GREATEST WESTERNS of the 21st Century

DON’T HEED THE DOOM AND GLOOM OF PESSIMISTS: WESTERNS ARE alive and well and thriving on multiple platforms in the 21st century. The only catch is, many of them don’t look or sound much like the Saturday matinee horse operas of yesteryear.

These days, the term “western” is sufficiently inclusive to accommodate both period dramas and contemporary stories, reassuringly old-fashioned oaters and violently revisionist shoot’ em-ups. Indeed, when you say “western,” you may not be referencing a movie at all. Rather, you might be talking about weekly or limited-run TV series on broadcast, cable, or streaming outlets.

But the unmistakable and indomitable spirit of the classic western can still be savored on screens of all sizes, in narratives of various lengths. To demonstrate, we’ve corralled a wide range of westerns — many of them enthusiastically recommended by our readers on social media—that have premiered since 2001. And if you don’t see one of your favorites here, don’t be quick to fret: You can find 30 more noteworthy 21st-century westerns on our website.

1 Hell on Wheels (2011-2016)

It started out as an impressively gritty but undeniably formulaic revenge drama, following Confederate Army veteran Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) on a vengeance trail as his pursuit of the rogue Union soldiers who killed his wife and son takes him to the moving-westward construction sites of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Over the course of five eventful seasons on the AMC network, however, evolved gradually and engrossingly into a full-scale, multifaceted, and multicultural epic quite unlike anything seen before or since on American television. Bohannon’s sometimes purposeful, sometimes accidental transition from obsessed executioner out for blood to historical bit player seeking a