The Red Road

At some points during the show it seems that there can be pointless scenes and the pacing can be slow, however, the foreshadowing of several different characters and the room for future plot lines could be immense.

Character development is spread in between the range of characters and gives us a chance to see and start to like the characters in the show, either good or bad. The different characters have deep personalities and are slowly revealed in different ways which creates a really grainy patch of the morals and decision making of these characters between either their families or moral beliefs.

The Red Road leaves room for future development but barely shows what it is capable of with just the first season. this isn't the type of show that instantly sticks, this show will develop and become more and more intriguing as time passes.

I am not that familiar with Sundance's television programming up to this point, but when I learned that Jason Momoa was going to be in a dramatic series about race relations between a First Nation people and the white community I was fairly excited. For one, it seemed like Momoa would finally get an opportunity to demonstrate his acting ability. He is often characterized as a very wooden actor, but I think that is more that he is rarely given much to work with besides be big and unsettling. Secondly, it addresses racial issues that often go ignored in fiction in favor of more visible issues.

So far the acting overall is fairly good, although Julianne Nicholson's performance in the first season of Masters of Sex far outshines her work in this first episode. The direction and editing are competent. It is too early yet to tell how good the writing is going to get, but so far the show is quite engrossing and has the potential to be a great show.

In the wake of the recent wrap up of Breaking Bad and the thoroughly impressive True Detective, The Red Road may seem a bit light weight but the brief episode order (6 eps) and rather uncommon setting and perspective show a lot of promise for improvement.

This was a very good show with some stellar acting. Finally Momoa gets to spread his wings and do something other than take his clothes off. You want to hate Kopus (Momoa) for his complete creep factor yet you see the nice guy under the rough and tough exterior. Momoa plays creepy very well.

It's a slow build drama that allows you see the inter-workings of the characters; you get to know them. You start to see the way a story can unravel with just one tug and how even through good intentions, everything can go terribly wrong.

If you like those kinds of dramas, I suggest watching it. If you want bang bang, blow up things, and fast action, go somewhere else. This is a 6 course meal not a fast food burger drive-thru joint.

This show is based on the Ramapough Mountain "Indians" also known as the "Jackson Whites", who are a likely European/African mixed race ethnic group located in the Ramapo Mountains of Mahwah, (Northern) NJ. Their "tribal" headquarters can be found on Stag Hill Road in Mahwah. The group is currently seeking Federal recognition as a Native American "tribe" (Lenape) but so far have refused to submit to DNA testing to verify their heritage, which previous scientific investigations have shown to be baseless. They are most likely decedents of an unlikely pairing of Hessian deserters and escaped African slaves during the Revolutionary war.

While the show has both Native American and mixed race actors, in real life their appearances look closer to a mixed race heritage. For more information look up the article, "Strangers on the Mountain" from The New Yorker on March of 2010.

Their choice as a plot device is both unique and refreshing. The Ramapough "Indians" have made another recent appearance in the film; "Out of the Furnace" with Woody Harrelson's character 'Harlan DeGroat'. DeGroat (a Dutch not Native American name) is a common last name among them in real life.

Overall the show does a good job getting the setting and atmosphere right (winding mountain roads, ATVs, mountain bungalows etc...), with Momoa fitting the role well. I only wished they had actually filmed this in NJ but the Georgia mountains look spot on. Definitely worth giving it a shot, as it looks to have potential.

I just discovered this all too late. I really enjoyed the first two seasons and was pleased to watch something with a decent plot and acting for once. Really gutted that I don't get to know where the story ends as the second series ended just as things were really beginning to escalate. Such a waste.