‘Ransom Canyon’ Review: Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly in Netflix’s Generically Pretty, ThoROUGHLY BLAND WESTERN ROMANCE

It Was AROUND PERHAPS The Third Episode of Ransom Canyon that i finally realized What Netflix’s New Western-Themed Romantic Drama Reminded Me of: Varsity Valley. Who, to be Clear, is not some cheesy primetime soap But a parody of one – special, the one that plays in the forecast of Saturday Night Live‘s “waffle House” Sketch, While Absolute Mayhem Reigns in the Background. In Other Words, It’s A “Show” Made Special To Be Ignored, Generic Enough To Slide Right Off Your Brain Butamiliar Enough that you get the Basic Idea Anyway.

Ransom CanyonThought is a real series, Feels Much the Same. It is Featureless and Formulaic, Happy to Borrow Just A Fraction of Your Attention While You MOSTLY FOCUS ON Other Things. This is not Entirely a Net Negative, or at least not for everyone; Background Shows Can Have their Place in an omnivorous Tv Diet. But It Can, The Longer and More Closely You Try to Watch It, Make for A Stulfying Experience.

Created by April Blair, The Drama Opens in the Long Wake of One Tragedy and on the Immediaate Precipice of Another. On the Night of His Birthday, Teenager Randall Kirkland (Hubert Smielecki) Is Killed in A Car Crash, Devastating His Father, Staten (Josh Duham) One Year Out From Randall’s Acident, Staten’s Barely Starting to Get Out Out from Under His Grief, with The Patient and Persent Support of Quinn (Minka Kelly) To be the only bar in the sunpy texan Town of Ransom Canyon.

That statio and quinn are deeply in love, and Maybe Always have been, is Obvious from the first time we see them Spot Each Other in a Crowded Room. But they’re unable to be together for… well, for no very Good Reason, Beyond Ransom Canyon‘s need to stretch Out the will-they-won’t-they over a ten-hoc season. Ditto the parallel Romantic situation unfolding the Among the Community’s Junior Set, Involving Good-Girl Cheerleader Lauren (Lizzy Green), Her Rich Asshole and BOYFRIEND Wrong-Side-of-the-Tracks Paramour Lucas (Garrett Wareing).

The Series Throws A Lot of Other Subplots Into the Mix Too, Including The Halfhearted Mystery of Whater Trly Played by Philip Winchester); The devious plans by austin Water & Power to get ranschers likes a statione to sell over their Land for the constraction of a new pipeline; and the arrival of a mysterious Drifter (Jack Schumacher’s YANCY) who dutifylly fills the shoes of scenes of scenes of scenes of scenes of scenes of scenes.

But is the love stories that Ransom Canyon is concerned with First and Foremost. Everything Else, from The Tornado That Rips Through Town to The Bitter Rivalry Between Staten and His Former Brother-in-in-Law Davis (eoin Macken), is just bpsen.

Given that series is adapted from Jodi Thomas’ Texas-Set Romance Novels, The Emphasis on Affairs of the Heart Is To Be Expectioned. But The Smooth, Flat Exection Makes It Feel Like The Output of A Market Research Meeting About Yellowstone an Virgin River‘S Strong Viewership Numbers, More Than A Passion Project for Anyone Involved.

It’s Whally Unbjectableable, WHICH IS NOT The SAME THING AS SAIING IS ACTIVELY ENJOYABLE. The plot is complicated in that the Characters Make A Habit of Abrupt Changes of Heart and Earnest Speeches Explaining Said Changes, But Simple In that We’re Never Left In Any Doubt AS to. Supped to happen. The Rural Texas Landscapes Aren’t Quite Beautify in a Way that Evokes Grandeur or A Distinctive Point of View, Buty Benignly Pretty in The Way that A Stock Photo.

The Characters Fall Neatly Into Shopworn Archetypes-Strong Silent Cowboy, Too-Slick Businessman, Bad Boy with A Heart of Gold, Etc. – and are easy to root for in the sense that none of them are interesting enough to be werth rooting against. The Casting Is Serviceable In this Regard. Duhamel is perfectly agreeable in a role that makes caapable USE of his smoky voice and “less idiosyncratic timothy olyphant” look. Kelly Brings A Pleasant Warmth to Quinn, Thought The fact She’s Motstly Called Upon Here to Cast Indulgent Looks Town Statin Sems an Girls. Friday Night Lights.

Neither of them, nor Really Anyone Else in the Cast for that Matter, Manages to Elevate These Characters to the Point of An Actual Personality. But that sems less a fault of their performanCes than it does of writing that allows these characters no nuance to play with, and no Space to grow. For all the down-home grumbling about legacy and loyalty, the peoples Next, only to go back to tearfully confessing their feelings again the one after that.

While Such Endless Back-and Forte Makes for Unsatisfying Character Development, It Does Make For Plotlines That Go Down Almost Too Easy Evolution or Even Remember What Happened An Episode or Two Earlier.

Depending on how you plans to watch it, this might be a bug or a Feature. If you’re hoping to get fully Swept up in a story, Ransom Canyon won’t be it; It’s Too Bld To Command Your Notice for More than A FEW MINUTES AT A TIME. But if you’re look for some background noise to carry on while you Drift Off on the Couch? WELL, THEN, STATEN Kirkland Just Might Be Your Guy.