''The Red Road'' is an American

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

television series that aired on

SundanceTV Sundance TV (formerly known as Sundance Channel) is an American pay television channel owned by AMC Networks that launched on February 1, 1996. The channel is named after Robert Redford's character in ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' and, w ...

from February 27, 2014 to May 7, 2015. This was SundanceTV's second fully owned scripted original series; the first was ''

Rectify ''Rectify'' is an American television drama series exploring the life of a man after he is released from prison after nearly 20 years on death row following a wrongful conviction. It was created by Ray McKinnon and is the first original series f ...

''. ''The Red Road'' was canceled after its second season, as confirmed by Jason Momoa, who played Phillip Kopus in the series. The show's plot is based on the plight of the Ramapough Lenape Nation at the

Ringwood Mines landfill site The Ringwood Mines landfill site is a 500-acre former iron mining site located in the borough of Ringwood, New Jersey. Used in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the large Ford Motor Company plant in nearby Mahwah, New Jersey for disposal of waste, i ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, where toxic wastes from the nearby Mahwah Ford plant were dumped.

Plot

Police Officer Harold Jensen is the main protagonist. He is trying to keep his family together after a cover-up involving his mentally unstable wife, a recovering alcoholic who self-medicates her undiagnosed

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...

with alcohol. Jensen comes into conflict with Phillip Kopus, a member of the Ramapough Mountain people. His state-recognized tribe lives in the

Ramapo Mountains The Ramapo Mountains are a forested chain of the Appalachian Mountains in northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York, in the United States. They range in height from in New Jersey, and in New York. Several parks and forest preserves en ...

in a border area of New York and

in the fictitious small town of Walpole, New Jersey, across the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Production

The working title for the series was originally ''The Descendants''. Production for both seasons were in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, in 2013 and 2014.

Cast

Main cast

Martin Henderson Martin Henderson (born 8 October 1974) is a New Zealand actor. He is known for his roles on the American medical drama series '' Off the Map'' as Dr. Ben Keeton (2011), the medical drama series ''Grey's Anatomy'' as Dr. Nathan Riggs (2015–201 ...

as Harold Jensen *

Jason Momoa Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa (; born August 1, 1979) is an American actor. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series '' Baywatch: Hawaii'' (1999–2001), which was followed by portrayals of Ronon Dex on the S ...

as Phillip Kopus *

Julianne Nicholson Julianne Nicholson (born July 1, 1971) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films '' August: Osage County'' (2013) and '' Blonde'' (2022), as well as the television series '' Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' (2006–2009) ...

as Jean Jensen *

Allie Gonino Allie Gonino is an American actress and singer. She is known for her regular role as Laurel Mercer in '' The Lying Game'' and her recurring role as Michelle in ''10 Things I Hate About You'', both of which were ABC Family series. Gonino was a me ...

as Rachel Jensen *

Tamara Tunie Tamara Tunie (born March 14, 1959) is an American film, stage, and television actress, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles as attorney Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera ''As the World Turns'' (1987–1995, 2000–2007, 2009 ...

as Marie Van Der Veen *

Kiowa Gordon Kiowa Joseph Gordon (born March 25, 1990) is an American actor of Hualapai descent. He is best known for his role as shapeshifter Embry Call in '' The Twilight Saga,'' as well as Junior in the TV series ''The Red Road''. Early life Gordon wa ...

as Junior Van Der Veen *

Annalise Basso Annalise Nicole Basso (born December 2, 1998) is an American actress. She currently stars in ''Snowpiercer'' (2020). She has starred in the films '' Bedtime Stories'' (2008), '' Love Takes Wing'' (2009), '' Standing Up'' (2013), '' Oculus'' (201 ...

as Kate Jensen

Recurring cast

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2014)

Season 2 (2015)

Reception

''The Red Road'' has received mostly favorable reviews. Review aggregator site

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

has given the season a "generally favorable" score of 66 out of 100, based on 25 critics. On another review aggregator site,

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it holds a 65% rating with an average rating of 6.9 out of 10, based on 26 reviews. The consensus reads, "''The Red Road'' suffers from uneven writing, but its talented cast and creepy story hint at undeveloped promise."

Graphic novel

In 2015, Sundance released ''The Red Road 1990: A Graphic Novel'' to be read online.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Road, The 2010s American drama television series 2014 American television series debuts English-language television shows Ramapough Mountain Indians Sundance TV original programming Television shows about Native Americans