Morrus said:
It's outstanding.
Excellent writing, excellent casting, excellent acting. Humor, tragedy, intrigue, complexity, triumph, duplicity, greed, passion, sacrifice, history, philosophy, sex, gambling, prostitution, drinking, violence, drug-running, theft, profanity. What's not to love?
I must admit, I've never been an Ian McShane fan.
He plays a major character in the show -- one of the most pivotal to the show's success (though there isn't a poorly realized character in the series, as far as I can tell) -- so that's something to consider. He's excellent, though, in his role, and the character is unforgettable.
I can't recommend the series enough. They even do a neat thing at the end of every episode, as the credits roll, they have a different piece of music, some older, some contemporary, but all with a Western (not necessarily "country) feel, and it's just a little thing but it's a really nice touch. The show is tremendous. I'm biased, as I love westerns, but this show does a great job of stepping outside of the traditional western style, and showing that frontier life was not a very nice experience, even under the best of circumstances. It feels dusty, dirty, grimy, difficult, and dangerous. There's a host of terrific characters played by excellent actors, and there is definitely not an overabundance of "pretty" people. McShane is all murderous rattlesnake laughter and menace, Olyphant (as Bullock) strides with such absolute purpose that he makes simply crossing the street look like a mission to kill someone. Carradine is laconic and melancholy as a fading Wild Bill Hicock who's still the deadliest gunfighter north of the Red River. And that's just three people. There's numerous others, and they're all very well developed characters, but not in such a way that it stretches the series too thin. It's brilliant.
Warrior Poet
(As in, my normal conversations are not fit for Eric's grandma!! -- ie, the show exhibits an entirely new level of profanity but elevates it to Shakespeare.)
