 

    I did not recognize Ted Levine at first but his distinctive voice gave him a way!

    I was rolling as the silly Baptists were singing their hymns as the TNT was exploding behind them. XD

    Each separate new scene is a perfect introduction snapshot into the characters, but it may be a little "too perfect" if that makes any sense. It feels too polished and a bit contrived to me. That said I like the cinematography quite a bit. Maybe they moved too fast and made each scene just a little too concise for my taste. 

    That happens a lot though in ensemble cast pilots since they need to introduce each character in a way that makes viewers attach to them right off the bat.  I can forgive it as long as future episode go a little deeper into each scene and into each character.

    I think the pilot was pretty entertaining to me. I like a lot of the characters right off, but it all felt very shallow... especially for an AMC series. I think it has a lot of potential if they can find a bit more depth in the writing and characters. It lacked the subtlety that AMC series usually show.

    It was better than I expected after all the terrible reviews. Not perfect and not even great really, but not nearly as bad as the reviews made it out to be. I will tune in for a few more episodes if not the full season. I like the fact that it's something different than most everything else on TV.

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  4. ScottA7 November 2011 at 04:10

    I always tend to think that in these "shanty towns" there would be a lot more bartering turning into arguing turnong into violence than they show.  Deadwood had its' share of merchant violence.

    I still don't buy the Indian getting taken out by Hall's wife/gf.

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  5. DarqueMode7 November 2011 at 04:26

    The series did not feel "gritty" enough for me either. Filth and violence is just built into the Old West., even if most series and movies ignore it. IT all just felt to oclean and well-behaved!

    I can see her killing a nearly choked out warrior... I expected her to push the arrow into his stomach or eye before her husband was stabbed honestly. I had issues with the surveyor husband's head not being split open after the tomahawk was crashed down on his unsuspecting head full force.

    Either way in reality the Native would have likely killed both of them pretty easily! XD

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  6. Laurie Edwards7 November 2011 at 05:27

    I could've done without the shot of the arrow being shoved deeper into the warrior's throat, but other than that, "Hell on Wheels" was excellent. It's a measure of how far we've come that I felt a shock of revulsion over the use of the words "darkie" and "nigger." Horrifying.

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  7. Stickoxydal7 November 2011 at 12:08

    First of all, it definitely wasn't as bad as many reviews said it was. I don't know why it got that many awful reviews. That said it definitely was one of the weaker AMC pilots, nowhere near the qualiyt the brilliant pilot episodes of Breaking Bad, The Killing and The Walking Dead, but still solid resulting in an OK voting.
    Haven't seen Deadwood yet, I actually pushed it back on my to watch list because I didn't want to biased, so I can't say where differences are. But I read somewhere that Hell on Wheels doesn't have a sense of humour, something that Deadwood had. It clearly had some funny scenes. The McGinnes brothers with their freak toes (they seem like they are set up to some comic relief), Cullen waking up after drinking with his boss and the other guys or Lily saying the other guys have hands after her husband was worried someone could hear them. So that was actually pretty okay for me.

    Acting-wise it was decent, but not really brilliant. Mount was a bit flat, Common & McElligot have potential, but didn't quite show it and Meany was solid, but I wasn't impressed by his monologue at the end. Noonan was just not prominent enough to judge his performance. One guy actually stood out - Ted Levine. He was the best thing about the pilot and I'm not happy that he's already dead even though we might get to see him again in a flashback.

    One of the bigger problems of the pilot were those separated storylines of the 4 main characters. Cullen & Elam had some scenes together, but especially Lily & Doc were completely separated. I'm sure their stories will collide pretty soon, but for me it was a bit of a problem.

    Nevertheless the presentation was great. Sets and costumes looked very good, for example the awesome looking train.

    All in all, it exceeded my expectations (probably because of the terrible reviews), but I see a lot of room for improvement. The fact that many reviews said it got better after the pilot makes me hopeful that the rest of the season will be worth watching.
    RIght now to me it's solid TV, but not really must-see TV.

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  8. Bob7 November 2011 at 13:06

    I think there's a distinction between a show that has different characters story lines that intersect but are all part of a group, AMCs 'The Killing' is a perfect example of this, no matter how separate the three main stories are, even that of the politician, who many said didn't fit in at all, you could tell that it was one storyline that was carried out by three groups, it is one story, but different views.
    Hell on Wheels, on the other hand, didn't have that overarching storyline to connect it, so it fell flat to me. I get that these stories are obviously going to collide, sooner rather than later I'd expect, but it was kind of like watching clips of 'The Office' and 'Parks and Recreation' to me, they're both clearly set in the same universe, you can tell that by tone, but otherwise, they're two different shows, and that's what each group of characters felt like for me.

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  9. Linlighthouse7 November 2011 at 14:22

    I watched the first few minutes and recorded the rest for another time. The opening scene was intriguing. It took a few minutes to remember where I'd seen Colm Meany: Star Trek: TNG.

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  10. laura33417 November 2011 at 15:36

    Did you leave me a comment with the notification button? I received a note. but my cat step onto the laptop and apparently cleared the  screen.If you did,leave me another note. thanks  

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  11. moonvamp7 November 2011 at 15:42

    Was not at all what I expected.  Of course, I really don't like Westerns.  I have to confess I didn't watch the whole thing because I fell asleep but will finish watching it tomorrow.  I will decide if it's a keeper.  

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  12. ScottA7 November 2011 at 19:25

    Ted Levine is an all-time favorite.

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  13. ScottA7 November 2011 at 19:27

    I guess I never understood the tradition of wearing a long coat, vest, long sleeves and a hat when it is 90 degrees out.

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  14. DarqueMode7 November 2011 at 22:18

    Ha! Cats are sneaky that way!

    I may have replied to you in a different post, but I don;t recall using the notify button....

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  15. laura33418 November 2011 at 02:08

    So true but Sagan loves to curl up on it so he can stay nice and warm!

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  16. Bruce_F9 November 2011 at 01:47

    I could write a long, detailed post filled with my thoughts on the pilot but the bottom line for me is this:

    It was a beautifully shot, visually stimulating pilot that just wasn't very interesting.  It was decent enough but I'll pass on this one.

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  17. TV Spoilers9 November 2011 at 18:04

    Only just caught this but thought it was much better than I expected. Can't wait to see where this is going.

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