Ransom Canyon: Your Guide To Who's Who In Netflix's Sexy, Soapy Western

Yellowstone meets Virgin River meets Friday Night Lights in Netflix's Ransom Canyon, a new romantic drama series now available for your streaming pleasure, guilty or otherwise.

Set in the world of ranches and rodeos, Ransom Canyon stars Josh Duhamel as a brooding rancher named Staten. Yes, Staten, like the island. But is that a total coincidence, or is it a metaphor for how he isolates himself by pushing away the people who love him? In case you can't tell, I've given this show a lot of thought.

Ransom Canyon's 10-episode first season is a sexy, soapy good time, offering all the trappings of a classic drama — love triangles, power struggles and a heartbreaking murder mystery — against the stunning backdrop of the Texas Hill Country. Oh, and butts! Lots and lots of butts.

Showrunner April Blair likens it to a K-drama in its "ability to make your heart ache in an episode, but also make you cry and laugh feel all these different things. It feels very comforting."

Read on for more of Blair's thoughts on the Ransom Canyon residents you'll soon come to know and love... or hate... or some combination both, in most cases.

If you prefer your cowboys on the broodier side, look no further than Staten, a rugged rancher whose past is marred by tragedy. Still not over losing his wife years ago, his life is once again upended by the sudden (and mysterious) death of his teenage son.

In the pantheon of romance archetypes, Staten is "the wounded, non-communicative guy you want to save," Blair explains. Minka Kelly's Quinn certainly wants to save him, and if Staten could just get out of his own way "and actually say how he feels," they could probably live happily ever after. But where's the fun in that?

If Julia Roberts is considered "America's sweetheart," Quinn is definitely Ransom Canyon's sweetheart. Once a piano prodigy with a bright future, she now runs the local dance hall, where much of the show's drama — and drinking — go down. It's funny how those two things often coincide, isn't it?

Despite Quinn's sunny disposition (which could very well just be Kelly's inherent glow), there's a sadness to her. "She has spent a lot of her past trying to save other people," Blair says. "She has sacrificed so much, and not just of her life, but of her emotions and her heart."

In addition to being torn between the town's two most eligible bachelors, Quinn finds herself at a different type of crossroads when her old piano mentor (played by Kate Burton) reenters her life with an offer to audition for the New York Philharmonic. Could Quinn's nimble fingers lead her out of Ransom forever?

Staten meets his match — both as a rancher and a lover — in Davis, who also happens to be the brother of Staten's late wife. ("Complicated" doesn't even begin to describe their dynamic.) Quinn finds herself torn between the two, and she's apparently not the only one.

Blair says that "we were all very much #TeamStaten in Season 1," but now that a writers' room for a potential second season has opened, some of the show's new writers "are much more #TeamDavis."

The question is: Which team are you on?

If it's a walk on the wild side you want, you've found your man in Yancy, an oft-shirtless rodeo hotshot who arrives in Ransom Canyon under false pretenses. But Yancy also has a heart of gold under that chiseled chest, something you'll see as his relationship with a certain bartender progresses.

"Yancy is the bad boy that you know you shouldn't mess around with — but you can't help yourself," Blair says.

Along with Staten and Davis, Cap runs one of the three biggest ranches in Ransom Canyon, where he hires Yancy to help run the day-to-day affairs.

If you happened to read the books on which Ransom Canyon is based, you're probably wondering who the heck this guy is. That's because, as Blair explains, "Cap is not really a character in the books." In Jodi Thomas' novels, Yancy moves into a nursing home with multiple older people, but when it came time to adapt the text for TV, the writers "crunched [the nursing home residents] into one person and created [their shared backstory]."

As Blair recalls, "The most nerve-wracking thing I did was having to drive to Malibu to Jim [Brolin]'s house to talk him into doing the show." Before you even ask, yes, she met the clone dogs.

There's a Romeo and Juliet-esque sublot to Ransom Canyon's first season, and you're looking at its Romeo. "Lucas is the high school sweetheart you deserve but you probably didn't get," Blair explains. He and cheerleader Lauren keep their romance on the down low for most of the season — with her ex-boyfriend Reid complicating matters at every turn — but it's a relationship worth investing in. By the end of the finale (if not Episode 1), you'll be fully in love.

Davis' son and Staten's nephew, Reid isn't your typical meathead jock. There's a genuinely good person underneath that football jersey, even if his involvement in the show's big season-long mystery will make you question his every move along the way.

"Reid evolves into someone who's very conflicted," Blair says of his journey in Season 1. "He knows the sacrifices his dad has made for their ranch, but he also doesn't agree with all of his dad's moves."

And then there's his love triangle with Lucas and Lauren. I'm personally #TeamLucas as far as the romance is concerned, but I'm #TeamReid as a person. I just want what's best for him, since he clearly doesn't know what that is for himself.

Remember that Romeo and Juliet storyline I mentioned earlier? Well, meet Juliet — er, Lauren — who hopes that a cheerleading scholarship will be her one-way ticket out of Ransom Canyon.

While she waits for her future to arrive, Lauren finds herself torn between two very different guys: There's Reid, her football star ex from whom she's grown apart, and there's Lucas, the forbidden boy next door with whom she's falling head over heels.

"It's always nice to watch a good love story, and to be able to bring that to life was an honor," Garrett Wareing (Lucas) tells TVLine. "What you see on screen between Lizzie and I is true. I mean, I got to go to work every day with my best friend, and she's talented as hell."

You're looking at Quinn's second in command at the bar, and perhaps the only woman in Ransom Canyon capable of taming a wild horse like Yancy. (Metaphorically speaking, of course.) Fiercely protective of the people she loves, this take-no-crap bartender is someone you'd want in your corner when times get tough. As her relationship with Yancy develops, Ellie finally begins to lower her defenses — so here's hoping he doesn't do anything to make her regret it!

A delicious villain, Davis' ex-wife blows back into Ransom Canyon like a tornado — and it's quite possible that she causes more damage than the actual tornado that hits midway through the season.

"She just brings the soapiness," Blair says. "We love her. She's wicked. And we really enjoyed writing for her. She has some of the best one-liners. 'Do you know how hard it is to get the smell of horse s–t out of Gucci?' I love it!"

OK, let's talk: How far into your Ransom Canyon binge are you? Where do you stand in the Staten/Quinn/Davis love triangle? Grade the series in the poll below, then drop a comment with more of your thoughts. (And please avoid spoiling any major twists for those readers who don't stream at your speed.)

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