Back in 2018, Yellowstone changed the game when it came to modern Westerns. By combining Taylor Sheridan‘s storytelling with Kevin Costner as the lead in John Dutton, the series became a blueprint for the genre, and was proof of how big a Western TV show could become. But while Yellowstone might always be used as an example, an underseen Western that came out years earlier was more ambitious and expansive, and deserves a watch from anyone who’s kept track of Sheridan’s ever-expanding Western franchise.
On November 6, 2011, Hell on Wheels, which originally aired on AMC, was released, and the series is not only a classic Western following a gunslinging antihero, but is an all-encompassing view on an important chapter of American history. The series went on for five seasons, coming to an end in 2016, but it’s been underseen and underrated ever since.
What Is ‘Hell on Wheels’ About?
Hell on Wheels follows the real-life story of how the Union Pacific Railroad was built. As the railroad was constructed mile by mile across the country, a mobile encampment of laborers, surveyors, and prostitutes traveled along it and set up camp. This camp is where the show earns its name, as “Hell on Wheels” was the nickname given to the encampment because of its rough-and-tumble, lawless environment. More specifically, the series follows Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount), a former Confederate soldier who joins the railroad project because he’s trying to search for several Union soldiers who viciously murdered his wife and son during the Civil War. Cullen is a somber, man-of-few-words, but he does end up commanding respect, and eventually moves up through the ranks of the railroad workers.
Spanning several years, starting in 1865 (right after President Abraham Lincoln‘s assassination) through 1869, the series has an epic scope into a critical chapter in history. And although the focus remains on Cullen throughout, several fascinating characters together help paint the full picture of what life on the Transcontinental Railroad in the nineteenth century was like. Among them are Elam Ferguson (Common), a former slave who is trying his best to adjust to life as a freed man who’s still facing discrimination and injustice, Lily Bell (Dominique McElligott), a delicate, elegant wife of a surveyor for the railroad, and Eva Toole (Robin McLeavy), a prostitute who was kidnapped and raised by Native Americans from a very young age. Each of these unique characters helps set up a realistic grittiness and intriguing narrative for all five seasons of the show.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
‘Hell on Wheels’ Is Much More Expansive Than ‘Yellowstone’
Given how far back Hell on Wheels reaches and how much history it encompasses over the seasons, the series feels far more expansive in scope than Yellowstone ever was. Rather than using the frontier merely as a backdrop for family power struggles, it presents the American West as a historical crossroads shaped by war, race, class, immigration, violence, and the nation’s rapid expansion in the wake of the devastating American Civil War. Through its ensemble of characters, the series weaves a gritty tapestry of frontier life, creating a sweeping portrait of the people, institutions, and competing interests surrounding the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Each character is fighting not only for survival, but for influence over the future of a country being transformed by one of the most determining infrastructure projects in American history.
Series to check out while you’re waiting for more Beth and Rip.
With that said, while Yellowstone will forever be remembered as one of the best Western TV shows, Hell on Wheels deserves a place in that conversation as well. Anchored by an incredible central character, the series delivers a storyline that is not only engaging but revealing into the realities of life on the frontier. The result is a Western with true emotional weight, meaningful consequences, and historical accuracy that make it enthralling and educational, all in one.
