AMC goes west with new series

This may put my status as a Couch Potato in jeopardy, but I never have quite gotten into AMC’s original series.

I’ve only seen one season of “Breaking Bad” and even less of “Mad Men,” despite my love for Jon Hamm. It’s not that I dislike either show; I just missed their first seasons and have fallen further and further behind ever since.

I’ll get to them one day. In the meantime, though, I’ve made sure to not miss any of AMC’s new offerings.

That worked out just fine with “The Walking Dead,” which keeps me on the edge of my seat (and, upsettingly, dreaming about zombies) every Sunday night, but not so much with “Rubicon,” which was canceled after one season. (And we won't even get into the debacle that was "The Killing.)

I’m hoping the network’s latest, the post-Civil War drama, “Hell on Wheels,” will fare better than the slow-burning CIA thriller did.

The series, which premieres at 10 p.m. Sunday, is set in 1865 and centers around former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount), who heads West after the war looking for revenge on the Union soldiers who killed his wife.

On the way there, he encounters a couple of religious Irish gents, who ask him if he believes in a higher power.

“Yes sir,” Cullen replies, opening up his jacket and nodding toward his gun. “I wear it on my hip.”

The exchange reminded me of another (albeit more modern) gunslinger: Raylan Givens over on FX’s “Justified.”

There are more than a few similarities between the two characters, and I think this role could be a break-out for Mount the way Raylan was for actor Timothy Olyphant, who scored an Emmy nod earlier this year. (Olyphant also starred in the HBO western "Deadwood," to which "Hell On Wheels" probably owes its existence.)

I tend to remember Mount in more clean-cut roles (NBC’s short-lived lawyer drama “Conviction” comes to mind); here, he disappears into the role, masked by a burly beard and gruff Southern accent (in other words, he’s looking mighty good these days).

In his quest for payback, Cullen takes a job working for Union Pacific Railroad, which is racing to build the first transcontinental railroad. (The series gets its name from the tent city that travels with the rail system’s westward construction.)

We also meet other people involved with Union Pacific.

Greedy businessman Thomas “Doc” Durant (Irish actor Colm Meaney, a little too hammy here for my tastes), who will stop at nothing to get the railroad built (think lying, cheating and blackmailing), and Elam (rapper Common), an emancipated slave working on the construction.

Robert, a land surveyor checking out land in Iowa for the company; his new bride, Lily, who has her doubts about disturbing the land’s natural beauty; and the Indians who attack the workers as they encroach on their land (the show will focus more on them in later episodes). 

It’s a rich, interesting world and, when it comes down to it, a really cool show.

I’ll be happy to say I wasn’t late to the party on this one.