Godless

Westerns typically have good guys and bad guys; emphasis on the word “guys”. This fantastic limited series rejects that expectation, focusing on a town where nearly all the men were killed in a mining accident and the surviving women hold it together. Michelle Dockery is the main hero, a female rancher estranged from the town because she won’t support their attempts to find new men to rescue them. She’s obviously famous for Downton Abbey and Restless, but this series is better, and she is incredible in it: complex, emotional, honorable, brave. Merritt Wever is the second female lead, in love with the town’s female schoolteacher, and willing to challenge both the women and the remaining men. An old marshal (her brother) risks his life to help. Jack O’Connell plays Roy Goode, an unexpected stranger with a troubled and criminal past, and Jeff Daniels is the criminal leader chasing Roy (and thereby pulling in both the female leads, against their wishes). The suspense never stops.

The show is more than good vs. bad, with complex characters on both sides. Subplots abound, with the corporate mining company trying to take over the town, a nearby Black town (where the “Buffalo Soldiers” originated) pulled in, a mysterious Native elder, a selfish newspaper publisher, and behind it all, a backstory that is gradually revealed. The main heroes, despite questioning their roles, do the right thing. They save the stranger, and he in turn defends them. Even the reluctant women, who try hard to welcome the corporate baron who wants to steal their town, eventually decide to fight with the heroes, to stand up for their community. It’s the best western series I’ve ever seen. (In the movie world, I’d compare it to Unforgiven and Silverado. But because Godless is longer and more complex, it’s better than either of those films.)

This series was written and directed by Scott Frank, who then wrote and directed The Queen’s Gambit (adapted from the book by Walter Tevis).

See the Rolling Stone review.