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The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr., was a wonderful show with great writing and fantastic ensemble acting. The plot of the show was Briscoe County, Junior (Bruce Campbell), who had grown up more or less a spoiled rich boy in the late 1800s USA, finally becomes a man trying to track down the gang who killed his bounty-hunter father, with the help of blustering bounty-hunter competitor Lord Bowler (Curry) and lawyer Solomon Poole (Clemenson). Briscoe combines elements of the square-jawed Western hero archetype with a Bret Maverick-style rake. Along with the regulars were a number of recurring characters playing heroes and villains alike. Billy Drago played a memorably vicious John Bly, leader of the gang Briscoe and Bowler are up against, while Kelly Rutherford turned in bravura performances as Dixie Cousins, the traveling showgirl who Briscoe hooks up with from time to time.
The writing and comic pacing of this show were usually spot-on and this show deserved to be on far longer than it was. Had this show decided to be a comedic Western it may likely have attracted a bigger following. The biggest issue dragging this show down was the subplot regarding a quest for orbs that allowed time-travel. When the show concentrated on being a comedic Western, it was one of the best shows on the air. When the sci-fi elements of the orb subplot were written in the show bogged down in trying to connect the disparate elements and backstory, plus put some adult viewers off. With a marginal Fox network viewership, that was enough to doom the series. It was a shame, too, because Briscoe, Bowler, Solomon, Dixie and Comet the horse deserved to have many more adventures.
Those of us who are fans still remember this show extremely fondly, with copies of the series on VCR traded like gold. The theme music still is used by NBC for some sporting events, most notably its Olympic coverage.
score /10
theoldbull 15 November 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1216860/ |
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24-3-2021 01:49:12