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Godless

Credits

Cast

Network

Reviewer

Paul Asay

TV Series Review

Frank Griffin wants his money back.

OK, so, it’s not exactly his money, if you want to get all technical about it. The $50,000 came from a payroll-laden train that he and his gang robbed a while back just outside Creede, Colo. That’s 1884 money, by the way, when you could buy a new horse with a chrome saddle and subwoofers for, like, 50 cents.

Still, he took it, unfair and square, and he sure don’t take kindly to anyone taking it from him—especially not his old protégé, Roy Goode. Why, Roy was like a son to old Frank: Frank taught the lad everything he knew about rustlin’ and stealin’ and murderin’, and the kid showed some real talent with a gun, too. The nerve! To turn the tables and steal Frank’s stolen goods? Why, that’s worth a butchering, for sure.

But Roy escapes from Frank’s felonious friends, killing 10 of them in the process and shooting off Frank’s arm for good measure. Roy flees into the wilds of New Mexico, eventually taking refuge near a town appropriately named La Belle that’s almost entirely populated by women. (The old mining town recently lost most of its menfolk in a mining accident.)

But those women won’t save Roy—not if Frank finds him there. You could ask the good folks of Creede about that … if there were any left to ask.

A Fistful o’ Fellers

Godless is Netflix’s determined gallop into the timeless Western genre—with a bit of a 21st century twist. While most Westerns have been dominated by dusty, whiskered, testosterone-laden hombres, this eight-episode series features women who can handle horses, shoot guns and stare down death as well as any man. Better in many cases. And despite the lack of menfolk, they’ve built lives for themselves in La Belle: They’ve converted the town’s brothel (Magdalena’s House of Rapture) into a school. They’re building a church in the middle of town. Men? They don’t need no stinkin’ men.

A few guys still frequent these parts, though, albeit somewhat sporadically. Bill McNue, the aging sheriff of La Belle, tends to disappear whenever trouble brews, leaving the town’s ladies to sort out said trouble themselves. He’s lost a lot of respect on La Belle’s main street, and he gets precious little of it at home, either: The man’s young daughter never speaks to him. But no matter: Sister Mary Agnes holds down the fort better than Bill ever could, anyway.

McNue’s deputy, Whitey, favors good books as much as he does guns (though he’s a pretty good shot). The settlement boasts a handful of other hombres, too: a barkeep, a barber, men whose livelihood kept them out of the mines that fateful day. But it’s not like the women have much use for them.

The townspeople of La Belle have very little use for Alice Fletcher, either. The young widow lives on a ranch outside of town, shunned as a witch who supposedly cursed the place—perhaps because she had the audacity to marry a Native American and give birth to a son, Truckee, by him. She lives with as much dignity as she can muster with Truckee and her mother-in-law, Iyovi, as well as miles upon miles of scrub-covered dirt for company. Oh, and that Roy Goode fellow, who straggled in late one night and has a curious way with horses.

The Goode, the Bad and the Very, Very Ugly

Despite its name, Godless spends a surprising amount of time talking about God—though not always in glowing terms. Bad guy Frank was raised by Mormons, dresses like a preacher and threatens to bring down “righteous” hellfire on anyone who might cross him. In the first episode, he rides his horse right into church, warning congregants never to give Roy Goode shelter. “Unless you want to suffer,” he adds, “like our Lord Jesus suffered for all of us.”

But neither Frank nor the show itself mind inflicting a great deal of suffering.

Corpses cover the Western landscape like so many decomposing tumbleweeds. We see men, women, children and horses in unimaginable states of decay. This is no bloodless Western of yesteryear, where bad ‘uns get gunned down from rooftops to vanish beyond the range of the camera. No, wounds here are ragged. Blood flows more freely than water in this parched land.

La Belle harbors plenty of sex and nudity, too—the lack of men notwithstanding. Language, though curiously florid, often strays into the coarse and profane.

Westerns have long served as a stage for quintessentially American sinners and saviors, heroes and villains laboring in a crucible where morality meets the savage hand of nature and man. Godless offers a virtue here and there, but that hand is more savage than many Westerns. Discerning viewers might be advised to ride on past.

Episode Reviews

Godless: Nov. 22, 2017 “An Incident at Creede”

The episode opens with an apocalyptic scene: The town of Creede has been almost completely slaughtered. We glimpse dead bodies everywhere, some charred, most bloodied. A marshal who rides into town stares stoically at the carnage, only to be brought to his horrified knees at the sight of a gray-faced child, perhaps 6 years old, hanging from a pole.

In flashback, we witness Frank Griffin’s brutal attack on the town. The people of Creede were about to hang two members of Griffin’s gang (we see the bloodied brothers with ropes around their necks), so he decided to lynch the whole town in retribution. “Their blossom should go up as dust because they have cast away the law of the Lord,” Griffin says. Riders rope townspeople and drag them by horses through the town. Some are hung. Others, both in town and on the train that Griffin robbed, get gunned down. At least one woman—about the only survivor—is raped. We see her crouching beside a dead man, perhaps her husband, singing a hymn: “He is a mystery to my soul.” A dead, bloated, decaying horse lies alongside a path.

A horrific, ragged bullet wound in his arm sends Griffin to see a doctor. We don’t see the subsequent amputation, but we do hear Griffin’s screams. Elsewhere, a man is shot in the throat. Other bullet wounds are tended to—including one being cauterized by a chunk of gunpowder. Someone shoots a rattlesnake in two just before the serpent can bite a child.

Bill, the sheriff of La Belle, lies in a shelter naked, his eyes covered in smeared feces. It’s apparently a Native American treatment for some ailment, though Bill eventually storms out of the tent naked (we see his rear and perhaps a bit of his genitals), calling the treatment “witchy nonsense.” Alice Fletcher, a widow who lives outside of La Belle, is referred to as a “witch.” She tells a stranger how when she first came to the area, her first husband was swept away by a flash flood. She would’ve been taken by that torrent, too, but her new yellow dress got caught in some brush, saving her.

Griffin makes repeated spiritual references, including some inside a church filled with God-fearing worshippers (which he rides into atop his horse). He claims to have seen visions of his own death. Several people discuss sexual acts, inclinations and the size of a man’s anatomy.

Characters drink whiskey and swear plenty. The f-word is uttered, and we hear “d–n” nine times, “h—” four times and about a half-dozen misuses of God’s name—most of those paired with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is abused twice.

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Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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