# Hell On Wheels starts tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 6, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069 "2011-11-06T17:13:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/62 "2011-11-23T15:37:15Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > Do we know what the time frame is between the end of the civil war and the “current”? The real transcontinental railroad was built between 1863-9. I’m a little embarrassed that I had to look that up as I wrote a paper on the building of the railroad in high school. At the time, I had ambitions to liken its building to the building of communications satellites, in terms of impact. But I never got that far. So I’m interested in the show for historic reasons. But in some ways it seems like they’re trying to reproduce Deadwood, with Durant in the Hearst role, and Bohannon perhaps the equivalent of Seth Bullock. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/63 "2011-11-23T22:22:28Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The real transcontinental railroad was built between 1863-9. I’m a little embarrassed that I had to look that up as I wrote a paper on the building of the railroad in high school. At the time, I had ambitions to liken its building to the building of communications satellites, in terms of impact. But I never got that far. So I’m interested in the show for historic reasons. But in some ways it seems like they’re trying to reproduce Deadwood, with Durant in the Hearst role, and Bohannon perhaps the equivalent of Seth Bullock. The Union Pacific didn’t start construction west of Omaha until 7/65 though. I was asking relative to the time frame that the main guy has had to kill all of his wife’s killers. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/64 "2011-11-23T22:23:38Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > They probably represent months of work, scouting and surveying the route ahead. Durant needs to build the railroad fast to get the federal money; he doesn’t have time to send out another surveyor and wait a couple more months. I thought it might have something to do with land that he has or will want to buy up. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/65 "2011-11-23T22:32:37Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > I still like it better than the Walking Dead, if only because it hasn’t yet exhausted my patience. Maybe the railroad crew in the 1860s will be the ones to find Sophia. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/66 "2011-11-23T22:57:30Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Maybe the railroad crew in the 1860s will be the ones to find Sophia. No, that’ll be next season’s _Terra Nova_. They go 80M years into the future, one day at a time, to find her. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/67 "2011-11-23T23:21:29Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Maybe the railroad crew in the 1860s will be the ones to find Sophia. I’m more and more convinced that Sophia is living with the Russian guy in Jersey’s Pine Barrens. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/68 "2011-11-23T23:46:13Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > I’m more and more convinced that Sophia is living with the Russian guy in Jersey’s Pine Barrens. Or when they find her, she’ll be a 6 ft tall Black teenage boy who plays basketball. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/69 "2011-11-24T00:16:26Z")
Sounds like a steampunk version of [Changeling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling_(film)). [Jeffrey Donovan in Bad Accent du Jour]Ma’am, you’re just too griefstricken to remember her properly, but sometimes dese t’ings happen. Little girls, dey grow up, dey get taller, dey develop full grown male sex organs, dey turn black, dey make up stories about when dey was ex slaves workin’ on da railroad, now don’t make me have to slap some sense into ya, just hug and kiss your daughta…[/Jeffrey Donovan in Bad Accent du Jour] ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/70 "2012-08-10T23:27:30Z")
New season starts Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/71 "2012-08-11T00:47:04Z")
I’ll be tuning in… I thought it really picked up in the last half of the first season. ---
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/72 "2012-08-11T02:00:39Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > New season starts Sunday. And they are running the entire first season in order on the same day! ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/73 "2012-09-04T16:57:55Z")
Anyone back on this? ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/74 "2012-09-04T17:29:54Z")
I’m watching it. Anyone else have a hard time making out all the dialogue? It could be my hearing… ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069/75 "2012-11-07T01:05:16Z")
Finally watched the 2-hour finale. Pretty great bit of acting all around, though I’m still bit surprised they killed off Lily Bell. I expected her to punch the Swede in the burnt-up guts, get away and have Cullen blast him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-on-wheels-starts-tonight/602069.md?page=3)