The beginning scenes of "Hatfields & McCoys" are very bad. In them you see several Hollywood tropes back-to-back, especially to do with gun-related things: from gunshots being too instantly lethal (rather than lethal with a slight but noticeable delay) to bullets being unable to exit human bodies, even through thin parts, and even as the shooter actually has his body pressed against the to-be exit wound to boot! But power through these first few badly-done scenes and before you appears this powerful Western. The events escalate slowly, and the deathtoll of this one episode is relatively small, which allows the viewer to start getting a sense for the many characters and their complex relationships with each other. In this, further section of the series I disliked the language used (I get that it's the local dialect, but I just dislike such wanton disregard for grammar as displayed in these dialogues), and a couple of other moments. However it needs to be said, overall it's a brilliant piece of semi-fiction, some cringiness of the romance aside.
2 Reviews
A poor opening, factually.
silverton-379598 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The writers show that facts do not matter to their version of the story, so they depict Randall and Anse as being in the same unit during the war. Actually, Randall fought for the Union, and Anse fought for the Confederacy.
The depiction of Anse's "logging operation" was very poorly done. None of his loggers cut or loaded anything larger than fence poles and the "stands of timber" were denuded, cutover hillsides. A few scenes shot where some timber had been cut would have aided in the story a little, but I suppose that the budget had already been depleted by pay for the cast.
The Hatfield/McCoy feud is very well documented so there will be many viewers who can't suspend disbelief long enough to get past this first episode. The acting is good, but the locations chosen don't come near enough to supporting the story.
The depiction of Anse's "logging operation" was very poorly done. None of his loggers cut or loaded anything larger than fence poles and the "stands of timber" were denuded, cutover hillsides. A few scenes shot where some timber had been cut would have aided in the story a little, but I suppose that the budget had already been depleted by pay for the cast.
The Hatfield/McCoy feud is very well documented so there will be many viewers who can't suspend disbelief long enough to get past this first episode. The acting is good, but the locations chosen don't come near enough to supporting the story.
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