Hell on Wheels Season Five - Volume One   Starring: Anson Mount, Colm Meaney, Phil Burke, Christopher Heyerdahl and Robin McLeavy Distributor: Entertainment One RRP: £TBC Certificate: 15 Release Date: 02 May 2016

For those not in the know, the story thus far involves a certain Cullen Bohannon; a former confederate soldier is out for revenge against particular Union soldiers who murdered his wife, as a first step he heads to Hell on Wheels, a rolling lawless town which support the building of the first railway to cross America...

Hell on Wheels: Season 5 - Volume 1 (287 mins) forms part of the fifth and final season of the show, I guess you can only stretch a story about building a railway to a certain point before either the railway is complete or your audience is wondering if the thing is ever going to happen, not unlike Daenerys Targaryen’s slowest invasion of all time in Game of Thrones.

This being the end of the show we are finally in California and the format of the show hasn’t altered one jot as it presents us with equal measure revenge story and historical railway building. This time the team are burrowing a tunnel through the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

If you’ve been following the show then you’re getting essentially more of the same, not that this is a problem as this is a well-acted and scripted series.

The show is presented on a two disc DVD set containing the first seven episodes, the show is presented with an aspect ratio of 16:9 - 1.78:1 with audio options for English DD 5.1 or DD 2.0, with optional English subtitles.

Disc Two has a number of extras. A Look at Season 5 (4 min, 45 sec) works as a promo and introduction to the season. How the Chinese Built America (3 min, 06 sec) takes a look at the importance of the Chinese people in opening up the plains and forging a path from the West Coast to California. Set Tour with Anson Mount (3 min, 15 sec) is self-explanatory and lets you peep behind the curtain at the show's creation. Lastly, you have Inside the Episodes (7 sections - average 5 mins) which looks at each of the episodes.

I do have one gripe with this show and it’s a trend I’ve seen with others. Normally you would buy a season on DVD for between twenty and thirty quid, but shows are now splitting the seasons into parts one and two at twenty quid a pop, which means, on average you’re paying about a tenner more to get the whole season.

It’s been a good show and doubly good that they have been able to actually give the story an ending, just what that ending will be will come to fruition in part two and another twenty quid.

6

Charles Packer