LittleBopper

I can't believe Christina Hendricks appears to look exactly like she did in Mad Men. How is it possible she doesn't appear to have aged at all in 10 years when most other actors seem to age a great deal in that time period? I've only watched the first three episodes and I don't like it very much at all. The pacing is very slow. The plot seems quite simple-minded to me. But I agree with the poster above about Tim Roth. I have liked him in most everything he's done ever since I first saw him in Rob Roy. He was amazing in that film. But the rest of the cast just doesn't contribute enough to make this very entertaining IMHO. I don't mind that it's dark. I just can't get into it because it moves along at a snail's pace. Of course, that is just my opinion and other people may well not feel that way. One example of something in the plot that didn't make any sense to me was they showed both Roth and his daughter drinking alcohol and then later, they don't seem to show any signs of drunkeness. Roth strikes his deputy in the face. But no one seems to think he's been drinking. No slurring of his speech. No one notices any smell on his breath. Didn't make much sense to me.

I took a look at that list and stopped after Deadwood. That was a wonderful, superb TV show. It's very difficult to recommend any other show above Deadwood because it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I love watching movies and TV shows that are "groundbreaking" like Deadwood was. No other show is able to compare with Deadwood. I find it amazing that some show runner was able to just pluck that show out of the Ethos (correct word?). It amazes me how they are able to do something like that. Aside from Deadwood, the one other Western that I remember as being at the top of most any list is "The Long Riders". In part, that's because of its terrific quality. But also, if you know a little about the background of David Carradine and his brothers, it puts the movie into a very unique perspective. The stars of that movie include 3 sets of famous brothers who have a reputation of being "Bad Boys" and so I find watching that film is always a great delight. The brothers include: David, Keith and Robert Carradine, James & Stacy Keach, and Dennis & Randy Quaid. These actors all played infamous brothers in the movie which seemed to drive home some of the themes. In addition, there were some fabulous scenes with some "bad" women. I loved the scene so much where Belle Star (I think it was Belle Star) asked David Carradine, "How come no one ever invites me to their dances?" He answers, "It's because you're a whore! You've always been a whore and you will always be a whore!" There is something wonderfully memorable about that conversation. IMO, it was one of the truly great scenes from any movie. I loved it!

Agreed. The cinematography was truly gorgeous. But the ideas presented by this show - mainly the way that women were depicted was also quite wonderful. Almost all Westerns of this era depicted women as weak shadows of the men in their lives. I think this show was far more realistic. If women of this era were truly weak and wholly dependent on men, I don't believe they ever would have been able to survive life in the late 1800s in New Mexico. I'd love to see more shows like this - shows that give a more accurate depiction of the role women played in that era. P.S. I'm a man by the way. I have no special reason to cheer for women in the Entertainment industry. I guess I'm just sick and tired of the really stupid and insipid way women are usually depicted in movies and TV shows. A show like this one is long overdue .

I had not heard about the fact the ladies were not named for any awards. But for those people who feel this was somehow bad for ladies in the industry, I just want to say that IMHO, this show was a big step ahead for women in the entertainment industry. The show was all about how a group of women whose husbands and other men were all suddenly removed from their lives managed to run their lives just fine. I see it as showing how women were perfectly able to empower themselves and out-fight a large group of murderous thugs and beat the *BLEEP* out of them. I thought one of the main themes of this show was to depict how women in this time frame and geographical area were not just weak shadows of their men. It showed how so many women were actually strong and independent and were able to run their lives and their communities without hardly any help from any men. I loved it! I especially loved the scene where one lady challenged a man to "outdraw" her and was clearly a better gunfighter than he was. Talk about surprised! I loved it!

I also have a complaint about the last episode. Remember how people were amazed by the first 30 minutes of "Saving Pvt. Ryan"? Some folks loved it and others hated it. But that kind of carnage had never been seen before. Well in the last episode of Godless, I didn't understand why the producers would spend something like 30 minutes just showing this endless gunfight in which it seemed to me like a few hundred people were shot dead. I couldn't believe it. 30 minutes of people shooting Civil War era weapons and blowing big holes in other people. What was the point of that? I thought it just went on for far too long. There are a few Western movies (Long Riders, The Wild Bunch, etc.) that showed terrible violence. But the violence only lasted for a minute or so. They showed these Civil War era weapons that blew great big holes in people. But it was all done in the context of a bank robbery or something else in which it made sense. I don't understand the point of such interminable violence in this last episode. I'd love to hear any opinions from any other people here. What was the reason for dragging out that fight for such a very long time? After 2 or 3 minutes, it just got boring. Very boring. I can understand if the point was to show some satire about the violence in other shows. But this went on for so long, it just seemed pointless to me. I probably just don't understand the intent. However, like you, I really loved this show. There was something about the quality of production that lifted this show above most others. I'm not sure what it was. But IMHO, this show was truly superb apart from a couple of minor complaints. However, if I ever watch it again, I will FF thru the long gunfight in the last episode. Somewhat off topic. But I'd love to find a thread dedicated to the best westerns - both movies and TV shows. I'm often disappointed when I watch older TV westerns. Shows like Bonanza that I truly enjoyed in my youth. Today when I watched a few episodes, they seemed silly - even ridiculous. But I'd love to hear about some Westerns that people thought were excellent. I wonder where it would be appropriate to start such a thread.

It seemed perfectly plausible to me that Frank was looking to increase his numbers or had some wish for family and wanted to make his own.

I'm not sure why, but I find this show to be truly superb - all except for the first episode. I didn't understand the first episode at all. It seemed to me to be mostly just a scenic tour of New Mexico in the time this show took place. But as for the rest of the episodes - the show really got started in the second episode and although the pace is very slow, the quality is so high that I found this show to be extremely "gripping". Once I started watching, I just couldn't turn away from it. I was very shocked when one of the lead actors was killed off early. I was hoping to watch his performance throughout the show. But I suppose that Game of Thrones set the bar when they killed off Ned Stark so early in the show. I won't name the actor who was killed off because I don't want to spoil the show for anyone else who admires this actor. Very highly recommended.

No matter how good or how bad you may consider this show to be, it seems to me that it has to be one of the most inventive and "well done" TV shows that has been produced in a very long time. No matter how little or how much it depended on special effects, it really challenged me and enabled me to stretch my imagination in ways that I haven't done since way back when I first saw The Twilight Zone back in the 1950s. I have to give this show some huge "Thumbs Up" because it was just so amazingly entertaining. If there was such a place for real, I would spend almost all the money I had in this world to go and experience this adventure. It would seem to be a fabulous place as well as a fabulous adventure and vacation). I just wish that someone may be able to create such a place one day. It would be a miracle!