Bass Reeves deserves better – 'Lawmen' doesn't do justice to the Black U.S. marshal

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Bass Reeves deserves better – 'Lawmen' doesn't do justice to the Black U.S. marshal
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As a Black TV critic who loves Westerns, Eric Deggans really wanted to like this show. But he found the first four episodes were focused on being a Modern Western Epic, at the expense of Reeves' story

. But because, as a Black man who loves Westerns, I have been complaining for decades about the need for someone to make a great TV show or film about Reeves, a real person who was among the first African Americans, I fear this is not the series I have been waiting for. Because it spends so much time trying to be a Modern Western Epic, it forgets about why we watch shows like this in the first place: to see a charismatic, take-charge fighter corral the bad guys and save the day.

What follows is an over-long preamble setting up Reeves' legend — we see him living with a Native American family and becoming a failed farmer before actually joining law enforcement in episode three – delaying his appearance as the galvanizing force for justice that made him a western legend.Oyelowo plays Reeves as a taciturn man of few words.

One trap the series falls into is showing Reeves as a singular superman – he is the only Black character whose skills, smarts and moral code elevate him above the oppression most of his people faced, even after the Civil War ends. He walks through the front door of saloons without question. He challenges white men, punching Quaid's character in one contentious moment, without fear of being lynched.

I've only seen four of the show's episodes, so with any luck, some of these issues will be addressed in future installments. And given how white families are centered in all the other series in Sheridan's-inspired TV universe, it is a pleasure to see an intact Black family at the heart of this one.

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