- Network: Paramount+
- Series Premiere Date: Nov 5, 2023
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Critic Reviews
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"Bass Reeves” kicks off what Paramount clearly hopes will be an ongoing franchise with a solid if unspectacular opening salvo, without fully doing justice to its intriguing subject. The real test, frankly, will come when “Lawmen” tries to reload.
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Lawmen: Bass Reeves isn't concerned with the morally gray, preferring a binary history of black and white in a world before complexity was invented. Given his legend, we're owed a good Bass Reeves show; this just isn't it.
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An oddly disjointed series with very little voice or perspective, Lawmen: Bass Reeves benefits tremendously from David Oyelowo‘s central performance and from Sheridan’s impressive ability to attract high-profile guest stars for underwritten non-roles.
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Ultimately, ‘Bass Reeves’ feels like an overly reverent and respectful show meant to honor this Western figure and do his legend right rather than tell morally complex stories. And hell, we’d settle for some engaging drama, entertaining shoot-outs, or something, but that would be asking too much of this cheerlessly well-behaved and loyal-to-its-character series.
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“Bass Reeves” is far too formulaic, too rushed, and too incurious to be propped up MCU-style by cameos.
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This is, again, one hell of a story, but it’s one hell of a story specifically because of factors that this telling of it glosses over in favor of mediocre versions of familiar material, which in many scenes wouldn’t play any differently with a white hero.