One of the highest-scoring seasons of Black Mirror ever has been rising up the Netflix top 10 list since its release, but after a few days on top, has been knocked down to #2.
The show that’s replaced it is Ransom Canyon, a somewhat out of nowhere western romance drama starring romantic staple Josh Duhamel and Friday Night Lights all-star Minka Kelly. Here’s the synopsis:
“Passions run deep in a small Text town, as three ranching dynasties fight for their land, their legacies and the people they live.”
I mean, we’re all thinking the same thing, right? An MA-rated modern western about ranching dynasties. Yellowstone, it’s Yellowstone, the massive Taylor Sheridan Paramount hit. But this does seem to be leaning a lot heavier into the romantic aspect of things and may be less of a violent crime drama. The MA-rating says it’s for language, nudity and sex. No violence.
The show is not scoring great, a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes, albeit that’s with a paltry amount of reviews in, and critics didn’t really like the first season of Yellowstone either. Unlike Yellowstone, Ransom Canyon is based on a series of books by Jodi Thomas. There are seven books in that series, so plenty of source material if this show wants to run for a long while. Debuting at #1 is certainly a good start. If this works out, Thomas also has about 40 other books that could be adapted, if they haven’t been already.
As for Black Mirror, the vibes are once again good around the series with the highest rated offering since the UK’s season 1 and the White Christmas special. I’m only halfway through it myself, but it is definitely excellent, the show shying away from going too wacky and back to dark and unsettling most of the time, though there are a bit of warm fuzzies nestled in along the way. Rarely.
I’m curious how Ransom Canyon will be received not by critics, but by audiences, as they’re the ones that craft hits out of shows like these, and Netflix loves its low-cost romance dramas that can run for seasons and seasons like Sweet Magnolias, for example. I expect this to do pretty well and likely rack up a few seasons on Netflix at the very least. And that starts this week with this ten episode binge dump.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
