Based on the cast and because it was a big-budget production I was quite excited about getting involved in this series. When you see Josh Brolin and Will Patton in the lineup of a big-budget Amazon something or other, you go around and have a look. The series starts out well, but then spirals into a confusing mess that you no longer care about filled with plot holes and inconsistencies as well as just random "side missions" that they never even bother to go back and mention ever again. It's as if the writers were just making up the story as they went along. The episode-by-episode rating continually plummets as season 1 comes to an end and this is completely deserved.
Like I said in the title, this series borrows a lot from the success of Kevin Costner's Yellowstone in that it takes place in the great pastures of the North of America and relies very heavily on the stunning scenery to keep people engaged. This part of it is worthwhile and at first at least, so does the story. However, it is worth noting that the plot, before it takes a strange sci-fi twist is essentially the same as Yellowstone as a land-owner in a rural part of the state is in land disputes with neighbors and other entities and this becomes the reason for a lot of criminality, some of which is accidental.
While I definitely appreciate the scenery, it is a bit hokey that the various families in this area are all cattle wranglers who have a tentative relationship with the Native American population that also occupies this land. They swapped out Montana for Wyoming but a lot of the rodeo-loving, conservative virtue and family values is basically a carbon copy of Yellowstone. Perhaps the show creators were aware of this and this is why they went down a rather bizarre science fiction road that just boggles the mind.
It all revolves around this mysterious hole in the ground that Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) discovers or is perhaps aware exists on a remote part of his land. At first we are meant to believe that he doesn't know anything about it, but as the story goes on they do an about face and reveal that he knows a great deal about this mysterious hole and slowly but surely, begins to reveal to those close to him that he is at least somewhat aware of what power this thing holds.
This is all fine and dandy but as the season moves onward the various run-ins with other characters in the story just seem a bit too convenient to be plausible. Yes, I understand that a magical hole in the ground isn't exactly believable either, but that is the fantasy element of the series... the fact that people randomly run into various people that just happen to be critical parts of the story, at exactly a certain moment, when we are lead to believe that everything out here is really far away just starts to grind at you after a while.
In one particular moment of unbelievability, apparently the entire town is on the outskirts of town at a rodeo (I guess EVERYONE love rodeos there) and the town center is completely uninhabited, which allows for a very long and drawn out gunfight with zero repercussions. This wouldn't be so disturbing if it wasn't for the fact that we had just spent the past 5 hours with nobody in the entire community being able to get away with anything due to the incredibly watchful eye and sleuth-like tendencies of the area's Sheriff. Of course this is Amazon still so the Sheriff in question is a plus-sized minority lesbian.
I gotta hand it to Amazon though because they didn't make this, or any of the other attempts and throwing social issues into the story a major part of the plot. You do sit there and roll your eyes whenever they do touch base on this though. They really can't help themselves over there and just have to throw that sort of thing in.
The magical things that happen in the story are interesting at first, but then it starts coming at such a rate that it just becomes extremely confusing and of course, completely implausible. Again, I am not referring to anything magical or other-worldly that happens, because that is the very nature of science fiction. I am referring to physical impossibilities that routinely occur throughout the entire story as it unravels and starts to lose its focus more and more.
There is one particular sequence where Luke Tillerson, who is the Faramir of this series, wants to prove himself to his unloving father and decides to go dig in a field in search of a rare substance he suspects exists there.
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Throughout the course of a single evening, he hand digs 20 or so motorbike to car-sized holes in the ground, some of which are so deep that he has to jump down inside of them. Now I don't know how much experience you have at digging holes, but this would be difficult to accomplish with a track hoe excavator. As someone who worked in landscaping as a teenager and also had to bury his regular sized dog in the backyard at one point in his life, I know that digging just a single hole in good, loose land, is an all-day affair. Now introduce the frozen tundra that is Wyoming, and you have an impossible situation. Maybe that is just me being nitpicky, but I absolutely hate these impossible situations that happen in films or series.
In the final episode of season 1, I was hoping for a well-done episode that wraps everything up Magnolia style, but instead we just have a collection of things that happen all at once that don't seem connected and leave you with more questions than answers. Unfortunately the main question you are asking yourself at this point is "why am I still watching this dumpster-fire of a series?"
Should I watch it?
They do a good job of the ol' bait and switch with this series and if you watch the first 2 episodes I think you will end up falling into the same trap that I did and carry on. However, once you get to near the end of season 1 I think you will gradually feel like a vast majority of the viewers did as the overall "fresh" percentage drops and drops and drops and by the time we get to season 2 it hovers around 50% and basically stays there.
I was chatting with a friend of mine and he said that at first he liked it and was hopeful but as it went on "there were too many scenes and even entire episodes where I was like... wait, what?"
With so many options as far as series are concerned I think that your time would be better spent watching something else and I did the legwork so that you don't have to. I would advise that you do not allow the big-name cast and amazing scenery rope you in to this extremely confusing and ultimately rather pointless series.
as my title would suggest, the only legal way to stream this is on Amazon Prime
