It takes more than a sad sap story, a couple of Stetsons and a “yee-haw” to make a “Yellowstone” competitor.
But somehow Hollywood keeps thinking that the key to a Western is all in the aesthetics and accents, rather than a strong sense of place or smart storytelling. It’s as if the fantastic performances from the likes of Kelly Reilly in the Paramount Network juggernaut mean nothing, or that B-list action heroes have the same star power as Kevin Costner.
Still, we get cheap knockoffs − sometimes from the creator of “Yellowstone” himself, Taylor Sheridan − because the oldest rule in Hollywood is that success begets imitation. But I don’t think “Yellowstone” should be flattered by Netflix’s latest copycat attempt.
“Ransom Canyon” (now streaming, ★½ out of four) paints a pretty Western landscape on a clunky family soap opera with no compelling actors. The Texas-set drama, about a rancher with more tragedy than Meredith Grey and the walking stereotypes that populate his small town, is the kind of Potemkin TV show you’d get if you asked artificial intelligence to create a modern Western. Sure, it’s got bland hunk Josh Duhamel and “Friday Night Lights” alum Minka Kelly to show off their bright white smiles and lack of chemistry, but peek underneath the jean jackets and cowboy hats and you’ll find there’s very little substance to “Canyon.”
If you mosey on down to the town of Ransom Canyon, a ranchers’ paradise of the past somewhere near Austin, you’d meet Staten Kirkland (Duhamel), the somber proprietor of a family ranch that a local oil company would prefer he sell so it can build a pipeline. But Texas-born-and-raised Staten refuses, and not just because the recent deaths of his wife and son have made him angry, introverted and obsessed with whether someone was responsible for crashing his son’s car. But his longtime friend Quinn O’Grady (Kelly) wants to help him recover from his grief, and maybe date her after three or so decades of pining for each other. Staten is good at getting in his own way, though, so Quinn ‒ a part-time bar owner, part-time lavender farmer and part-time concert pianist, because why not? ‒ is pushed into the arms of Davis (Eoin Macken), Staten’s brother-in-law.
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But lest the adults have all the soapy fun, the kids in Ransom are not all right, particularly ambitious cheerleader Lauren (Lizzy Greene, “A Million Little Things”), the school it girl with a terrible home life, from her absentee alcoholic mother to her overbearing sheriff dad. But she’s got her choice of handsome high school hunks, including Reid (Andrew Liner), Davis’ son and the school’s quarterback, and Lucas (Garrett Wareing), the poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks.
This is all meant to mesh into an intergenerational story a la NBC’s “Lights” or “Parenthood,” but instead it just feels disjointed. It takes way too long to figure out how everyone is connected, let alone care about a single one of them (and if you do, the writing and characterizations don’t make it easy). Nothing that happens makes much sense, from the director of the New York Philharmonic showing up in Ransom to beg Quinn to come play in the orchestra to high schoolers getting invited to Senate fundraising events. Even judging it by the standards of a “Virgin River”-style schmaltzy soap, “Canyon” doesn’t pass muster. At least all the melodrama on shows like that is fun and compelling. Watching “Canyon” feels like work.
If the story were better, if the cast featured more convincing actors, if Duhamel didn’t scream city slicker in his flannel and ripped jeans, maybe the series might be something worth sticking around to watch. But “Canyon” doesn’t have an authentic bone in its 10-episode first season. It’s all forced and uncomfortable; you could style a drinking game every time a character awkwardly says “the great state of Texas.”
“Canyon” may want to claim Texas, but it’s unclear if the state will want to claim this messy, and entirely skippable, series.
