Adapted fromPhilipp Meyers 2013 book, AMCs new series doesnt lack ambition.
The first episode begins with Eli McCullough, a teen boy living in Texas circa 1849.
Elis played by Jacob Lofland, a lanky actor with eyes that seem to be twice his own size.
Credit: James Minchin III/AMC
But Eli isalsoplayed by Pierce Brosnan.
Unlike most period pieces,The Sonthrills to the unexpected dissonance and confusing blurred lines of history.
(Toshaway is played by Zahn McClarnon, last seen stealing the entire second season ofFargo.)
Theres a real, albeit blunt, resonance in these sequences.
Garcias son-in-law is a rebellious figure who dreams of a Mexican Texas.
Im an American, says Garcia sternly, to a son-in-law who despises what America stands for.
So is your wife.
So is your son.
Whats an American, anyway?
Meyers novel was formally inventive, told in multiple parts with different narrative strategies.
(The other creators are Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy, who created Netflixs forgettableHemlock Grove.)
In the two episodes Ive seen, the 1849 sequences are shot with repetitive realism.
Loflands a compelling screen presence, but he has little to do besides stare, angrily.
(Theres a sex scene that plays as white-boy-gone-wild wish fulfillment.)
Meanwhile, in 1915, power and violence swirl around the McCullough family.
Big things are promised; an ear is chopped off.
Brosnans miscast as the aging renegadepaterfamilias.
Bearded, wearing well-appointed suits, Brosnan looks like an aristocratic gentlemen of leisure.
Still, Im intrigued byThe Sons possibilities.
The opening credits seem to promise an even more expansive vision of American history.
