Amazon Pilot Season: Edge

I’ll start by admitting I’m not a huge fan of Westerns. That said, I still believe Deadwood was one of the finest series ever made and I’m still pissed off that it was not properly wrapped up.

So if a show’s good, it doesn’t have to be a genre I am an avid fan of. Edge is not that show. It’s so stylized and so, well, flat-out silly, that I actually laughed out loud a few times. That’s not what they were going for, however.

I’m still not quite sure exactly what it is that everyone is looking for. I think it’s a box. A box that our anti-hero’s brother and dog are killed for when we start the episode. Killed by men who fought alongside Jonah Edge in the Union Army. Because he owes them $1,000. Or maybe he doesn’t. Maybe it’s just this box they’re after. It’s never very clear what it is they’re truly seeking, nor why.

After finding his brother burned and hanging at home, Jonah seeks revenge. He trit-trots his way to Seward, Kansas, where someone’s painted over the town name on the city limits sign to say, “HATE.” Why that is, is never very apparent.

Jonah comes in, shoots a bunch of people – but he didn’t want to hurt any innocents so he somehow flipped one guy up in the air and shot up so no one would be hurt by a stray bullet (of course, If it did go sheer through the body, it could still easily hurt someone, but I suppose we’ve already withheld disbelief so much already. And there’s more disbelief to be withheld.

Look, I’m a big fan of zombie shows and science fiction. I don’t demand reality in my entertainment. I just ask for it not to be stupid. Or if it is stupid, then make it funny stupid.

A whole bunch of stuff happens, involving Pilar, a Mexican woman with a big metal chastity belt who’s pregnant from her father-in-law raping her; Benny, a former slave’s son who has only one arm; a secret something that happened when a church filled with Underground Railroad slaves was burned down with them locked inside; and missing gold. Oh, and Benny is in love with Pilar, who tries to get Jonah to help her escape and gets him locked up in jail when he expresses unwillingness.

When all’s said and done, Jonah ends up having multiple ridiculous shootouts, spends a day or so impaled through his shoulder on a tree branch, hanging above a swift river, only to survive the heat and thirst to get himself off, hide out in some cabin to heal and then return back to Seward to get his revenge.

A lot of people die, most of whom are nameless, but also Benny. Sniff. With him may die the only chance to figure out where the buried gold is. Of course, if the show gets picked up as a series, it will turn out there’s other ways to find the gold and people will spend a lot more time looking for it.

I don’t much care if the secret stays buried.