# The Son (2017)

> A dual-timeline Western following a boy raised among Comanches and the aging cattle baron he becomes amid South Texas's Bandit Wars.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/59178

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 20
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama, western
- Created by: Brian McGreevy, Lee Shipman, Philipp Meyer
- Network: AMC
- Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Henry Garrett, Jacob Lofland, Zahn McClarnon, Elizabeth Frances, Carlos Bardem, Paola Nuñez, James Parks
- TMDB rating: 7.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3839822/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: brutal
- Tone: brooding, sweeping, bleak, epic

## What critics say

Audiences rated the series positively overall, praising its ambitious two-timeline saga and strong lead performances, though the second season was received far less warmly than the first.

## Synopsis

The Son (2017-2019) is an American prestige western drama created by Brian McGreevy, Lee Shipman and Philipp Meyer for AMC, adapted from Philipp Meyer's acclaimed novel. Pierce Brosnan plays Eli McCullough, a ruthless patriarch struggling to hold together a Texas cattle and oil empire during the turbulent Bandit Wars of South Texas. Alternating with his story is the younger Eli, played by Jacob Lofland, kidnapped as a boy in 1849 and raised within a Comanche tribe, where Zahn McClarnon's Toshaway becomes a central presence. Carlos Bardem's Pedro García and Paola Nuñez's Maria García add a Mexican-Texan counterpoint to the family's ambitions. The engine of the story is the pull between belonging and ownership, as each generation fights to protect what it has claimed against rival raiders, rancher families and its own kin. Each season moves between the two timelines, building a sprawling multigenerational saga across two seasons and twenty episodes. Set across frontier Texas in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the series has a brooding, sweeping, blood-soaked tone, with wide landscapes and violence that feels earned. Fans of Lonesome Dove, Hell on Wheels and Dallas will find resonance in its mix of frontier grandeur and dynastic ambition.

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