Drama
The Rainmaker
This adaptation may lack the depth of its source material, but it isn’t a bad option if you’re itching for a new legal drama.
Staten Kirkland is a brokenhearted man.
Three years ago, his wife passed away after a long battle with illness. Then last year, his teenage son, Randall, died in a car crash. And now, some corporation is trying to take the last thing he has left: his 60,000-acre Texas ranch.
Staten says the ranch is his legacy, but—as fellow rancher Cap Fuller (who is also being pressured to sell his land) reminds him—without a family to leave it to, that doesn’t amount to much.
It doesn’t help that Staten’s brother-in-law, Davis Collins, is heading up the project to buy up the ranch land and put in an oil pipeline. Staten won’t do anything too drastic to put a stop to Davis because of their familial connection (Staten’s wife, Amalah, was Davis’ older sister). But Davis has all but threatened to make the pipeline happen—with or without Staten’s cooperation.
As if that weren’t enough, Staten and Davis are also competing for the affection of the same woman, Quinn O’Grady, who was his wife Amalah’s best friend before she died.
But that’s not all the drama happening in Ransom Canyon. The local sheriff’s daughter, Lauren (who recently broke up with Davis’ son, Reid) is dating a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. A new ranch hand with a mysterious past is stirring up trouble over at Cap Fuller’s ranch. And Staten finds evidence suggesting Randall’s death may not have been as accidental as law enforcement was led to believe.
How these pieces all fit together is anyone’s guess. But Staten aims to find out—and hopefully find some peace and comfort along the way.
Netflix’s Ransom Canyon is based on the book series of the same name by popular romance novelist Jodi Thomas—although I couldn’t tell you why there’s so much death and mystery tied up in a series generally categorized as “romance.”
Language can get rather shifty, too, with uses of the s-word and other profanities. Teenagers smoke marijuana, drink alcohol and play tonsil hockey. And while that encompasses the most egregious content in the first episode, the series is rated TV-MA for language, sex and nudity, which leads me to believe that things are gonna get a whole lot worse as the show progresses.
And that’s to say nothing for the aforementioned death toll. We catch a glimpse of the car wreck that claimed Randall’s life, and it’s pretty brutal. Another teenager’s leg gets bloodied up, too, after falling through the rotting floorboards of an abandoned house. And it’s all but confirmed that Davis is prepared to go to whatever means necessary to make the oil deal go through.
It doesn’t seem that characters are making the best decisions. The show’s protagonists have some hefty flaws that make them less-than-ideal role models. And really, even the romantic aspects of the show seem only to exist to create more dramatic elements.
So all in all, Ransom Canyon isn’t a safe bet for families to gather ‘round the TV to watch.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
A year after the accidental death of his son, Staten Kirkland’s life continues to fall apart as he struggles to process his grief, faces pressure to sell his land and breaks the heart of the woman trying to help him through it all. That violent event is just the beginning of content issues viewers can expect here.
Several teenagers make out. We see a man from the waist up as he showers. Other men and teenage boys are seen shirtless. The camera lingers on a woman’s cleavage. Women wear revealing tops and dresses. Couples flirt, sometimes kissing or touching each other affectionately. A woman asks a man about his previous two marriages after he claims he’s always loved her.
We see a flash of the car crash that killed Randall, including a glimpse of Randall’s bleeding body. Staten finds evidence suggesting that his son might have been run off the road, but the sheriff insists Staten is wrong. A teenager falls through the rotting floorboards of an abandoned house, and his leg is severely broken and bloodied. High schoolers tackle each other during a football game. Threats are issued. A girl lightly punches a boy in the chest.
A teen boy tries to kiss his ex-girlfriend without her permission, insisting she’ll eventually want to get back together with him. Later, he tells her new beau to stay away from “his woman.” And her own dad manipulates her into staying away from a specific guy without giving her a reason.
Adults drink alcohol at parties and other gatherings. Teenagers secretly drink and smoke marijuana. (Davis ignores dozens of drinking teens at a party hosted by his son.) Lauren, the sheriff’s daughter, says her mom is an alcoholic. She also claims she doesn’t want to be like her mom and meaningfully dumps out an alcoholic beverage at a party.
Randall’s death occurs just after a bad fight with his dad. He receives a car as a birthday gift from Davis. Because Staten believes there are strings attached, he demands Randall return the vehicle. Randall responds by telling his dad he wishes Staten had died instead of his mom.
Staten handles his grief poorly, isolating himself from society and even from Randall (before he dies, that is). Quinn attempts to break him out of his slump, but Staten hurts her feelings in the process.
We learn Davis is having financial problems due to the oil pipeline. Several characters lie. Some are rude and inconsiderate, too. A teenager blames her dad for her mom’s alcoholism, alleging that she’ll turn out the same if he refuses to let her accept a scholarship from a distant college.
We hear two uses of the s-word, as well as “a–,” “a–hole,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “d–mit,” “h—” and “p-ss.” God’s name is abused 10 times, thrice paired with “d–n.” Two guys use crude hand gestures.
Davis says he believes his sister is in heaven. Two brothers encourage one another. A teenage boy puts himself at risk to save a girl he likes from danger.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
This adaptation may lack the depth of its source material, but it isn’t a bad option if you’re itching for a new legal drama.
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