Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 10, 2015

Having grown up largely in Salt Lake City, Utah, my childhood history lessons in school were often infused with tales of the Mormon pioneers and related epochal events, which included the joining of the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California’s eastward bound tracks and the mirroring westward approach by Union Pacific Railroad Company at the otherwise fairly unremarkable spot known as Promontory Point or Promontory Summit. Utah begins playing a more central role in Hell on Wheels as it enters its fourth season, with none other than “the” Mormon pioneer, Brigham Young himself, showing up in a featured role. The series’ historical accuracy may be at least somewhat questionable at times, with real life characters interacting with fictional ones in sometimes improbable ways, but the show continues to be generally quite compelling even as it has tended to delve more and more into the soap operatic byways of its large and at times ungainly cast, rather than the straight and narrow pathway of the Transcontinental Railroad itself. Utah’s neighbor Wyoming is also a focal locale for much of this fourth season, with major characters including both Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) and Thomas Durant (Colm Meaney) either residing (if only for a veritable moment) in places like Cheyenne, or (in the case of Cullen) trying desperately to get there. Cheyenne’s seemingly paramount importance to various characters might be a somewhat whimsical formulation on the part of the show’s writers, but it gives the series another “watering hole” around which several interlocking stories congregate, even as apparently incremental progress on the actual railroad occurs, sometimes in the veritable background.

For those wanting a "refresher course" on events in this sometimes densely plotted series, reviews of previous seasons of Hell on Wheels can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

Hell On Wheels: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review

Hell On Wheels: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray review

Hell On Wheels: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray review

A probably unavoidable aspect of the plot machinations in the previous seasons of Hell on Wheels has been the evolving seesaw of shifting power between Cullen Bohannon and both Thomas Durant and the Swede (Christopher Heyerdahl), and so it should be no big surprise that this very gambit informs much of the fourth season. There’s a more visceral immediacy to the conflict between Bohannon and the Swede in this particular season, with Bohannon being held as a virtual hostage of the Swede, who continues his subterfuge this season after having assumed the identity of a high ranking Mormon bishop.

The issue of identity has informed at least some of the subtext of Hell on Wheels, especially with regard to Cullen’s turbulent past but also in terms of any number of supporting characters, including bizarrely tattooed working girl Eva (Robin McLeavy), but it finds its most overt statement in the ongoing escapade involving the Swede. While Cullen seems intent on protecting his newish wife Naomi (MacKenzie Porter) and (ultimately) new child, it’s also obvious he’s developing some kind of strategy to get out from underneath the Swede’s imperious thumb. That mind game plays out in the early episodes of this season, finally allowing Cullen and family to matriculate back into “society” in Cheyenne, where the bulk of this season’s activities take place.

There’s a bit of contemporary sounding irony when the “Feds” show up in the form of new Wyoming governor John Allen Campbell (Jake Weber), a guy who informs Durant right off the bat that “governmental oversight” is here to stay, something that obviously catches Durant off guard and which announces a new nemesis for the character. Durant in fact reverts to his somewhat more feral tendencies as the season progresses, but there is one delightfully hilarious incident involving a showdown between Durant and Campbell which actually plays almost like something out of a Buster Keaton film.

Identity also factors into one element in the fourth season that many fans of the series will probably find both predictable and in a way rather unexpected. It shouldn’t come as any huge spoiler to say that one of season three’s supposed cliffhangers, the fate of Elam (Common), is not resolved with the character’s demise. However, that said, the upshot of the vicious attack Elam sustained plays out in a gruesomely violent way, contradicting the kinder, gentler ambience that Elam at least putatively offered other characters like Eva formerly in the series.

As started to be the case perhaps as far back as the second season, the actual building of the Transcontinental Railroad, while certainly germane to the ongoing drama, almost becomes a sidetrack (sorry) at times, with the sometimes soap operatic interactions of the many characters taking center stage. The good news is there’s more than enough real feeling drama on hand to not make the series seem like it’s needlessly detouring things, since there’s obviously a shelf life to how long a series about an event which has historical circumscriptions can go on portraying events. Performances continue to be exceptional, and while there’s a certain stasis with things centered in Cheyenne, Hell on Wheels is still proving that the journey can be at least as entertaining as the destination.

Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This continues to be one of the nicer looking series to dot the cable landscape, with especially evocative, of also at times gimmicky, framings of the gorgeous western countryside. The palette is occasionally toyed with, but overall things like flesh tones look accurate and are vividly suffused. Fine detail is often exceptional in close-ups, offering great looks at the crags of Meaney's expressive face as Durant or, later, some of the horrific injuries visited on Common's Elam. Depth of field is generally excellent in the wide shots capturing the vastness of the outdoor spaces, but some of the CGI and special effects work can look soft, at least in comparison to the bulk of this often impressively sharp looking presentation. Once again, the directors and cinematographers play with angles and POV shots, including little moments like perspective from a newspaper's "point of view" as it's being prepared on an old time printing press.

Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season features a nicely expressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, one which utilizes the surrounds quite effectively for both source cues and well placed ambient environmental sounds. Redolent effects like the whoosh of steam escaping from a locomotive engine can gently pan through the channels, creating an instant sense of aural space. Dialogue is cleanly presented and well prioritized. Fidelity remains top notch throughout the season, and dynamic range is very wide. There is also a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 option on this season for those who don't have a home theater system supporting surround sound.

Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Look at Season 4 (1080i; 3:12) offers some brief interviews that aren't really that spoiler filled.


• The New Characters of Season 4 (1080i; 3:24) is a brief overview of some of the new faces in Cheyenne and other parts west.


• On the Set with Colm Meaney (1080i; 1:10) is fun if awfully short, with the actor obviously relishing playing such a dastardly character.


• On the Set with Jake Weber (1080i; 1:16) offers both interviews and snippets of scenes.


• Cheyenne Set Tour (1080i; 4:27) is hosted by Anson Mount and Art Director Bill Ives.


• Anson Mount Retrospective (1080i; 1:40) is a short look back over some of the plot machinations which have subsumed Cullen Bohannon.


• Inside Hell on Wheels Featurettes (1080i; 1:05:09) offers interesting "making of" featurettes on all of the episodes of this season, replete with some good interviews and behind the scenes footage.

Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cullen Bohannon continues to be one of the more riveting characters driving a historical drama, and while some of the traumas facing him and other characters this season verge on the florid and soap operatic, the series continues to provide well scripted episodes which neatly develop characters in often somewhat unexpected ways. There are great little turns by the rather large cast here, with supporting players like Phil Burke as Mickey McGinnes really given a chance to shine in some unusual ways. If Hell on Wheels hews to the actual historical record, the series should be reaching its endgame starting with the fifth season, and the writers have carefully established several longer arcs which seem to be about to collide in calamitous fashion. Technical merits are very strong on this release, and Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season comes Recommended.