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The first two episodes of AMC’s post-Civil War Western drama Hell on Wheels almost immediately remedies everything that made it likable but ultimately very uneven fare last year. I reviewed that first season knowing the series was not Deadwood and couldn’t be, but given the similarities of timeframe and location, comparisons were inevitable. Though Hell on Wheels‘ primary protagonist Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount), a Confederate vigilante, shares somewhat similar emotional reluctant-hero complexities with Deadwood’s Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), railroad magnate Doc Durant (Colm Meaney) is no Al Swearengen (Ian McShane). There are plenty of character parallels to be drawn, and Deadwood wins almost all of them, but it doesn’t mean Hell on Wheels isn’t good television. It’s just not great television. At least, it wasn’t. But its second season is already looking up. Hit the jump for why you should consider tuning in for another dose of this worthy Western. (Hell on Wheels, TV)