SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF! 'LONGMIRE' SEASON ONE CONTINUES...

Lawbreakers beware, LONGMIRE (Robert Taylor) is coming for you! Image: A&E Television.

Things take a decidely darker turn for Wyoming's quirky and unflappable Sheriff Walt Longmire, as personified by Robert Taylor, in this final batch of episodes from the modern western drama's premiere year, developed for television by Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny, airing weekly on TCM from next Sunday. A man savagely murdered by a bear, and an attack on a suburbanite couple linked to the theft of a priceless painting of General Custer kicks things off with brutal intrigue, followed by a missing girl involved in a Waco-esque cult, and the death of an Indian reservation leader with important links to a brand new casino development. But it's the personal life of Longmire that starts to get more attention from here on in: he gets an on/off girlfriend in the form of Lizzie (Katherine LaNasa), but the real truth behind his wife's death hides a deeper, darker secret, which brings his and his daughters already fractured relationship to a head, made even worse by his discovering of her short-lived relationship with the antagonistic young rival for his sheriff-dom, Branch (Bailey Chase), whose well-connected father, Barlow, played by DEADWOOD's excellent baddie Gerald McRaney, will do anything he can to get his son elected whilst also grinding a few axes against our Walt. It looks like our hero's laid back but focused policing abilities will be made more difficult than ever...

Featuring some nice guest appearances from the likes of Peter Weller, Stacy Haiduk and Charles S. Dutton, all in all this is an improving run worth catching when you can, and one which will hopefully lead to even stronger plot and character development for the now-in-filming Season Two.

THE LAST COWBOY! 'LONGMIRE' HITS THE TRAIL...

Protecting the West! LONGMIRE has arrived. Images: TCM and A&E TELEVISION.

Following hot on the heels of Timothy Olyphant’s starring vehicle in JUSTIFIED comes another intriguing entry into the contemporary western genre- LONGMIRE, inspired by the popular, best selling detective stories of the popular character Sheriff Walt Longmire, created by Craig Johnson, and arriving on the UK’s TCM HD channel from this Sunday, 17^thMarch.

Looking like he’s stepped out of a Marlboro Man cigarette ad from the seventies, respected Aussie actor Robert Taylor does a sterling job of bringing the weathered faced, grizzled lawman with a sly sense of grounded humour to life for the small screen, in this enjoyably low-key but well-made series with solid scripting and a modern visual spin from THE CLOSERs Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny. Think McCloud meets Fargo, with an old-style slice of historical Americana thrown in and you’ll get the picture…

Beauty and danger await Longmire (Robert Taylor) in equal measure...

Trying to regain some sense and purpose to his life and career after the death of his wife and a break-up with his estranged daughter, Longmire is very much one of the last remnants of the Old West: dry as the desert but a determined presence- old school, not good with technology and relying on his knowledge and experience of a place where everybody knows everybody, where love, hate and rivalries are amplified within its small town environs, and where the modern equivalents of saloons and seedy, dusty trailer parks and Indian reservation areas hide secrets and lies amidst their old time traditions and continuing conflicts. The law of the gun is also still very much alive and kicking here.

Katee Sackhoff brings some welcoming sparky sex appeal to the series as Deputy Vic Moretti.

Aiding Longmire in his crime fighting duties are a small but quirkily effective team of deputies, soon finding the outside modern world and its problems getting closer and closer to their back door, including spunky fish-out-of-water heroine Vic Moretti (Katee Sackhoff, eschewing the cramped environs of a colonial viper in sci-fi epic BATTLESTAR GALACTICA for something a lot more down to earth), and ambitious rival for his job, Branch (Bailey Chase). Giving advice mixed with hard-edged banter is Longmire’s childhood friend, American Indian bar owner Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Philips)- sometimes helping, sometimes hindering him in his investigations…

A missing American Indian girl and a far away from home teacher found dead in the snowy wastes get the series off to a subtly effective start (handled by SOUTHLAND veteran Christopher Chulack), whilst episode two sees Longmire and his team unravel the mystery of a fiery suicide victim whose prized horse collection have been set ablaze with him…

UK Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjC1ksvf4Pk

UK clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKpbFXuZJSA

US trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO-ZrF2HJjY

About the series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9NtHe0zCVI

With its striking rusty brown cinematography mixed with stunningly atmospheric location scenery, showing Wyoming at its most vividly beautiful and wildly dangerous, LONGMIRE, a big hit Stateside, is sure to win a similarly devoted following in the UK.

Best watched wearing a big Stetson, alongside a strong brewing black coffee…

Katee Sackhoff interview: http://www.virginmedia.com/what-to-watch/features/longmire-interview-katee-sackhoff.php

TCM FACEBOOK page: https://www.facebook.com/TCMUK?fref=ts

NO REST FOR THE WICKED. 'HELL ON WHEELS' SEASON ONE

Frontier spirit? The cast of HELL ON WHEELS gather. Images: AMC.

Continuing in the dark, dangerous and manure trodden, twisted re-invention of the western genre previously set forth by the fine and gritty DEADWOOD, AMC's new series HELL ON WHEELS, starring Anson Mount, the always great Colm Meaney, rapper turned actor Common, and Dominique McElligott, is coming exclusively to the UK's TCM channel later in the month, and looks set to capitulate further on the seedy and shaky foundations of 1880's American West: a world of corruption, extreme violence, slavery, religious frenzy, revenge seeking gunslingers and trapped women trying to make a difference in a difficult world, where everyone and everything is up for grabs within the new frontier continent, and where no one will escape its history turning wheels unscathed. A Hell on Wheels where blood will be spilt.

Check out our early preview for the anticipated series here: ALL ABOARD THE "HELL ON WHEELS"

Trailer: Hell on Wheels - First Trailer [Telestrekoza.com] - YouTube

And here's a few great images from the pilot and upcoming episodes:

The last outpost? Anson Williams as gunslinger Cullen Bohannan arrives at Hell on Wheels.

Frontier woman: Dominique McElligott as Lily Bell.  

Colm Meaney as the morally bankrupt Thomas 'Doc' Durant.

Rap star Common as railroad worker/slave Elam.

A horse-backed Ted Levine as Daniel Johnson joins Cullen at the railroad dig, from the pilot episode.

Fear the Preacher Man? The always creepy but excellent Tom Noonan as Reverend Cole, alongside Eddie Spears as Joseph Black Moon. 

Trouble with the resident American Indians in the pilot episode.

LAST OF THE MOHICAN's memorable baddie Wes Studi appears later in the series as Chief Many Horses.

Cullen and Elam lock fists in the episode Bread and Circuses.

Look out for more on HELL ON WHEELS in the not too distant future...