History Main / NewOldWest

** Silicon Valley is depicted as an Old West mining town. It’s explained that all the electricity is used to mine bitcoin, so the whole place operates at a 17th-Century level of technology.

* Happens in the ''Gun Crazy'' live action Japanese movies.

** The [[OneRiotOneRanger Texas Rangers]] (the law-enforcement agency, [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant not]] the [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams baseball team]]) encourage their members to "wear clothing that is western in nature", essentially making this an EnforcedTrope. That does not mean they can't use customized, modern weapons or drive cars to get from place to place, however.

* ''Series/{{Longmire}}'' and the novels on which it's based, taking place in modern-day Wyoming.

* ''ComicBook/SherwoodTexas'' is a SettingUpdate of RobinHood which re-imagines Robin as the leader of an outlaw biker gang on the Texas/Mexico border, battling the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham County and the rival Nobles biker gang.

* Santo Ileso from ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2022'' is a textbook example of the modern wild west: It is located in the American Southwest, both the Los Panteros and Nahuali's crew fit the outlaw archetype (the former even substituting horses for cars and rigs), Marshall Defense Industries have a cowboy aesthetic, bounties are placed via "Wanted" app, and the Saints (and Panteros) plan a a TrainJob to rob a Marshall train. [[spoiler:The final fight between Boss and the Nahuali even have the two settle the score by drawing pistols, QuickDraw style.]]

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' is also both this with WeirdWest, being a modern Western set in the backdrop of a ZombieApocalypse.

* ''ComicBook/{{Scalped}}'' focuses on the Oglala Lakota inhabitants of the fictional [[TheRez Prairie Rose Indian Reservation]] in modern-day South Dakota as they grapple with organized crime, rampant poverty, drug addiction and alcoholism, local politics and the preservation of their cultural identity.

* In ''Literature/CassieDewell'' novels, Cassie starts as a sheriff's investigator in Montana, and then becomes a deputy, and later PrivateEye, in North Dakota. A lot is made of small police forces attempting to police large, wide open spaces with little in the way of resources or backup.

* ''Literature/CthulhuArmageddon'' by Creator/CTPhipps is a post-apocalypse AfterTheEnd WeirdWest series set in the aftermath of the Great Old Ones rising. Humanity has been reduced to a ScavengerSociety where they scrape on the slow road to extinction.

* ''Series/{{Bearcats}}!'' -- 1971 TV series (13 episodes plus 2-hour pilot film ''Powderkeg''), a [[TheWestern Western]] set in the year 1914. The heroes were freelance adventurers who drove around in a [[http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/08/car-lust--stutz.html Stutz Bearcat]] sports car instead of riding horses. The 20th-century setting allowed the writers to add modern elements such as the aforementioned Bearcat, oil companies, [[{{Kaiserreich}} Imperial German]] spies and UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, [[SouthOfTheBorder Mexican]] revolutionaries, and [[MoreDakka belt-fed machine guns]]. Ended up as something of an AnachronismStew anyway because they often skimped on research -- one episode featured a Renault FT-18 tank (the tank was not invented until 1915), another a Curtiss JN-4 biplane (first flight 1915) in Mexican Air Force colors (Curtiss "Jennies" were exported only to Britain). [[NegativeContinuity The show's continuity was a little soft from week to week]], particularly with regard to those [[SouthOfTheBorder Mexican revolutionaries]]--one week, our heroes were working with the Mexican government against the rebels, the next week they were siding with the rebels. Despite all that, was quite fun to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkqtbWnxcvg watch.]]

** Texas City even more explicitly so, as Judges wear cowboy hats and other stereotypical parafernalia.

** Several other Creator/DCComics Annuals that year were modern westerns (the "theme" being pulp fiction genres). These included Franchise/{{Superman}} as the Mysterious Stranger [[strike: riding]] flying into town; Comicbook/{{Impulse}} teaming with the original Vigilante, now running a dude ranch; and Comicbook/{{Robin|Series}} facing down the modern day Trigger Twins, alongside the modern day Pow-Wow Smith and Nighthawk.

* Santo Ileso from ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2022'' is a textbook example of the modern wild west: It is located in the American Southwest, both the Los Panteros and Nahuali's crew fit the outlaw archetype (the former even substituting horses for cars and rigs), Marshall Defense Industries has a wild west aesthetic, bounties are placed via "Wanted" app, and the Saints (and Panteros) plan a a TrainJob to rob a Marshall train. [[spoiler:The final fight between Boss and the Nahuali even has the two settle the score by drawing pistols, QuickDraw style.]]

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E3ATownCalledMercy A Town Called Mercy]]" has [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor the 11th Doctor]] and the Ponds land in an American town. After mentioning they're space faring, they get thrown in front of a cybernetic Gunman who's hunting his creator, a genocidal alien doctor. The rest of the episode is ''very'' [[TheMagnificentSevenSamurai Magnificent Seven]] with the Doctor protecting the town (AND the HumanAlien Doctor who created the cybernetic Gunman) using sci-fi tech.

->''"I'm a cowboy, on a [[CoolBike steel horse]] I ride,\\

* The {{Toku}} show ''Series/KaiketsuZubat'' is a MixAndMatch of New Old West and {{Superhero}}es. Though it takes place in Japan in TheSeventies, with modern technology plainly visible, the characters all dress and act as if they were in TheWildWest.

A less popular choice is the New Old West, in which Western traditions and tropes are shifted forward a hundred or so years into the modern day. Now the bandits drive pick-up trucks or [[MyHorseIsAMotorbike ride motorcycles]], the outlaws hole up in grungy {{No Tell Motel}}s at highway rest stops, the sheriff has a modern handgun and an AR-15 rifle, and the great plains of America are surrounded on all sides by airports, highways, and cities.

TheWestern genre is a rich one, but has been decidedly played out over the years, to the point where it's hard to do a Western series without looking like you're ripping off a rip-off. The easiest way to revitalize the genre is to set it in the future, when man's expansion onto other planets has created a similar state of lawlessness and grit in the off-world colonies--hence the SpaceWestern.

A less popular choice is the New Old West, in which Western traditions and tropes are shifted forward a hundred or so years into the modern day. Now the bandits drive pick-up trucks or [[MyHorseIsAMotorbike ride motorcycles]], the outlaws hole up in grungy {{No Tell Motel}}s at highway rest stops, and the great plains of America are surrounded on all sides by airports, highways, and cities.

TheWestern genre is a rich one, but has been decidedly played out over the years, to the point where it's hard to do a Western series without looking like you're ripping off a rip-off. The easiest way to revitalize the genre is to set it in the future, when man's expansion onto other planets has created a similar state of lawlessness and grit--hence the SpaceWestern.

A less popular choice is the New Old West, in which Western traditions and tropes are shifted forward a hundred or so years into the modern day. Now the bandits drive pick-up trucks or [[MyHorseIsAMotorbike ride motorcycles]], the outlaws hole up in motels, and the great plains of America are surrounded on all sides by airports, highways, and cities. Of course, this means that it's harder to do stories about outlaws because advances in technology mean that it's much easier for law enforcement agents to pursue and capture criminals. As a result, many New Old West stories are about the perceived loss of freedom in America now that such days are gone.

Because of its proximity to UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, the overwhelming power and presence of [[TheCartel drug cartels]], and the numerous poor desert towns that any criminal can hide in, a good number of New Old West stories take place SouthOfTheBorder in northern UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}. UsefulNotes/{{California}}, UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}, UsefulNotes/NewMexico, and -- of course -- Texas itself are also popular locations for a modern Western story for the same reasons as El Norte.

* ''Series/{{Yellowstone}}'': As with virtually all Taylor Sheridan creations, this show is a neo-western, taking place during modern day on a ranch in rural Montana. Most of the cast are ranchers or Native Americans, all violently feuding over the land.

* ''Film/GhostRider'' played up these elements, also tying in an older Western character by the same name (who existed in the comics but was unrelated to the modern character).

* Only about half the actual story of ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' takes place in the west (they go from Boston to Pittsburgh to Wyoming to Colorado and end in Utah), but thematically, musically, and visually the game is very much a western set in the early 2030s. Joel is a quick draw outlaw making his way across the vast, unsettled interior of the US. He’s also the character archetype of the typical western protagonist. A gruff, badass man who’s spent his whole life fighting and being put through the ringer. The premise of said grizzled old man helping a LittleMissBadass is also evocative of the classic western , ''Film/TrueGrit''.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'' lifts a fare bit of the western genre, including character archetype and setting (and a soundtrack with a decent use of harmonica), but is clearly futuristic in setting. Also, it includes the cowboy fashioned "Rider" trainer class.