Hell on Wheels
Rock SolidEvery season landed between 8.0 and 8.3 across 5 seasons.
Rural & frontierCountryside, wilderness and frontier living.This show: 9/10GrittyRaw, unglamorous realism in both look and subject matter.This show: 9/10RevengeVengeance as the driving motive.This show: 8/10Antihero leadA protagonist doing bad things you can't stop watching.This show: 8/10Morally grayNo clean heroes or villains anywhere in sight.This show: 8/10Period pieceSet meaningfully in a past era.This show: 8/10Ensemble castMany characters carrying equal weight.This show: 7/10SerializedContinuous arcs where every episode builds on the last.This show: 7/10
Rate this series
Starring
Anson MountColm MeaneyRobin McLeavyPhil BurkeChristopher HeyerdahlDohn Norwood
Written by
Joe GaytonTony Gayton
Starring
Anson MountColm MeaneyRobin McLeavyPhil BurkeChristopher HeyerdahlDohn Norwood
Written by
Joe GaytonTony Gayton
Ratings per Episode
Votes per Episode
Hell on Wheels Episode Ratings Heatmap
| Avg | E1 | E2 | E3 | E4 | E5 | E6 | E7 | E8 | E9 | E10 | E11 | E12 | E13 | E14 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 7.7 | 7.6 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 8.5 | 8.1 | 8.3 | 8.3 | |||||
| S2 | 8.3 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.1 | 8.6 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.8 | |||||
| S3 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.5 | 8.1 | 8.0 | 7.9 | 8.6 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.6 | 8.3 | |||||
| S4 | 8.3 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 8.3 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 7.3 | 8.8 | 8.1 | 8.8 | 8.8 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.1 | ||
| S5 | 8.3 | 8.0 | 8.3 | 7.9 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 8.6 | 8.9 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.3 | 8.7 | 8.8 |
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About
"Revenge and railroads in a brutal, muddy frontier"
Set in the years after the Civil War, this Western follows a former Confederate soldier who joins the crews building the transcontinental railroad while hunting the Union men who killed his wife. Around him swirls a shifting camp of laborers, freed slaves, Irish immigrants, and speculators all chasing money and survival. The show is slow-burn and grim, more interested in muddy tents and moral compromise than shootouts, though it delivers plenty of violence too. It carries itself on strong performances and a real sense of the frontier as chaotic, temporary, and brutal, rewarding patience over quick payoff.
Watch it for
the slow-building lead performance and the grimy, unglamorous vision of westward expansion.
Maybe skip if
you want fast plotting or a tidy, heroic take on the Old West.
Written by our AI editor to help you decide, spoiler-free by design.
All Seasons
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Season 12011
8.010K107h 10m
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Season 22012
8.38K107h 55m
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Season 32013
8.27K107h 8m
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Season 42014
8.310K139h 6m
With Thomas "Doc" Durant back in control of the Union Pacific Railroad, civilization makes its way west to Cheyenne, Wyoming - the "Magic City of the Plains." Conflict between the government, ranchers, homesteaders, and the railroad arises as they compete for control of this newborn city that quickly became the most important railroad hub in the United States.
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Season 52015
8.39K1410h 10m
Cullen Bohannon finds himself a stranger in a strange land: Truckee, California. Home to the headquarters of the Central Pacific railroad, this rough mountain railroad town teems with thousands of Chinese workers who are foreign in language, culture and traditions. While grappling with the challenges of corralling his new workforce, Cullen leads the Central Pacific’s herculean effort to tunnel through the Sierra Nevada mountains, sometimes achieving only inches a day in the race to complete America’s first Transcontinental Railroad.
Full Cast & Crew
Cast
Anson Mount Cullen Bohannon
Colm Meaney Thomas 'Doc' Durant
Robin McLeavy Eva
Phil Burke Mickey McGinnes
Christopher Heyerdahl The Swede, Thor Gundersen
Dohn Norwood Psalms, Psalms Jackson
Common Elam Ferguson
Kasha Kropinski Ruth, Ruth Cole
Ben Esler Sean McGinnes
Jennifer Ferrin Louise Ellison
Crew
Joe Gayton
Tony Gayton
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