From Dallasto Yellowstone, soapy Western shows make for some of the best binge-watches. They are messy and entertaining, with intense plotlines that range from land disputes to tangled love triangles. They are the perfect escape to watch when looking for a show to get totally drawn into, because they are pretty easy to follow along with, and there is never a dull moment amongst all the drama.
Netflix’s Ransom Canyon is based on the book series by Jodi Thomas, and it’s a show perfect for TV fans who like small-town dramas, swoonworthy romances, and shocking plot twists. For those looking for their next binge-watch, Ransom Canyon is the perfect choice, and although the series didn’t get more than two seasons, it’s still the perfect binge for those looking for a light-hearted Western romance.
What Is Netflix’s Soapy Western ‘Ransom Canyon’ About?
Ransom Canyon follows the residents of the small town of Ransom Canyon, Texas, most of whom have lived there for their whole lives. At the center of it all is Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel), a wealthy ranch owner who’s been struggling after two major personal tragedies. Two years after the death of his wife, Staten had to deal with the sudden death of his teenage son, Randall (Hubert Smielecki), in a car accident. Now, a year after Randall’s death, Staten tries to move forward with his life despite pressure from his wife’s brother, Davis Collins (Eoin Macken), to sell some of his land so that a new pipeline can be built in its place. Staten also finds himself entangled in a messy love triangle. Just as his feelings for his old friend, Quinn O’Grady (Minka Kelly), start to resurface, Davis starts pursuing a romance with her as well.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Western Icon Are You Most Like? No Name · Doc Holliday · Wyatt Earp · Mattie Ross
Pick your name, your gun, your horse and how you spend a night in town, and we will tell you which legend of the Old West you would have been. Four icons are waiting at the end of this: the stranger who never gives his name, the gambler who would die for a friend, the lawman who never wanted the badge, and the girl nobody has ever talked out of anything.
🚬No Name(Dollars Trilogy)
🃏Doc Holliday(Tombstone)
⭐Wyatt Earp(Tombstone)
🐎Mattie Ross(True Grit)
01
The town is about to learn your name. What do they call you? In a Western, what people call you is already half the character.
02
What are you carrying? Everything out here is character, right down to what is sitting on your hip.
03
What are you riding? A hero and their horse is one of the oldest relationships in cinema.
04
You have got one evening in town. How does it go? The saloon is where these films quietly tell you who somebody really is.
05
A stranger offers you money for a job that sounds like trouble. Somebody always turns up with a full purse and a bad idea.
06
Somebody is waiting for you in the street. What does the town see? Two people, an empty road, and everybody else watching from behind the shutters.
07
What is the one thing you will not do out here? The code is about the only thing west of the river that actually holds.
08
The job is finished. Where does the story leave you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your icon.
The Dust Has Settled Your Western Icon Is…
Four icons and four completely different ways of walking into trouble.
This is the one you would have been out there, why it fits, and what it would have cost you.
The Dollars Trilogy · 1964–1966
The Man With No Name
You have never explained yourself and you have never needed to,
because people work out fairly quickly that you are the most capable person in the room
without you ever having to mention it.
Eastwood built the character out of everything he refused to do, stripping away the
backstory, the speeches and every bit of reassurance until only the competence was left.
You keep your own counsel, and while other people occasionally find that unnerving, you
have never felt any real need to fix it for them.
The Dollars films work because he genuinely is in it for himself right up until the
moment he is not, and he never explains that part either.
You would be gone before anybody got a chance to thank you.
Doc Holliday · Tombstone · 1993
Doc Holliday
You are the funniest person in most rooms and the most loyal
person in all of them, and you would be genuinely insulted if somebody suggested those two
things were in any tension.
Doc has no real reason to be in this fight beyond the fact that his friend is in it,
which is the only reason he has ever needed for anything.
You lead with wit, and it does a very effective job of hiding how seriously you take the
handful of people you actually care about.
Val Kilmer’s performance is the most quoted in the entire genre because the jokes keep
getting sharper as the situation gets worse.
You would spend everything you had on this and still describe it as a good week.
Wyatt Earp · Tombstone · 1993
Wyatt Earp
You never wanted this job, and you took it anyway because the
alternative was standing there watching somebody less careful do it badly, which is the most
Western reason there has ever been.
Earp is the reluctant authority figure, a man who came to town specifically to be left
alone and somehow ended up answerable for all of it.
You are protective by instinct, so when something goes wrong your first thought is who
is exposed rather than who is to blame.
These films understand that keeping order costs far more than breaking it, and that the
person holding the line almost never gets thanked.
You would do the whole thing again, and you would complain about it the entire time.
Mattie Ross · True Grit · 1969 & 2010
Mattie Ross
Nobody has ever successfully talked you out of something you had
already decided was right, and a long line of grown adults has found that out the hard way.
Mattie is the most relentless character in the Western canon and she manages it through
argument, paperwork and flat refusal rather than a fast draw.
You have no patience for being managed, so you negotiate, you check the details and you
turn up exactly when you said you would.
True Grit is the rare Western where the moral centre is the youngest person on screen
and every adult around her has to catch up.
You would get what you came for, and the film is honest about what that takes out of
you.
The messy web of Ransom Canyongoes way beyond just Staten’s intense feud with Davis, though. Newcomer Yancy Grey (Jack Schumacher) comes to Ransom Canyon to work for Cap Fuller (James Brolin), another ranch owner whose land Davis is eyeing for the pipeline. At first glance, Yancy looks like a hard worker who cares about his job and who’s quickly falling for Quinn’s employee and friend, Ellie Estevez (Marianly Tejada). Yancy has quite a few secrets, though, and his motivations are much more complex than they seem to be at first — as are his connections to some of Ransom’s longtime residents. Yancy is not just there to work on Cap’s ranch by chance, which Ellie figures out quickly, and she has to reconcile her growing feelings for him with the clear mountain of secrets that he is keeping from her.
In the wake of Randall’s death, his cousin and Davis’ son, Reid (Andrew Liner), is spiraling. Little does he know, his ex-girlfriend, Lauren (Lizzy Greene), is secretly dating his best friend, Lucas (Garrett Wareing). That’s nothing compared to the pressure that Davis puts on him to succeed, especially now. Davis’ interest in the pipeline isn’t coming out of nowhere; if he can’t make this deal work, he could lose the ranch that has been in his family for generations, all because of his own father’s carelessness with his finances. Everyone in Ransom Canyon has a lot to either gain or lose from the pipeline deal, which makes this storyline feel particularly high-stakes, especially on top of everything else.
‘Ransom Canyon’ Blends Romance and Mystery
Ransom Canyon is an addictive show to watch, and once you start the first episode, it’s easy to quickly binge-watch all 18 at once. In addition to the romantic drama and tension related to the pipeline, Ransom Canyon is also a murder mystery. Staten’s wife died of illness, but Randall’s death is more complicated. It was initially believed that Randall’s car was the only one on the road that night, and that the accident was a terrible but random tragedy. At the start of the series, though, Staten starts finding clues that lead him to believe that somebody else caused the accident, whether intentionally or not. He pushes the sheriff, Lauren’s father, Dan Brigman (Philip Winchester), to investigate, but the sheriff believes that Staten is just grieving, so he initially has to look into it on his own.
With a cozy small-town setting and soapy romantic and business drama, Ransom Canyon is a fun and messy watch that’s perfect for those looking for an easy watch. It is packed with compelling conflict, primarily related to the pipeline, as well as some twists and turns about the characters and their histories with each other. Most of all, though, the series is about Staten and Quinn’s journeys. After losing both his wife and his son, Staten is isolated and angry in his grief, and the show’s first season shows him slowly learning how to open up and let himself care about other people again.
Meanwhile, Quinn has always felt overlooked, especially after having to return home from her time away focusing on her music. Now, she gets the chance to make the dance hall she owns into something really special, but the cost of getting the money she needs could mean supporting the pipeline and everything it entails. Staten and Quinn have also always had unresolved feelings for each other, even after he married her best friend, so they now find those feelings coming up again even as they try to bury them.
