Hatfields & McCoys (miniseries)

The score for the series was composed by John Debney and Tony Morales, with additional music by Kevin Costner and Modern West.[1] The soundtrack features vocals performed by Lisbeth Scott on The Long Road Down.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 71% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 7.34/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Hatfields and McCoys is a violent and gritty spectacle that perhaps takes itself too seriously."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]

Linda Stasi of the New York Post commented:

When I first heard about it, my thought was: Why? But that was before I sat through all six hours of this intense saga. Most miniseries this long tend to lose steam somewhere between the beginning of Night 1 and the middle of Night 2. Not this one...The miniseries is full of stand-out performances from great actors... But it's the guys you may not know who will blow you away.[8]

Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker gave the series a B+, stating: "In stretching the tale over three nights, the pacing sags at times, and recriminations can get repetitive. It also doesn't help that Reynolds shot the miniseries in that perpetual sepia tone that gives everything a faux-antique look. But overall, Hatfields & McCoys is engrossing, and enlightening about a feud that proves to be a lot more than the bumpkin brawl of pop legend."[9] Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote:

Although deftly nailed into its time and place with sets and costumes so vivid you can smell the blue wood smoke and the stink of moonshine sweat, Hatfields & McCoys transcends the confines of its age by revealing the feud's posturing, resentments and callous violence that mirror the dynamics of modern urban gangs... It isn't a perfect piece—when faced with a choice between historic detail and story, Hatfields & McCoys errs on the side of detail, which is both the series' greatest strength and weakness.[10]

Among the negative critics was Verne Gay of Newsday who called the series "violent and dull", adding:

What's not to like about Hatfields & McCoys? Simple: the story. It's an uninteresting one, peopled with almost criminally bland characters. In fact, as portrayed here—quite possibly accurately—they're a bunch of bibulous knuckleheads who shoot at each other year after year—or on TV, hour after hour—and have no real idea why. It's an interminable eye-for-eye, tooth-for-tooth narrative.[11]

Washington Post's Hank Stuever also gave a negative review:

The point of the entire saga, it seems, is to make you lose track of what the feudin' was about, and how it managed to burn out of control. It will always be tempting to view their story through any modern analogy of one's choosing—such as partisan political stalemates or the red-blue socioeconomic divide. But maybe the story of the Hatfields and McCoys doesn't amount to anything at all. Maybe, since it also doesn't make much of miniseries, it was meant to be a footnote and nothing more.[12]

Hatfields & McCoys received 16 nominations at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, the most since the History Channel began operations.[13] The series was nominated for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie. Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton were both nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, with Costner winning the award. Tom Berenger won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie and Mare Winningham was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. Director Kevin Reynolds was nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special. Ted Mann, Ronald Parker, and Bill Kerby were nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special for the second part of the miniseries. The series won three of its nine technical nominations.[14][15]

Part one drew the largest ever ratings for a History program and one of the biggest in cable TV history. 13.9 million viewers tuned into the first of three parts, making it the most-watched single broadcast on ad-supported cable ever, excluding sports. Demographic numbers were high as well, with 4.8 million viewers in the adults 18-49 demographic and 5.8 million viewers among adults 24-54.[16] Part two was watched by 13.13 million viewers with an adult 18-49 rating of 3.7, the highest rated programming on cable of the night.[17] Part three was watched by 14.29 million viewers with an adult 18-49 rating of 4.0, making it the number-one program of the night.[18]