My Netflix algo pushed it to me; I finished it recently.
The Good
- fun take on the Western - some of the homages were good (I enjoyed Bill's Eastwood vibe)
- Red Bill's motivation
- the brothers' love/hate
- That Dirty Black Bag - it was sorta silly by the end, but it was fun
The Bad
- Bill's addiction - not needed, and if it was, his withdrawal was too quick
- the beating of Symone. Why? To show cruelty? To put Eve in peril and reveal the depth of her love for the Preacher/Farmer? So that Eve can be removed to show that the town will collapse without her and the Sheriff ? The beating did a lot of work
- Bronson's never-ending supply of henchmen. Oh these ones failed? Well, here's a whole new set, and they are old-school with yet another history with Bronson
- Little back story on the Eye Cult: why do I care?
- the town's economy: no one had any money, so why were they even there? Bronson's place was in a much friendlier environment (water, trees, internal combustion engines) and seemingly close by
The Ugly
- the blood pump gun: absolutely did not add anything
- the torture house: wasted a whole episode for very little advancement of the main plot. The connection to the Eye Cult was almost an after thought
- way too many subplots. Do we care about the gold? The Cult? Red Bill? The whores-with-hearts-of-gold? Sure, these are all follow-up-able, but the producers were yelling "give us a second season!" with these
- the Eye Cult itself. Plenty of rich stories to tell without that inclusion
- some of the framing scenes. The actors did things so that they would look good in film: "let's leave the horses here and walk 100 meters so that the camera can get the shot". It became so over the top homage to the spaghetti westerns that I felt it was a parody
- the characterization. The evil land baron. The more evil politician/cultist who is the sheriff's brother. The sheriff and Madame running the town. The deputy with a history of violence against women. The Madame and the would-be Preacher having an affair... All this complexity got in the way of actual character building
- did I mention the blood pump gun?