The type of show where the melodrama is ripe, the ranch settings are lush and the aesthetically pleasing cast go by such names as Yancy and Staten, Ransom Canyon has the right temperament to be the next easily digestible Netflix streaming obsession. The type of generic show people put on to not pay attention to, but ultimately end up invested in against their better judgement.
A harmless, formulaic, romance-first drama, Ransom Canyon indulges in tragedy in its first episode, presenting handsome, brooding rancher Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel) in the throws of mourning, both for his wife that died the year prior and, by the end of the first of 10 episodes, his teenage son (Hubert Smielecki), who dies in a motor accident on a birthday drive. The show, created by April Blair (who has written for such shows as Wednesday and the Gossip Girl revival series) and based off Jodi Thomas‘s book series, saves us too much of Staten in his grieving period, instead fast forwarding to the year after the incident where he’s starting to find his footing again.
With the support of his late wife’s best friend, Quinn (Minka Kelly), who, naturally, owns the only bar in their sleepy Texan town – the titular Ransom Canyon – Staten stumbles between being too gruff for his own good and wanting to extend his paternal nature to the young ranchers looking for work. It’s obvious to everyone – even us as immediate viewers – that Staten and Quinn are madly in love with each other, but Blair and the plethora of writers on hand (including Joe Fazzio, Paul Haapaniemi, Laura Nava and Luca Rojas) can’t merely let them give in to their carnal desires, so much of the season they dance around the fact, leaving a number of subplots to fill the minutes in between.
This includes the younger set of teen characters dealing with their own relationship woes, familial substance addiction battles, the devious plans of an outside construction company wanting to buy the land for a pipeline, the arrival of a mysterious out-of-towner (Jack Schumacher’s Yancy), who seems primarily designed to give the show its quota for necessary buff-man-does-chores-shirtless, and Staten’s own investigation into what really happened to his son on the night he died; he’s convinced there was another driver at the scene. Throw in a grizzly James Brolin and a romantic rivalry between Staten and his former brother-in-law (Eoin Macken) for Quinn’s affections, and you have plenty of juicy, eye-rolling drama to keep you entertained; whether you want to be or not.
Whilst Ransom Canyon‘s existence certainly isn’t to imply there isn’t an audience for it, it’s difficult to entirely deny the fact that the success of the western-set Yellowstone and the more melodramatically-inclined Virgin River wouldn’t have had a bearing on it being greenlit. Even if it is choosing sure-fire streaming numbers over being a passion project, Ransom Canyon and all its archetypes manage an agreeable nature between them. It looks pristine, Duhamel and Kelly make plenty use of their appeal, and it’s all-too-easy to get swept up in the surface level emotion of it all.
Easily digestible, if a little too sweet (but can you ever have too much at this time of year?), Ransom Canyon may go in one ear and out the other, but for the temporary moment it grabs your attention, you could certainly do worse than riding horseback with this catalogue-pretty ensemble.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
All 10 episodes of Ransom Canyon are now available to stream on Netflix.
