AMC recently announced that next year’s season five of Hell on Wheels will be its last. And after this uneven fourth season, maybe it’s time. Everything that needs to be said has, and Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) our fascinating lead who has grown from a revenge-hungry former soldier into a dangerously driven man with a new wife and child.
There’s a very strong argument to be made that along with Hannibal, AMC’s Hell on Wheels is one of the most underrated dramas on television right now. Over the course of three seasons, the show has moved from a historical drama to a deeply moving and fascinating character study that just happens to be set during the building of one of America’s greatest accomplishments, the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. Its muddy and vicious camp is inhabited by rich and thrilling characters, the storylines continue to capture the viewer’s attention, and our lead, a man often struggling with a dark world and the darkness within himself, is an endlessly fascinating and evolving character.