Although somewhat reminiscent of "Hell on Wheels", this Western is a little different. The man called Edge is the kind of anti-hero-on-a-mission-of-revenge who can callously kill someone and then make a good (sometimes) joke about it. He never seems to be scared of anything, as if he figures he should have died long ago and is living on borrowed time, but living to the fullest. The Sheriff tells him, "You are evil but you got principles. I like that." The Sheriff (played by great character actor William Sadler) is evil himself, so he should know.As bloody as the first half is, the second half of this hour-plus pilot is several times bloodier. "Gratuitously" comes to mind. The only innocent character, Benny, for example, did not deserve to die, but he does. Also, the "Epilogue" goes way over the top, set at a private men's club in St. Louis, Missouri where two prostitutes--at least one if not both male--are openly fellating two club members (not even in a back room).Up until the final, nihilistic carnage and garishly decadent epilogue, I liked the gritty appearance of rundown farms, rundown towns and rundown people. I also liked that the women's hairstyles approximate 19th century styles more or less. (In so many Westerns, the women have unmistakably 20th century hair.)The banter between Edge and others is funny although sometimes corny. Edge says to the Sheriff something like, "If your yapping ever comes close to making a point, wake me up." Or better--and this is approximate, too--he says to the saloon girl, "I just started my job, and I get paid $2.50 a day". She says, "I charge $5, so I'll see you tomorrow". Or even punnier, he says, "The Bible says a man turned to salt". She replies, "He should have turned to liquor, that's the cure". At the end she asks him if he has seen the "gilt box" (the story has a maguffin as well as revenge). He replies, "I've seen plenty of guilt" (pun intended) "but I haven't seen your box"--crude double entendre intended.Amazon makes these pilot episodes and you can never tell at this point which one will become a regular series. For example, their much better series "The Man in the High Castle" was shown as a pilot over a year ago, and finally, this month, there is more than one episode with more to come in less than a week. So the jury may be out on "Edge" for a long time or a short time. It depends, allegedly, on how many viewers give Amazon positive feedback.

I saw this on Amazon Prime under the title EDGE THE LONER. It's the pilot episode of a would-be western TV series, directed by Shane Black and with a decidedly adult edge: this episode is chock-full of highly stylised combat and bloody battles, with fingers being blown off and bloody squib hits throughout. It makes a refreshing change to the usual sanitised stuff we see on TV.The predictable storyline (about one man's revenge) is the worst thing about this show. However, it makes up for that with Black's strong direction and the well-choreographed nature of the frequent action. The final shoot-out is particularly well handled and enjoyable to watch. Cast-wise, Max Martini (PACIFIC RIM) has little chance to show charisma as the lead, but there are dependables like William Sadler and Ryan Kwanten playing the baddies, so it's not all bad. If this test pilot does get picked up for a full series it has plenty of potential for greatness.

There were some positive things about this pilot. It has some of the elements of the classic spaghetti westerns I love, like the nameless gunslinger walking riding into the run down old west town and facing off with the corrupt sheriff and the mission to get revenge for the death of a beloved family member. On paper, this sounded like a great show. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. It was filled with outlandish, pulpy violence, which is not necessarily a problem, but it seemed out of sync with rest of the show. Too many fingers, toes and heads flew unchecked from various gunshot victims and it just felt silly. The biggest problem I had was the amount of collateral damage for which our protagonist was directly responsible. Granted, he is an anti-hero, but he doesn't seem to have any moral code and seems willing to kill or betray any number of innocent bystanders. They may not all be "innocent", but surely not all deserving of a gruesome death. Even an anti-hero needs to be likable in some way, so that the audience actually wants to root for him. If the villains were not such horrible people, I'd probably be rooting against Edge. If it is picked up to series, I would probably give it one more shot, but I'm not holding out hope.

I must begin by first of all saying that I am a western fan and a huge fan of the "Edge" book series by George G Gilman. I have been hoping to see this character in movies for years and was shocked and ecstatic when i saw it on Amazon. Whilst some of the plot and characters unfortunately deviated somewhat needlessly from the books it was still an exciting ride through the old west of "Josiah C Hedges". The acting and direction were first rate and the on screen action gritty and bloody. Quite how a previous reviewer can put it down in comparison to Hell on Wheels and call it almost unwatchable is beyond me. I can only assume he as not watched very many westerns at all. Don't get me wrong i do not dislike Hell on Wheels but i often find it plodding and slow. If you like your westerns and you like the style of the "Good Bad and Ugly" then you should enjoy "Edge" Please do not be put off by the previous negative reviewer and give this Title a chance to grow and flourish as a Series.