Created by Carlson Cuse & Jeffrey Boam
1993 - 1994
A wild west adventure show with a little sci-fi twist, Brisco County, Jr. follows Bruce Campbell as the titular lawyer-turned-bounty hunter as he hunts down the vicious gang who killed his father. Although it only ran the one season, the show has built up a decent cult following over the decades thanks to its wonderful sense of humor and creative action.
You can't really talk about a show like this without addressing the most important thing about it: Bruce Campbell as the main character. He's funny, charming, great in an action scene and incredibly heroic, ultimately tying the whole show together. With a solid supporting cast (most notably Julius Carry as a sometimes-rival sometimes-ally bounty hunter), this show did a great job at establishing characters and actually giving them something to do. It doesn't overwhelm you with tons of names and unnecessary filler, but still manages to paint a thorough picture and create a lived-in world.
These always the issue when it comes to getting into a prematurely cancelled show that it didn't have a chance to live up to its potential, or that it might wind up with a cliffhanger ending that has a disaheartening effect on people who wanted to see what happens next. And while the show officially ended on a two-parter, and maybe some people might complain about its resolution, if you cut yourself off 3/4 of the way through, you'll find a perfect finale right there. It's not a show you need to see every episode of necessarily, and it has a satisfactory ending. So it's really easy to get in to.
I love how the series doesn't forget itself and manages to handle multiple genres really well. It's a western, but that doesn't mean it isn't also a little sci-fi. It's a comedy, but it has dramatic moments. It's action, but has just as much adventure and even a bit of fantasy. It balances all of these genres with relative ease, never totally abandoning any individual genre for long, but finding plenty of opportunities to hone in on just one for periods of time that allow it to have a focused result. There's a little bit for everyone in this show, and the fact that its fans have remained loyal after all these years is honestly no surprise at all.
What's more to be said? While I can't say I was totally blown away for the entirety of the show, what little there was to watch was very enjoyable. I like the characters, I liked the genre-bending, and of course I loved the central performance. It's one of the better lesser-known shows of its time, and I could recommend it easily to a lot of people as something to casually watch through.
My grade: B
You can't really talk about a show like this without addressing the most important thing about it: Bruce Campbell as the main character. He's funny, charming, great in an action scene and incredibly heroic, ultimately tying the whole show together. With a solid supporting cast (most notably Julius Carry as a sometimes-rival sometimes-ally bounty hunter), this show did a great job at establishing characters and actually giving them something to do. It doesn't overwhelm you with tons of names and unnecessary filler, but still manages to paint a thorough picture and create a lived-in world.
These always the issue when it comes to getting into a prematurely cancelled show that it didn't have a chance to live up to its potential, or that it might wind up with a cliffhanger ending that has a disaheartening effect on people who wanted to see what happens next. And while the show officially ended on a two-parter, and maybe some people might complain about its resolution, if you cut yourself off 3/4 of the way through, you'll find a perfect finale right there. It's not a show you need to see every episode of necessarily, and it has a satisfactory ending. So it's really easy to get in to.
I love how the series doesn't forget itself and manages to handle multiple genres really well. It's a western, but that doesn't mean it isn't also a little sci-fi. It's a comedy, but it has dramatic moments. It's action, but has just as much adventure and even a bit of fantasy. It balances all of these genres with relative ease, never totally abandoning any individual genre for long, but finding plenty of opportunities to hone in on just one for periods of time that allow it to have a focused result. There's a little bit for everyone in this show, and the fact that its fans have remained loyal after all these years is honestly no surprise at all.
What's more to be said? While I can't say I was totally blown away for the entirety of the show, what little there was to watch was very enjoyable. I like the characters, I liked the genre-bending, and of course I loved the central performance. It's one of the better lesser-known shows of its time, and I could recommend it easily to a lot of people as something to casually watch through.
My grade: B
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