Hell on Wheels (2011)

Drama · Western

The epic story of post-Civil War America, focusing on Cullen Bohannon, a Confederate soldier who sets out to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who killed his wife. His journey takes him west to Hell on Wheels, a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time.

IMDb rating: 8.3 (60,430 votes)
Episode average: 8.2 -0.1 vs IMDb
Seasons: 5
Streaming (US): Paramount+
Language: EN
Type: TV series

Rating trend: this show's seasons do not settle into one shape. Rising Shows ranks whole shows by the shape of their rating trend rather than one average score, which is how you find a show that got better rather than a show that started well.

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Ratings refreshed Oct 3, 2026 · 5 seasons indexed

Cast

Seasons

Season 1 (2011)

7.97 avg 10 episodes 7.8 → 8.3 43 min avg

Season 1 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Pilot	7.8	1,520
2	Immoral Mathematics	7.9	1,144
3	A New Birth of Freedom	7.7	1,036
4	Jamais je ne t'oublierai	7.6	971
5	Bread and Circuses	7.8	971
6	Pride, Pomp and Circumstance	7.7	922
7	Revelations	8.5	962
8	Derailed	8.1	916
9	Timshel	8.3	903
10	God of Chaos	8.3	906

Season 2 (2012)

8.29 avg 10 episodes 8.1 → 8.8 48 min avg

Big finale

Season 2 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Viva La Mexico	8.1	769
2	Durant, Nebraska	8.1	786
3	Slaughterhouse	8.2	770
4	Scabs	8.1	748
5	The Railroad Job	8.6	814
6	Purged Away with Blood	8.4	769
7	The White Spirit	8.0	741
8	The Lord's Day	8.1	742
9	Blood Moon	8.5	752
10	Blood Moon Rising	8.8	915

Season 3 (2013)

8.22 avg 10 episodes 8.2 → 8.3 43 min avg

Season 3 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Big Bad Wolf	8.2	840
2	Eminent Domain	8.5	776
3	Range War	8.1	673
4	The Game	8.0	673
5	Searchers	7.9	670
6	One Less Mule	8.6	729
7	Cholera	8.0	664
8	It Happened in Boston	8.0	653
9	Fathers and Sins	8.6	718
10	Get Behind the Mule	8.3	757

Season 4 (2014)

8.32 avg 13 episodes 8.0 → 8.1 42 min avg

Rollercoaster

Season 4 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Elusive Eden	8.0	726
2	Escape from the Garden	8.4	687
3	Chicken Hill	8.3	660
4	Reckoning	8.0	657
5	Life's a Mystery	8.5	697
6	Bear Man	7.4	847
7	Elam Ferguson	8.8	1,090
8	Under Color of Law	8.1	664
9	Two Trains	8.8	734
10	Return to Hell	8.9	795
11	Bleeding Kansas	8.4	695
12	Thirteen Steps	8.5	740
13	Further West	8.1	634

Season 5 (2015)

8.29 avg 14 episodes 8.0 → 8.8 44 min avg

Season 5 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Chinatown	8.0	676
2	Mei Mei	8.3	663
3	White Justice	7.9	573
4	Struck	8.0	575
5	Elixir of Life	8.1	578
6	Hungry Ghosts	7.8	586
7	False Prophets	8.6	631
8	Two Soldiers	8.9	850
9	Return to the Garden	8.0	569
10	61 Degrees	8.1	550
11	Gambit	8.5	611
12	Any Sum Within Reason	8.3	563
13	Railroad Men	8.7	608
14	Done	8.8	741