Tony Gayton writes about troubled people in crime thrillers and Western drama. We like the railway setting of Hell on Wheels, but its dialogue explains the characters so thoroughly that there is too little left to discover.
Fi1m perspective
In Hell on Wheels (2011), there is a railway to build, yet the opening keeps stopping to explain the people around it. Tony Gayton and co-creator Joe Gayton have given their Western something useful: a shared task that can bring several kinds of story together. Revenge need not be the only thing keeping everyone occupied. We like that choice, but the early writing makes the series harder work than it ought to be.
Gayton’s first produced feature screenplays were The Salton Sea (2002) and Murder by Numbers (2002), both crime thrillers. The shifting identities of The Salton Sea place uncertainty about the protagonist at the centre of the story. He went on to co-write Faster (2010) with Joe, his brother, before they created Hell on Wheels. Television offered room for an ensemble whose personal stories could develop around the building of the railway. His later screenplay for Absolution (2024), about redemption and the consequences of a violent past, returns to familiar concerns.
That interest in troubled protagonists makes the blunt introductions in Hell on Wheels particularly disappointing. We were bored by the opening because the dialogue kept telling us what to think of characters we had barely met. Their backstories sound prepared for our benefit, and the stock Western figures leave little room for uncertainty. This is where the writing needs to trust the actors to suggest what has not been said. Another confrontation does not necessarily help when we have already been told so much about the people taking part.
The supporting cast does bring life to the series, and the physical detail keeps it interesting in patches. Those virtues matter: the Gaytons have chosen a setting worth exploring even when the drama is slow. Our reservation is not that the characters have troubled pasts, but that the dialogue spends too long establishing them instead of giving us a reason to anticipate their next move. Approach Hell on Wheels only if its railway setting interests you enough to put up with the explanations.
Biography
Tony Gayton is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he received the Jack Nicholson Writing Scholarship, and began his career as a production assistant for John Milius.
Gayton wrote the screenplays for the films Murder by Numbers (2002), The Salton Sea (2002) and Faster (2010), the last co-written with his brother Joe Gayton. He co-created the AMC series Hell on Wheels (2011–2016) with Joe Gayton, serving as writer, executive producer and showrunner for the first two seasons. He also wrote the screenplay for Absolution (2024).
Gayton has directed the documentaries Athens, GA: Inside/Out (1987) and Two Headed Cow (2006).
