Tonight brought the third season finale of AMC’s against-all-odds successful Western, “Hell on Wheels.” Hell on Wheels is subtly groundbreaking in that it keeps fighting uphill battles: an actual Western show that’s managed to survive three seasons, a show about the building of the Transcontinental railroad that manages to keep from putting us to sleep, a show that’s on Saturday nights for God’s sake and actually increases its viewership, and now it’s a somewhat conservative show (not necessarily in content, but probably in audience viewership) that may be offering up a subtle take on Mormon gullibility.
All season long there’s been a conflict between self-righteous Mormons and railroad interests either on slow or high burn, and this final episode saw our hero Bohannon dragged to a Mormon fort for the purpose of experiencing a sham trial and then executed. The bigger problem? The fort is run by a “bishop” who’s actually a homicidal Norwegian nutcase that’s killed the real bishop and his wife, then assumed their identities.
Identity theft today had nothing on identity theft back then, when someone really could just kill you and take your place. It’s a horrifying crime, but I can’t help but feel that the episode’s director (notorious playwright and provocateur Neil Labute whose plays and films routinely tackle race, religion, and anything hot-button) may have meant it as a sly dig at Mormon gullibility. It’s no secret that the religion was founded by a man who was something of a con-artist (no secret to anyone who’s not Mormon that is), and that the very early leaders were treated as criminals pretty much anywhere they went. Some may call this persecution, and it surely is, but those truly familiar with the violent and backwards ways of early Mormons can’t really say that this persecution was entirely out-of-the-blue.
Kudos to Hell on Wheels for not historically white-washing that period, and for offering up a satire of a lot of early prophets. Grade for season finale: B+ [Points deducted for that thoroughly random bear attack on Elam that felt so unsatisfying.]
The show hasn’t gained viewers. On the contrary, it’s ratings have dropped every season. And it’s numbers in the demo are especially terrible as most everyone watching is over fifty years of age. It goes on, and I’m sure there’ll be a season four, but only by the skin of it’s teeth. It coasts on likeable actors and a solid (if more and more confused) premise, but the writing is absolutely as bad as anything I’ve ever seen on TV. Random and unintelligent and ridiculous. I’d love to see a well written version of this show, but the version we’ve got is absolutely horrid. The finale was like a big joke, and it’s telling that you thought it was satire. Satire is beyond this show. Unintentional comedy is more like it.
Actually I found a lot of the inconsistencies with actual history quite glaring. Perhaps it’s because I’m a Mormon, but a lot of misunderstandings make people believe things about us that just aren’t true. Here’s an article that actually states the major problems between the task history, and the “real history” that this show is apparently trying to perpetuate:
http://spokanefavs.com/2013/08/12/hell-on-wheels-and-its-portrayal-of-mormons/
Now I’ve been pretty forgiving of the show up to this point, I mean it’s entertainment not a documentary. But this perfect storm of idiocy, blatantly poor research, and reliance on stereotypes (some of which themselves are historically inaccurate).
I wondered how the show was planning on handling Utah, as Promentory Point is in northern Utah, and we’re pretty darn proud of that history in our state. But apparently AMC is aiming to have Hell on Wheels ride right on into the Pacific, throwing all caution (and history) to the wind. But then a show bent on only showing the “Hell” part of the Transcontinental Railroad can’t be bothered with showing anything positive I suppose.
In any event it’s really disappointing. After killing off Lilly I’ve found the show more distasteful than entertaining, and that’s a shame.