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10 Best Western TV Shows of All Time

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The Western genre has stood out as one of the best and most significant genres in both film and television, seeing a heyday during the mid-twentieth century. While audiences typically think of iconic films like True Grit and Unforgiven, the genre has a strong history on TV too. The Western is one of the most versatile genres in fiction, and has been blended with everything from science-fiction to crime, delivering excellent stories.




The Old West is one of the most significant periods in American history, marking an era of expansion, violence, war and migration as settlers moved into new territories. The themes of the genre have also been translated into the present, with Neo-Westerns following current day gunslingers, ranchers and lawmen. Old or new, the depiction of the American West continues to make for some of the most entertaining and compelling television there is.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, The Searchers and Tombstone

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10 The Mandalorian Takes Star Wars To the Frontier

IMDb Rating: 8.6/10


Set in the Star Wars universe, The Mandalorian tells the story of a mysterious bounty hunter. After recovering a child for Imperial Remnant forces, he is compelled by his code of honor to save him, making an enemy out of Moff Gideon, a ruthless Imperial officer. Going on the run, he and the child, Grogu, travel between distant planets in the Outer Rim, taking on a variety of jobs and helping the innocent.

The Mandalorian is far from the traditional Western, but it’s tough to ignore its modern cultural significance, mastery of the Neo-Western or how it borrows from Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy. From its special effects to its done-in-one bounty hunter episodes and epic quest to reclaim Mandalore, the show is both some of the best contemporary Western and Star Wars media on TV.


9 Wanted: Dead Or Alive Launched the Career of Steve McQueen

IMDb Rating: 8.0/10

Steve McQueen in Wanted Dead or Alive

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Wanted: Dead or Alive tells the story of Josh Randall, a veteran of the Civil War who fought for the Confederacy. Now living as a bounty hunter with a dedication to justice, Randall serves as a hero to the innocent, bringing down evildoers and even working to save the wrongly-accused from punishment.


Wanted: Dead or Alive is the series that helped launch Steve McQueen’s career, transforming him into the quintessential Hollywood hero of the 1960s. The show has gone overlooked, especially considering its competition at the time, but in retrospect, it stands out as one of the best programs of its era, representing the wave of conscientious TV at the time.

8 Bonanza Was an American Pastime

IMDb Rating: 7.3/10

Cast of Bonanza on the ranch

Bonanza follows the lives of the Cartwright family, headed by the widowed father, Ben, and his three sons on their Ponderosa ranch in Nevada. Unlike other Westerns of its day, the series didn’t focus on gunslingers, bounty hunters or land grabs, instead highlighting a lighthearted family drama.


In each of the four main characters, audiences had a distinct type of character that could speak to them, from the loudmouthed Little Joe to the more sophisticated Adam. Each episode would deal with a different conflict or challenge, and tackled everything from comedic misunderstandings to the fight against bigotry. For fourteen years, the series spoke to average Americans, delivering a dramedy set in the Old West that explored family life on the frontier.

Bonanza TV Show Poster

Bonanza

Release Date
September 12, 1959

Cast
Lorne Greene , Michael Landon , Pernell Roberts , Victor Sen Yung

Seasons
14

Creator
David Dortort, Fred Hamilton

7 1923 Explores One of America’s Harshest Decades

IMDb Rating: 8.3/10

Cara and Jacob Dutton against a backdrop of the 1923 title card.


1923 continues on the story of the Dutton family, focusing on John Dutton’s great uncle and adopted grandfather, Jacob, as he defends his ranch in a time of depression, prohibition and corruption. Here, he creates the Montana Livestock Association, the organization later led by John in Yellowstone that helps them hold onto their ranch. The series also follows Spencer Dutton, a big game hunter who meets and falls in love with a woman from the British aristocracy, Alexndra, and documents their journey in Africa together.

Like the other Yellowstone series, 1923 offers viewers a grounded look at the American West, focusing on political corruption and the family itself. The series also highlights the harsh and cruel realities of being a Native American during this time period, documenting the abuse suffered in schools and wider society. The 1920s are an overlooked period when it comes to Hollywood Westerns, and that only helps in making the series so significant, both for the franchise and genre.


6 Gunsmoke Is an American Classic

IMDb Rating: 8.1/10

gunsmoke

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Gunsmoke began as a radio series, but was soon adapted to television thanks to its popularity and success. The series is set in Dodge City, Kansas, during the tail end of American settlement in the West, and focuses on Marshal Matt Dillon in his duties as protector of the city. With a strong supporting cast of the city’s residents, the show delivers a compelling drama to audiences, bringing about a new challenge in each episode.

Gunsmoke stands out as America’s longest-running Western, something earned through compelling storylines, and clocked in at an astounding twenty-year run. As the quintessential TV Western, the series took on just about every idea possible for its setting, covering things like affairs, scandals, crime, bigotry, hustling and corruption.


5 1883 Details Westward Expansion

IMDb Rating: 8.7/10

As the prequel to Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone franchise, 1883 explores the beginning of the Dutton family’s Yellowstone Ranch. The series begins with the family leaving their home in Tennessee and embarking on the grueling journey out West, in the hopes of reaching Oregon. Eventually, after a perilous trek, they settle in Montana, where they start the family ranch.

1883 focuses on the difficulties of the journey West, the dangers of the American Frontier and the tensions, both within the family and between the groups on the wagon train. With Sam Elliott cast in the leading role as Shea Brennan, the man charged with leading the journey, the series is a brilliant, realistic exploration of the West, and an effective prequel to Yellowstone.


1883 TV Show Poster

1883

Release Date
December 19, 2021

Cast
Tim McGraw , Sam Elliott , Faith Hill , Isabel May

Seasons
1

4 Longmire Combines Western With Murder Mystery

IMDb Rating: 8.3/10

Walt Longmire overlooks the Wyoming (New Mexico) landscape.

Based on the Walt Longmire Mysteries book series, Longmire focuses on its titular sheriff in Absaroka County, Wyoming, as he investigates serious crimes in his jurisdiction. From the murder of an Amish girl to the unsolved killing of his own wife, the lawman and his small force of deputies mete out justice and try to ease tensions between the county and a neighboring Native American reservation.


Longmire stands out among the best crime shows of the 2010s, and is a series that makes a point of highlighting the beauty of the American Midwest in between solving murders. The show also does an impressive job of balancing done-in-one mysteries against an ongoing narrative, one centered around corruption in Absaroka County — and the long-awaited discovery of who killed Walt’s wife.

3 Yellowstone Is Taylor Sheridan’s Masterpiece

IMDb: 8.7/10

Yellowstone Dutton


Yellowstone tells the story of the Dutton family and their defense of their ranch from a variety of threats, from property developers and tensions with Native Americans to ruthless competitors. Led by patriarch John Dutton, the family deploy legal and illegal methods to hold onto their expansive ranch, while navigating the political side of the modern West.

Yellowstone may be set in the present day, but it has all the trappings of a classical Western, from tensions between the Duttons and Native Americans to vigilante justice. The series takes viewers into the heart of the American Midwest and the problems and challenges that the average fan has never experienced. True to Taylor Sheridan’s message, the series hammers home the idea that while it may have modernized, the modern day West still shares many of the hallmarks of its past.


2 Justified Is Neo-Western Television at Its Best

IMDb Rating: 8.6/10

Justified City Primeval - Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) looks shocked into camera

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Justified follows the story of US Marshal Raylan Givens, who is transferred back to his hometown of Harlan County, Kentucky, after his Wild West-style of law enforcement proves a bad fit for Miami. When he arrives, he begins to reestablish old ties, while also finding himself in a difficult position when he learns that an old friend, Boyd Crowder, has fallen in with white supremacists.


Justified stands out as the face of the Neo-Western genre, effectively casting its hero in the role of a modern-day Wyatt Earp-inspired lawman. Charged with bringing fugitives back to justice, Givens navigates the world of crime in America’s heartland, fighting corruption and his own personal conflicts in a series evocative of the Old West.

1 Deadwood Is The Definitive Western Series

IMDb Rating: 8.4/10

Set in the 1870s, Deadwood tells the story of the people of the titular mining town, primarily following a former marshal, Seth Bullock, who tries to build a business there. When he arrives, he lands in the center of a town defined by swindling, deception and violence, later being convinced to become the new sheriff. The series explores the character of the Old West itself, focusing on different types of people trying to build a life on the frontier.


Upon release, Deadwood quickly garnered a reputation for being one of HBO’s best shows, as well as a breath of fresh air for Western TV. Rather than depending on the morally black and white style of older series of its genre, the show leaned into the era’s moral ambiguity and imperfections.

Deadwood TV Show Poster

Deadwood

Release Date
March 21, 2004

Cast
Timothy Olyphant , Ian McShane , Molly Parker , Brad Dourif , W. Earl Brown , John Hawkes , Paula Malcomson , Dayton Callie

Seasons
3

Creator
David Milch



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