Godless times on Netflix

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I have been looking forward to this show and I hope to find the time to at least watch the pilot today.

It's not the new "Deadwood". Seems like it'll be a pretty straightforward western.
Good production values. Thematically, it reminds me of "Red River" (a vengeful father chasing an adoptive son who has betrayed him) and it looks like it will almost certainly build up towards some sort of "High Plains Drifter" type climactic scenario. I even think that the name of the school teacher in La Belle might be a conscious reference to that movie.

So is this like Westworld but with less sex robots?

CJB wrote:

So is this like Westworld but with less sex robots?

Other influences I have noticed so far include "Rio Bravo" (the young deputy) and "Vera Cruz" (this one might be a tiny bit of a stretch).

It's entertaining but it lacks the depth and the quality of writing of "Deadwood". Some of the dialogue sounds a bit clunky too.

Below the surface, it also appears to be a show about community and what men and women each bring to that concept. The mining town of La Belle has lost its dynamic nature with the loss of the able-bodied men, but the women left behind in their absence are still assuming care-taking roles for the handful of remaining men. Including the young deputy and the sole survivor of the mining disaster, who has been rendered psychological damaged in the aftermath.

I've finished the series.

Though it has some interesting ideas, I thought the execution, especially in the latter half of the series, was lacking and at times clunky. Never more so than during the climax. I know these large-scale shoot-outs are hard to do right but this one was especially silly.

Other western references I've noticed are "Will Penny" (a quite obvious one) and "The Naked Spur" (this one is more of a stretch but the choice of location for the final confrontation was very reminiscent of that movie).

I don't think it's necessarily a bad series, but it's best to keep your expectations reasonably in check. It follows a pretty straightforward revenge and redemption arc.

It is mostly well-acted though and the production values are quite good.