7 Western Shows Where Every Episode Is a Masterpiece
Remus is a writer, editor, journalist, and author with an eye for detail and an extremely active imagination. He is an enthusiast of everything to do with the graphic medium, whether it's Western comics and their adaptations or manga and anime. Remus is also the author of the sci-fantasy novel Once Upon a Time in Hyperspace and several works of short fiction in the mystery, comedy, and horror genres.
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Westerns have been a fixture on the small screen since the earliest years of television, though they’ve waxed and waned in popularity over the years. With the arrival of Yellowstone, the genre received a 21st-century revival that has spawned numerous shows spanning the drama, comedy, crime, and thriller subgenres, many of which have proven both popular and impactful. Collectively, these shows have proven that Western television is here to stay.
However, though the genre has exploded into new directions over the decades, there are only a few Western shows that can truly be called masterpieces. These are the shows that engage, entertain, and sometimes even educate the audience in every single installment, earning critical and audience acclaim as they do it. From TV classics to underrated gems, here’s our handpicked selection of Western shows where every episode is a masterpiece.
1 ‘The English’ (2022)
A highly underrated Western miniseries starring Emily Blunt, The English follows Lady Cornelia Locke, an Englishwoman who travels to the American West seeking revenge for her son’s death. In the process, she meets Sergeant Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), a Pawnee Nation member on his way to claim his dues, and discovers a shared history. Written and directed by Hugo Blick, the series also stars Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, Rafe Spall, and more as key characters.
The English is unlike most shows in the genre, modern or classic, and surpasses the expected standards of Western TV. The revisionist Western drama is unusually artistic, with highly appealing, stylized cinematography, even if the show’s deliberate pacing can be a drag at times. The English was a blink-and-miss show at the time of its release, but despite its minimal cultural impact, the series was a critical favorite, earning praise for the powerhouse performances by Blunt and Spencer, as well as the impressive visuals.
2 ‘1883’ (2021)
Taylor Sheridan’s follow-up to his mega-hit neo-Western Yellowstone, 1883 is the first spin-off series of the franchise and the first of many prequels. The show explores the Dutton family’s legacy 125 years before the events of Yellowstone. Set in the titular year in a post-Civil War America, 1883 follows the lives of James and Margaret Dutton, who leave the impoverished Southern life for a prosperous future in the fertile plains of Montana, and establish what would later become the Yellowstone Ranch. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill portray the Dutton couple, with Sam Elliott, Isabel May, and LaMonica Garrett as other main characters.
When it premiered in 2021, 1883 surpassed the success of its parent show and broke several records, earning acclaim for its standout performances and big-screen aesthetic. Though often heavy-handed in its narrative style, it compensates with its epic scale and unrelenting bleakness, depicting the struggles of its time period with great realism. Gritty and grounded, 1883 is often ranked among the finest Western dramas of the 21st century and is easily one of Taylor Sheridan’s best shows.
3 ‘Deadwood’ (2004–2006)
An HBO landmark and an iconic Western drama created by David Milch, Deadwood centers on the years before and after the annexation of the titular area by the Dakota Territories in the 1870s. The series follows the town’s history from a lawless gold mining camp to a planned township, exploring the power struggles between a ruthless saloon owner, Al Swearengen, and the town’s new, incorruptible sheriff, Seth Bullock. Ian McShane and Timothy Olyphant star as Al and Seth respectively, with Brad Dourif, Kim Dickens, Robin Weigert, and Anna Gunn portraying other real-life people of that era.
Deadwood is a highly engaging Western drama with high-tension storylines exploring politics, society, and law within the frontier context. While it was not as massive a blockbuster as other Western shows of its time, Deadwood set new standards for the genre and is now considered an early 21st-century gem of Western television that still holds up today. Backed by great performances by Olyphant and McShane, Deadwood is one of the finest modern Western shows, successfully swapping classic tropes with character and narrative depth in every chapter.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Western Icon Are You Most Like? No Name · Doc Holliday · Wyatt Earp · Mattie Ross
Pick your name, your gun, your horse and how you spend a night in town, and we will tell you which legend of the Old West you would have been. Four icons are waiting at the end of this: the stranger who never gives his name, the gambler who would die for a friend, the lawman who never wanted the badge, and the girl nobody has ever talked out of anything.
🚬No Name(Dollars Trilogy)
🃏Doc Holliday(Tombstone)
⭐Wyatt Earp(Tombstone)
🐎Mattie Ross(True Grit)
01
The town is about to learn your name. What do they call you? In a Western, what people call you is already half the character.
02
What are you carrying? Everything out here is character, right down to what is sitting on your hip.
03
What are you riding? A hero and their horse is one of the oldest relationships in cinema.
04
You have got one evening in town. How does it go? The saloon is where these films quietly tell you who somebody really is.
05
A stranger offers you money for a job that sounds like trouble. Somebody always turns up with a full purse and a bad idea.
06
Somebody is waiting for you in the street. What does the town see? Two people, an empty road, and everybody else watching from behind the shutters.
07
What is the one thing you will not do out here? The code is about the only thing west of the river that actually holds.
08
The job is finished. Where does the story leave you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your icon.
The Dust Has Settled Your Western Icon Is…
Four icons and four completely different ways of walking into trouble. This is the one you would have been out there, why it fits, and what it would have cost you.
The Man With No Name
You have never explained yourself and you have never needed to, because people work out fairly quickly that you are the most capable person in the room without you ever having to mention it.
- Eastwood built the character out of everything he refused to do, stripping away the backstory, the speeches and every bit of reassurance until only the competence was left.
- You keep your own counsel, and while other people occasionally find that unnerving, you have never felt any real need to fix it for them.
- The Dollars films work because he genuinely is in it for himself right up until the moment he is not, and he never explains that part either.
- You would be gone before anybody got a chance to thank you.
Doc Holliday
You are the funniest person in most rooms and the most loyal person in all of them, and you would be genuinely insulted if somebody suggested those two things were in any tension.
- Doc has no real reason to be in this fight beyond the fact that his friend is in it, which is the only reason he has ever needed for anything.
- You lead with wit, and it does a very effective job of hiding how seriously you take the handful of people you actually care about.
- Val Kilmer's performance is the most quoted in the entire genre because the jokes keep getting sharper as the situation gets worse.
- You would spend everything you had on this and still describe it as a good week.
Wyatt Earp
You never wanted this job, and you took it anyway because the alternative was standing there watching somebody less careful do it badly, which is the most Western reason there has ever been.
- Earp is the reluctant authority figure, a man who came to town specifically to be left alone and somehow ended up answerable for all of it.
- You are protective by instinct, so when something goes wrong your first thought is who is exposed rather than who is to blame.
- These films understand that keeping order costs far more than breaking it, and that the person holding the line almost never gets thanked.
- You would do the whole thing again, and you would complain about it the entire time.
Mattie Ross
Nobody has ever successfully talked you out of something you had already decided was right, and a long line of grown adults has found that out the hard way.
- Mattie is the most relentless character in the Western canon and she manages it through argument, paperwork and flat refusal rather than a fast draw.
- You have no patience for being managed, so you negotiate, you check the details and you turn up exactly when you said you would.
- True Grit is the rare Western where the moral centre is the youngest person on screen and every adult around her has to catch up.
- You would get what you came for, and the film is honest about what that takes out of you.
4 ‘Justified’ (2010–2015)
A major Western TV drama that made Timothy Olyphant a household name and cemented his status as a television icon, Justified is Graham Yost’s series adaptation of Elmore Leonard's stories featuring the protagonist Raylan Givens, most notably the short story "Fire in the Hole." Olyphant plays the U.S. Marshal, infamous for his brash nature, dry wit, and questionable methods of enforcing the law, and the show sees him kicked out of Miami and transferred to his hometown in Kentucky, which he thought he escaped for good.
Justified started as a Western procedural but quickly turned into a sharp, slick crime drama, and eventually became an explosive genre hit. The show mostly anchors itself on Olyphant’s epic anti-hero, whose Old West swagger blended with smooth southern charm and modern ruggedness draws fans episode after episode. With sharp dialogue, folksy humor, and well-paced story arcs, Justified is a captivating contemporary Western drama that outshines most genre hits of our time.
5 ‘Longmire’ (2012–2017)
Developed by John Covey and Hunt Baldwin, Longmire is a neo-Western crime drama adaptation of Craig Johnson’s series of mystery novels featuring the titular character. A troubled county sheriff in Wyoming, Walt Longmire solves strange crimes with the help of his daughter, his long-time friend, and trusted deputies. Robert Taylor plays the titular central character, with Cassidy Freeman, Katee Sackhoff, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Bailey Chase as other main characters.
Longmire is a fascinating modern Western show with an interesting hero, tightly-woven mysteries, and a rugged backdrop. During its run, the show was a huge success, garnering popularity and critical acclaim season after season to become A&E's highest-rated original scripted drama series of all time. Nowadays, it’s sadly become another forgotten Western TV show, but Longmire remains one of the best modern productions in the genre and is praiseworthy for finding the right balance between a conventional Western narrative and contemporary sensibilities.
6 ‘Godless’ (2017)
A critically acclaimed Western drama miniseries set in the late 1800s, Godless follows a young outlaw named Roy Goode (Jack O'Connell), who betrays his gang and escapes to a small New Mexico mining town populated mostly by women, where he seeks refuge with an outcast widow, Alice Fletcher (Michelle Dockery). When Roy’s former gang finds him and threatens the town, Alice and the rest of the townsfolk band together to fight them off. Scoot McNairy, Merritt Wever, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Tantoo Cardinal, and more appear in key roles.
Created by Scott Frank and produced by Steven Soderbergh, Godless is a remarkably made miniseries that challenges traditional Western TV tropes and rivals many in the genre with its production values. Featuring a stellar cast, magnetic performances, sweeping visuals, and self-contained storytelling, every chapter of this Western is a thrill. With its high-drama, high-stakes Old West action, and refreshing setting, Godless ranks among the finest Westerns of our time.
7 ‘Lonesome Dove’ (1989)
Directed by Simon Wincer, Lonesome Dove is an '80s TV classic and a legendary Western show adapted from the 1985 novel by Larry McMurtry, and the first entry in the titular series of shows. Set in the late 1870s, the story revolves around two aging Texas Rangers — the free-spirited Augustus “Gus” McCrae and the strict and stoic Woodrow F. Call — who embark on an epic and arduous cattle drive from the titular Texas border town to the lush plains of Montana. Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones play the central duo, with Danny Glover, Diane Lane, and Anjelica Huston as other notable characters.
During its run, Lonesome Dove became a landmark series that completely redefined Western television and revived the genre, which had largely faded at the time. A deeply profound and emotionally resonant frontier saga, every step of Call and Gus’s epic journey leads to interesting turns of events. Lonesome Dove was a favorite with both fans and critics, winning seven Emmy Awards, and is still considered one of the finest Western dramas ever seen on the small screen.
- Release Date
- 1989 - 1989-00-00
- Network
- CBS
- Directors
- Simon Wincer
- Writers
- William D. Wittliff
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