Hell on Wheels, Longmire and 1883 are among the other dramas available on the streamer.
Landman ended its Season 1 run of new episodes recently, with no word yet about if or when a Season 2 can be expected. But the show continues to stream on Paramount+, where you can watch again, or for the first time, all ten episodes of the Must-See TV drama starring Billy Bob Thorton as Tommy Norris, crisis manager for a West Texas oil company.
And if you’re already a Paramount+ subscriber, you can also binge these other outstanding series of special interest to C&I readers.
Hell on Wheels (2011-2016)
It started out as an impressively gritty but undeniably formulaic revenge drama, following Confederate Army veteran Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) on a vengeance trail as his pursuit of the rogue Union soldiers who killed his wife and son takes him to the moving-westward construction sites of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Over the course of five eventful seasons, however, Hell on Wheels evolved gradually and engrossingly into a full-scale, multifaceted, and multicultural epic quite unlike anything seen before or since on American television. Bohannon’s sometimes purposeful, sometimes accidental transition from obsessed executioner out for blood to historical bit player seeking a shot at redemption propelled the narrative toward a resolution both genuinely surprising and immensely satisfying. And the beauty of Anson Mount’s remarkable lead performance was his adamant refusal — and that of the show’s producers — to insist that his character always be easily likable
Longmire (2012-2017)
During its six-season run on the A&E Network and Netflix, and continuing in streaming reruns, Longmire — based on the novel franchise by Craig Johnson — has attracted and maintained a loyal following for its inspired and addictive mix of modern-day western, character-driven serial, and murder-mystery crime drama. At the center of it all: Walt Longmire (authoritatively played by Robert Taylor), the veteran sheriff of Wyoming’s fictional Absaroka County, who does his best to keep the peace while tending to emotional wounds with occasional help from longtime friend Henry Standing Bear (the charismatic Lou Diamond Phillips), owner-operator of the Red Pony, a saloon-restaurant where Henry always hopes that everyone will have a beautiful day.
1883 (2021-22)
For his first Yellowstone prequel, the story of how mega-rancher John Dutton’s ancestors and other pioneers journeyed westward during the titular year, producer Taylor Sheridan assembled a dream cast: C&I reader favorite Sam Elliott as Shea Brennan, the Pinkerton agent with a tragic past who signs on to lead the pioneers on their cross-country trek; husband-and-wife country music stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as James and Margaret Dutton, John Dutton’s great-grandparents; LaMonica Garrett (Sons of Anarchy, Designated Survivor) as Thomas, a former slave and Buffalo Soldier who is Brennan’s friend and partner; and Isabel May as Elsa Dutton, James and Margaret’s 18-year-old daughter.
It falls to Elsa to underscore in her role as voiceover storyteller the mortal stakes of the journey through a vast and unforgiving wilderness: “Here, there can be no mistakes. Because here doesn’t care. The river doesn’t care if you can swim. The snake doesn’t care how much you love your children. And the wolf has no interest in your dreams. If you fail to beat the current, you will drown. If you get too close, you will be bitten. And if you are too weak, you will be eaten. We are in the land of no mercy now.”
1923 (2022 - )
Get a load of that: Harrison Ford — cast in this second Yellowstone prequel as Jacob Dutton, seasoned patriarch of Montana’s Dutton Ranch — doesn’t take kindly to threats, veiled or otherwise, by potential interlopers. “You attack my family,” he says, “and it’s the last thing you’ll ever do.” And take a listen to this: Helen Mirren — playing Cara, the steel-willed matriarch of Dutton Ranch — sounds even tougher than her spouse. “Men kill quick with a bullet or a noose,” she says of those who have made the incalculably stupid mistake of crossing her. “But their fight is with me. And I kill much slower.”
No doubt about it, Ford and Mirren are impressively and indefatigably tough customers in 1923. And they get strong support in Taylor Sheridan’s drama from Brandon Sklenar as Spencer Dutton, the couple’s itinerant nephew, who’s summoned by Cora to return home to help defend the ranch against a villainous landgrabber (Timothy Dalton); Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra, a free-thinking British beauty of noble birth, who’s immediately smitten with Spencer and joins him on his journey; and Aminah Nieves as Teonna Rainwater, the young Native American who’s on the run after killing two of the most abusive teachers at a Indian Residential School. You have plenty of time to catch up with these and other cast members when 1923 returns Feb. 2 for Season 2 on Paramount+.
Joe Pickett (2021-2023)
This terrific neo-Western drama, based on the popular crime novel series by C.J. Box, regrettably lasted only two seasons. Still, there are twenty episodes to watch — and rewatch — either in weekly doses or weekend binges. Michael Dorman (recently on view in Netflix’s Territory) plays the eponymous Joe Pickett, a crime-solving Wyoming game warden who often encounters human predators in and around his small town of Saddlestring. Julianna Guill is Marybeth Pickett, his smart and sharply observant wife, who provides Joe with invaluable emotional and professional support, and Mustafa Speaks (a Season 1 co-star on Landman) is his buddy Nate Romanowski, a lethally efficient survivalist, Special Ops vet, and master falconer. Consistently amusing comic relief is supplied by Sharon Lawrence as Missy Vankeuren, Marybeth’s unapologetically materialistic mom.
Lawmen: Bass Reeves (2023)
The legendary Bass Reeves — the first Black man ever to wear the badge of Deputy U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi — finally got his shot as a TV Western protagonist in this acclaimed Taylor Sheridan-produced eight-episode limited-run series. David Oyelowo received a richly deserved Golden Globe nomination for his performance as Reeves, and he was backed by such superlative supporting players as C&I cover star Dennis Quaid as Deputy U.S. Marshal Sherrill Lynn; Lauren E. Banks (City on a Hill) as Jennie Reeves, Bass’ strong-willed and fiercely loyal wife; Forrest Goodluck as Billy Crow, a young Cherokee man with an affinity for dime store books and gaudy style; Demi Singleton (King Richard) as Sally Reeves, Bass and Jennie’s precocious daughter; and veteran actor and Honorary Academy Award-winner Donald Sutherland as Judge Isaac Parker, the demanding real-life jurist who gave Reeves his marching orders.
