I Watch A Lot Of TV: Godless
The second show on this list is: Godless. Godless is another Netflix “limited” series that takes place in the Old West. Like any Western, you get the classic suspects: good god fearing people, nasty outlaws, nice townsfolk, corrupt corporations from the East, and a couple of gunslingers in search of redemption. Godless puts all of these different pieces into play pretty well, and also adds a wrinkle to the story that hasn’t been done much before.
The majority of the story’s premise is based off of this wrinkle: the fact that the town of LaBelle lost all of its able bodied men in a mining accident a few years prior to when the show takes place. Its inhabitants are left with no economy (the mine has no one to work it after all), no preacher, no men, and thus, no real future. This is great in two parts, one being that the show does a great job breaking its female characters out of the typically old fashioned mold that accompanies the genre. The women who were once relegated to rearing children or tending to the needs of their husbands no longer find themselves in those roles. While different members of LaBelle react differently to these circumstances, when we see Merrit Wever’s Mary growl, “Mister, we’re a lot fucking stronger than you think we are” to a prospecting East Coaster, we know that this isn’t a bunch to be trifled with.
The second piece that makes this premise so great is that it grounds the show’s setting in a type of purgatory. This is not a show that romanticizes the West. Because of the tragedy in LaBelle, and the tragedies in the personal lives of all Godless’ characters, we get the sense that everybody we meet is, regardless of age, living in the twilight of their years. Everybody we meet has known terrible loss. Everybody we meet seems to have accepted the fact that they’ve already lived their best days, and that whatever’s left is for them to bear as long as they can. It’s a powerful theme that drives the show forward, and although it misses on a few beats, it was still enough to keep me invested.
These few beats and a two episode lull aside, Godless is a good show. The seventy-minute episodes are a shortcoming just because that’s a lot of time to devote to an episode of TV. There are few storylines that I wish had been worked out differently, and a few moments in which I wanted the above theme to have been fleshed out more; however a great cast and a promising climax make it worth a watch. Speaking of cast, Merrit Wever rules. You’ll recognize her as Schmidt’s ex-girlfriend from the show, New Girl, and she excels as a hard-as-nails widow who steps up as LaBelle’s matriarch. Jeff Daniels also delivers a terrific performance as our antihero, Frank Griffin- who rides across the frontier with his band of psychopaths, delivering a twisted sense of divine mercy and fatherhood to those he comes across. Daniels does a great job in this role, and makes us delightfully afraid every time we see Frank in any number of tense conversations with unwitting potential victims.
In any case, I think Godless does a pretty good job with the pieces it puts into play. I wouldn’t say it’s great, but I would definitely say it’s good with some really good moments. You’ll probably know by the end of the second episode whether you like it or not. And while the third and fourth are a bit slow, episodes five, six, and seven do a nice job picking up the pace. Unless you hate Westerns with all of your being, I’d recommend it. Despite some similar works in the genre, it doesn’t feel dated at all. Instead, the Western setting feels like a great place to use some tragically driven characters to build a powerful, slow burning story; a story that regardless of a few missed opportunities still pays off.
