In my Top Five What about Yours?

It seems you and I have very similar opinions except for Lost. That ending was not what it should have been.

I think the mention of Justified shows best what this show was lacking. Justified has this great hate/love relationship between the main characters. There are strong season arcs, which let everthing fall into place at the end, while shuffling the cards in an interesting way for the next season. Compared to that, Hell On Wheels felt like they made things up as they moved along. Nothing really made sense in a dramatic way: a bit of this, a bit of that, here some natives who then really are not importants, there some mormons, and then some character which the show spend huge amounts of screentime building up, just dies. Everybody's motivation depends on what the writers want as a result, so sometimes killing a single person is a huge undertaking and has moral implications all lasting on the murderers shoulders, and then sometimes a bunch of people get shot dead without even blinking. This was all too random to get near my top ten or even top 20, at least when the list is not just about the production value, which of course is amazing.

My Top 5 still would be - without any specific order:
The Wire
Breaking Bad
Better Call Saul
Arrested Development
The Leftovers

Justified and Boardwalk Empire receive honourable mentions.

All of those show a love to details and a perfectionism, especially when it comes to the writing, which Hell On Wheels simply lacks.

This show started well, but had way too many issues to be in my top my top 5 which consists of:
1. The Shield
2. The Sopranos
3. Boardwalk Empire
4. Breaking Bad
5. Justified


"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum."