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8. It’s made by the writer of Logan and Out of Sight

Director and screenwriter Scott Frank has a long and glittering career as a Hollywood filmmaker. He co-wrote this year’s Logan, helped George Clooney become the cool customer he is with Out of Sight, and has directed to solid crime movies of his own: The Lookout, and the Liam Neeson starring, A Walk Among the Tombstones. Frank has the pedigree, and a history of writing compelling, multi-layered characters.

7. It’s Female Characters are just as good as the men, if not better

While Netflix may have exaggerated when they sold Godless as a feminist western, that doesn’t mean it isn’t full of great female characters. Merritt Weaver and Michelle Dockery are the highlights: with Weaver playing the de-facto leader of the town of La Belle, and Dockery soaring as Alice Walker.

6. The Rest of the Cast

Godless does boast an impressive cast of character actors. As well as Weaver and Dockery, there is Scoot McNairy as the Sheriff of La Belle, Thomas Brodie Sangster as his deputy, and the small matter of the feud between Jack O’Connell’s Roy Goode, and Jeff Daniels Frank Griffin. Speaking of…

5. Jeff Daniels

Jeff Daniels is probably best known for his roles in Dumb and Dumber, Squid and the Whale, and his Emmy winning turn in The Newsroom. So, his villainous turn as the outlaw preacher Frank Griffin is all the more sinister due to how much Daniels disappears into the role.

4. It’s a Revisionist Western

While Godless is Scott Frank’s excuse to make his own version of the westerns he has loved all his life, Godless’ status as a revisionist western sets it apart from the more traditional efforts of the genre. Frank uses this setting to tell a compelling story of how a town full of women (hardly the traditional leads of a western) try to survive the threat the show’s more traditional character, Roy Goode, brings with him.

3. It looks Gorgeous

It’s impossible to exaggerate just how stunning this show looks. Shot on location in New Mexico, the towns, and plains, and saloons, all give the show a distinct visual identity. Not since Deadwood has a Western show been this beautiful to look at, and able to use this beauty to investigate the uglier sides of this mythical genre.

2. TV Needs More Westerns

The Western is, understandably, a dead genre. Despite being an intrinsic part of the American mythos, the Western died out for a number of reasons: including it’s inherent sexism, racism, and overall misogyny. That doesn’t mean that westerns don’t still have a place in the cultural landscape. Godless, and Deadwood before it, has proved that there is still a place for revisionist westerns, shows that use this period in the same way that Mad Men does to hold up a mirror to the present and see how far, or how little we have come.

1. Merritt Weaver Again

It’s unlikely that Godless will return for a second season, but Merritt Weaver will be one of the biggest reasons for Godless deserving one. Her performance as Mary Agnes McNue is one of the best of 2017, and it would be a crime if these seven episodes were all we got of this wonderful character.

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