Not sure I agree with your opening sentence. I think we are in a new era of westerns where the themes and tones are pushed in certain directions harder than they have in other times. I'll hold off on saying it is a new 'golden age' for now tho.

There's a ton of 'homagening' going on this series. I'm glad it isn't played ironically, at least I hope it isn't. But the references to other movies and TV shows and styles is literate and clever. And even tho the soundtrack is wonderful, there are moments when I suspect it might be trying to be funny. There's a short section that parodies the Marlboro man theme. Elsewhere bells and pan pipes. There's even a stretch where twangy 60s electric guitars are heard. This stuff could keep film students busy for weeks.

The cinematography is beautiful. The acting is good. The script is on point even if it does try a little hard to be genre consistent, which can come across as corny.

What is golden is that streaming networks are prepared to commit to TV with high production values and care with scripts and acting.

To your last point, this is a BBC/Amazon co production so maybe credit should go to BBC and not the streamer?

I do like Brit westerns. Remember Richard Harris had a number of good westerns in his filmology. Do you remember Shalako? For some reason, Connery with big sideburns and Bardot get teamed up in an average Western during their prime. It's a solid western but it must have been so confusing for Bond fans, and Western fans at the time.

I was going to mention A Man Called Horse because there are some static shots in TE that reminded me of it. Whether that's deliberate or my imagination I can't say, but given the subject matter it seems reasonable to think it's intentional.

When Europeans do Westerns they tend to leave the simple morality tales behind and the focus often switches to a man versus nature narrative. Cut off from civilisation the white man has to re evaluate his place not just in the landscape but in reality itself. Sometimes this can get so disorientating it is like a fever dream. I have never been able to get thru Once Upon a Time in the West in one sitting.

I'm reluctant to attribute the increase in production values to the BBC, since there has been 70 years of low budget production with shaky sets, cheap special effects and so on. I don't see the upshift in Aunty's typical offerings either. It seems fair to me to think cashed up Amazon is responsible for that side of things.

Good series with a bittersweet ending.