Brosnan stands tall in ‘The Son’
“The Walking Dead” rolls out its seventh-season finale today on AMC. With less hoopla, “The Son,” a promising series starring Pierce Brosnan, moseys in Saturday on the same network.
Zombies have been very good to AMC, but the channel of “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” keeps diversifying. With “The Son,” AMC delivers a family drama that’s an unexpected pleasure. It’s also a topical Western about race relations and border conflicts.
Based on Philipp Meyer’s 2013 novel, “The Son” presents a sweeping saga of Texas. The series, which films in Austin, focuses on Eli McCullough as a youngster and an old man.
In 1849, Eli (Jacob Lofland) survives a Comanche attack and captivity. In 1915, Eli (Brosnan) has matured into a ruthless land baron determined to find oil. How Eli swept to power haunts his family
and South Texas, which is threatened by Mexican rebels’ attacks.
Eli’s two sons take different paths: Attorney Phineas (David Wilson Barnes) has left the ranch for city life. Pete (Henry Garrett) oversees the ranch, but clashes with his father and suffers a crisis of conscience.
Pete’s problems shake his wife, Sally (Jess Weixler of “The Good Wife”), and the turmoil engulfs their three children. Their daughter, Jeannie (Sydney Lucas), supplies hope even as she learns the family’s harrowing history.
The series views the past with a hard-bitten realism as it jumps back and forth in time. Fine acting heightens the dramatic battle. Brosnan makes a dynamic protagonist, but Garrett’s vulnerability as the brooding son is equally compelling.
“The Son” enlarges the scope of TV Westerns through diverse casting, complex characters and frequent subtitles. Eli has close ties to two Comanches: war chief Toshaway (Zahn McClarnon) and Prairie Flower (Elizabeth Frances), a free-spirited young woman.
Eli’s clan has a long history with a neighboring Spanish family presided over by Pedro Garcia (Carlos Bardem). Pedro’s daughter Maria (Paola Nuñez) brings a modern view to the story as well as deep regret.
Missed opportunities and hard choices propel “The Son.” It echoes “Giant” and “Dallas” yet holds the nostalgia to deliver a fresh, engrossing take on Westerns.