Not Classic Coen Brothers, but still pretty damn good (spoilers)

I pretty much agree with most of what you said, and I also give it 8/10. I would say All Good Canyon is probably my least favourite after one viewing. I particularly liked The Gal who got rattled and the first two segments.

i loved it, thought it was first-rate. the reviews go all the way from 5/5 down to 3/5. i've heard some swipes about the arrangment, the lack of continuity between the stories.

that's fine, but i don't demand that my short stories all fit together, have no problem taking them as they come.

the most powerful - the singing cowboy, the mealticket/wingless thrush, the gal who got rattled.

the rest also quite good. you learn a little bit about the mechanics of prospecting, the inadvisability of robbing banks, perhaps what it will be like to meet our doom, whilst bickering with our neighbor.

The Coen Brothers have a good understanding of what makes an old West story work from a character and the story point of view.

1) Engaging characters - They chose all the iconic characters of the old West - The bank robber, The outlaw ......
2) Story - Violence , Survival, Hard Life .......
3) The Western Frontier - The vast, natural and unspoiled scenery is a big part of the old West stories and movies.

Perhaps they knew that it is impossible to make a full length movie for each and every of these old West characters. There is simply not enough interest and money these days to produce old school Westerns. So, they thought outside of the box and made several short movies. Just like a Tarantino movie is a love letter to the action cinema of years gone by, this is also a Coen brothers love letter to the old West movies.

It's the least entertaining Coen Bro movie for me

I re-watched the series again recently and I have to admit that it has worn thin. What was at first a generally impressed reaction has now faded into a "meh, been there done that" follow-up reaction.

There was some previous criticism of this series in how it portrays the West in general and after thinking about it, I have to agree that the Coens rely on worn out tropes while still trying to stay contemporary with the grittiness they achieved with their adaptation of "True Grit" which to me could only happen after the success of "Deadwood" and the grand finale achieved by Clint Eastwood's "The Unforgiven".

For my money, I'd like to see the Coens do an ancestral story of Ed Tom Bell's family in West Texas which is translated by him in NCfOM with a sense of rosy-tinted glasses, but he is rebuked by his cousin Ellis who basically tells him that the world has always been evil and relentless. It feels that with this series that the Coens wanted to recapture the innocence of Manifest Destiny propaganda literature with a touch of myth breaking, but they failed at it for the most part. Even movies like Once Upon a Time in the West capture both the romanticized view while contrasting the grim reality of Western Expansion.