‘Godless’ Not Really Re-inventing the Western, But Offers Some Fresh Takes

***Season One of Godless is available to stream on Netflix, November 22nd, 2017*** Godless is a show that demands patience to be fully enjoyed. It centers around the old (or the not yet developed) west, which is a pledge of a gingerly moving story to start with. The beginning episodes do well to educate us about the world but still move slowly. Background history adds context to the present day actions over time. Characters that you may enjoy by series’ end are not readily available in the preliminary world building of the show. However, once these things settle in and begin to draw clear lines for how they connect to each other, the show picks up quite a bit. The plot begins to fulfill the ambition of the different factions that will collide, characters crystalize into favorites and everything, as is wan to do, comes to head eventually.

The simplest description of the plot is that the best gun around, Roy Goode, shows up at the widow, Alice Fletcher’s, land half dead as a defector of a notorious gang led by the infamous Frank Griffin. Having barely survived the betrayal, Griffin turns his gang into a singularly focused spearhead to find and kill the benedict Goode. As these are murderers and thieves, the collateral damage they’ll cause to accomplish this can’t be measured or restrained. That fact immediately brings the town of La Belle, New Mexico into the mix, where Fletcher happens to be harboring the target in her barn. What makes La Belle so unique is the men of the tow…