Critic Reviews

Ransom Canyon represents the best of what TV has to offer in so many ways. There's solid acting across the board, it looks beautiful, and most importantly, it allows the audience to blissfully escape into another world for an hour at a time.

“Ransom Canyon” doesn’t offer anything viewers haven’t seen or experienced on television (or between the pages of a romance novel). However, this is what makes it such a delightful watch.

There is no reason on Earth not to enjoy this well-made, nicely acted, soapy, soap-bubble show, whose 10 episodes have been laid out whole for you to binge. Come for the messy lives, the promise of love, the old-fashioned values.

On paper, Ransom Canyon could have been just another modern TV Western misfire. On the screen, however, Ransom Canyon executes its simple premise at a high level, balancing at least a dozen great characters that will win audiences over with their storybook earnestness and Southern charm.

No one is going to mistake Ransom Canyon for prestige television. But it’s certainly a soapy, guilty pleasure, anchored by performances from Duhamel and Kelly that make you want to see both of their characters get what they want, which is each other.

There’s nothing brand new here, but there didn’t really need to be. “Ransom Canyon” is a totally competent and delightful cowboy-themed soap that might give you a bit of what “Yellowstone” failed to bring in its final seasons.

Ransom Canyon is definitely still a soapy, sexy guilty pleasure kind of a show. But with the addition of Clarkson and some focus on the main storylines, it’s become a soapy, sexy show with a bit more depth.

Yes, it’s often predictable, relentlessly soapy, and doesn’t give any twist more than a few minutes to breathe. But its practiced brand of easily bingeable escapism sure does go down easy.

Maybe Ransom Canyon’s more vibey elements are all that matter to the show’s intended audience anyway. .... If they do notice the themes echoing through the show—the dubious ethnic representation, say, or the stagnant gender politics—maybe these things can be brushed aside as they watch a woman almost have it all, if only one mopey man could see her worth. But that doesn’t make it any less of a bummer.

Romance fans will lap it up. Everyone else may wonder if they aren’t watching a comedy that has misplaced its laugh track. The dialogue is often guffaw-out-loud funny.