The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
Jun. 24th, 2013 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessAh, Brisco County, Jr.. If you missed this show, it's not terribly surprising: it ran for just one season back in the early 90s, back when Fox was still trying to become a Real Live Broadcast Television Network and had not yet spread out into its various other Evil Entities. Even then, however, Fox had established its hallmark technique of screwing over most of its best, most innovative shows: Brisco County was shoved to a Friday night slot of doom, right before the first season of X-Files, barely advertised, subject to considerable Network Interference, and consistently inconsistent.
Plus, it was about cowboys. Chasing time travelling evil guys, magical orbs, pirates (on wagons, not ships), riverboat gamblers and oh, yes, people willingly living in the house from Psycho. Also, zeppelin airships. And the Pittsburgh Steelers. To say it was not exactly your typical television show is a vast understatement. Did I mention the pirates?
I only caught it by accident myself: a friend from Virginia happened to be visiting, and we decided that 8 pm was just a little too early to try to hit the South Beach nightclubs (although in retrospect, that would have been a better time to try to find South Beach parking, but I digress) and were trying to figure out some way to kill an hour, so flipped through the channels looking for something. It says something that this was the only something on, but, as I said, 8 PM, Friday night. We started watching. And were enthralled enough to continue watching until 10, an hour after we'd planned to leave, on my then tiny tiny little TV. I tuned in the following week, telling myself that the show couldn't possibly live up to its pilot, which was true, but it was still good enough that I stayed through to the end and then figured I'd just watch whatever was on next. And that is how I got into the X-Files. But I digress.
Anyway.
So, when I found myself with a gift certificate to spend, I decided to go ahead and buy the DVD set, sternly warning myself not to be disappointed if it didn't live up to my memories. Fortunately, it did.
Brisco is a fairly typical action hero dude: a dashing, witty sharpshooter. His rival/later partner Lord Bowler is more interesting: a superb tracker and sharpshooter with a seemingly rough exterior, he later reveals that he has used his bounty hunting fortune to purchase a luxury home and invest in fine crystal, and has plans to buy a nice vineyard – he's heard good things about the Napa Valley. Their friend/sorta employer Socrates is mostly there to get plots going and to have jokes told at his expense. Other characters come and go: love interest Dixie, a burlesque dancer with a heart of gold; a kinda boring card sharp; an Elvis impersonator; a mad scientist; a slightly less mad scientist; the bad guys, including Pete, who has a rather disturbing love for his weapons, and who often dies, and then comes back (the network liked him); and Comet the Horse.
About a third of the episodes focus on a rather silly plot involving some Orbs which only Good People Can Use and Big Baddie John Bly who wants the Orbs even though he can't use them. (Huh?) Bly's actor can't quite manage the pure menacing evil the plot calls for, and the various writers couldn't quite manage the plot, resulting in massive inconsistencies: the number of orbs, what the orbs could and could not do, who besides Bly wanted the orb, where the orbs were at any given time, and so on. I was reminded of the weaker bits of Lost. Not coincidentally, the writers who came up with the Orb plot were the same writers that went on to X-Files and Lost.
The Orb episodes aside, though, the greatest thing about this show is that you honestly never know what you're going to get: gambling, Timothy Leary (the Timothy Leary) talking about various plant products; pirates, ninjas, bulls set free in china shops, science fiction, rockets, scuba diving, the shower scene from Psycho (filmed in the same house), ghosts, the aforementioned football players talking strategy, and horse tricks. Four of the episodes are whodunits, including one pretty good take on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None; one episode – the Psycho one – a horror parody; a few others are more or less science fiction; one episode is mostly Elvis jokes; and, apparently just to completely throw all viewers for a loop, a couple of episodes are – gasp – straight Westerns. And although the show has quite a few damsels in distress, they pretty much all end up helping Brisco help themselves; the one exception is a young girl, played by Mercedes McNab of later Buffy and Angel fame. Speaking of the guest stars, it feels that about half of them later ended up on Lost (not surprising since Carlton Cuse was a showrunner on both shows), but there's a few other major genre stars here and there. Also, Timothy Leary. In case you missed that. This and the increasingly odd street signs helps the show hide that nearly every episode takes place on the same Warner Bros studio lot (used in several Westerns), although after marathoning the show, I couldn't help but wonder if the Orb (Orbs?) was (were) making everyone just happen to go into the same jail cell over and over, baring a slightly shifted desk.
Oh, and Comet the horse. Did I mention the horse? The horse plays chess, opens bank vaults, solves mysteries, rides trains (after buying tickets), and arrives whenever needed for the plot. (As a stunned character asks, "Do you have him on call 24 hours a day?")
What I most love about the show, though, is how it never hesitates to go for a pun or a joke, no matter how really, really, really bad. And I mean, bad, or how long the setup. One episode adds an entirely unnecessary scene for the sake of a Dunkin Donuts joke. It's hilarious mostly because you keep waiting for the scene to have a point, any point, and when it turns out to be Dunkin Donuts – what can I say. I laughed. It helps that the actors play all of this perfectly straight, even the Elvis bits. It also helps if you have at least a modest tolerance for puns.
If you do, I highly recommend checking the show out. It's held up well.
Plus, it was about cowboys. Chasing time travelling evil guys, magical orbs, pirates (on wagons, not ships), riverboat gamblers and oh, yes, people willingly living in the house from Psycho. Also, zeppelin airships. And the Pittsburgh Steelers. To say it was not exactly your typical television show is a vast understatement. Did I mention the pirates?
I only caught it by accident myself: a friend from Virginia happened to be visiting, and we decided that 8 pm was just a little too early to try to hit the South Beach nightclubs (although in retrospect, that would have been a better time to try to find South Beach parking, but I digress) and were trying to figure out some way to kill an hour, so flipped through the channels looking for something. It says something that this was the only something on, but, as I said, 8 PM, Friday night. We started watching. And were enthralled enough to continue watching until 10, an hour after we'd planned to leave, on my then tiny tiny little TV. I tuned in the following week, telling myself that the show couldn't possibly live up to its pilot, which was true, but it was still good enough that I stayed through to the end and then figured I'd just watch whatever was on next. And that is how I got into the X-Files. But I digress.
Anyway.
So, when I found myself with a gift certificate to spend, I decided to go ahead and buy the DVD set, sternly warning myself not to be disappointed if it didn't live up to my memories. Fortunately, it did.
Brisco is a fairly typical action hero dude: a dashing, witty sharpshooter. His rival/later partner Lord Bowler is more interesting: a superb tracker and sharpshooter with a seemingly rough exterior, he later reveals that he has used his bounty hunting fortune to purchase a luxury home and invest in fine crystal, and has plans to buy a nice vineyard – he's heard good things about the Napa Valley. Their friend/sorta employer Socrates is mostly there to get plots going and to have jokes told at his expense. Other characters come and go: love interest Dixie, a burlesque dancer with a heart of gold; a kinda boring card sharp; an Elvis impersonator; a mad scientist; a slightly less mad scientist; the bad guys, including Pete, who has a rather disturbing love for his weapons, and who often dies, and then comes back (the network liked him); and Comet the Horse.
About a third of the episodes focus on a rather silly plot involving some Orbs which only Good People Can Use and Big Baddie John Bly who wants the Orbs even though he can't use them. (Huh?) Bly's actor can't quite manage the pure menacing evil the plot calls for, and the various writers couldn't quite manage the plot, resulting in massive inconsistencies: the number of orbs, what the orbs could and could not do, who besides Bly wanted the orb, where the orbs were at any given time, and so on. I was reminded of the weaker bits of Lost. Not coincidentally, the writers who came up with the Orb plot were the same writers that went on to X-Files and Lost.
The Orb episodes aside, though, the greatest thing about this show is that you honestly never know what you're going to get: gambling, Timothy Leary (the Timothy Leary) talking about various plant products; pirates, ninjas, bulls set free in china shops, science fiction, rockets, scuba diving, the shower scene from Psycho (filmed in the same house), ghosts, the aforementioned football players talking strategy, and horse tricks. Four of the episodes are whodunits, including one pretty good take on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None; one episode – the Psycho one – a horror parody; a few others are more or less science fiction; one episode is mostly Elvis jokes; and, apparently just to completely throw all viewers for a loop, a couple of episodes are – gasp – straight Westerns. And although the show has quite a few damsels in distress, they pretty much all end up helping Brisco help themselves; the one exception is a young girl, played by Mercedes McNab of later Buffy and Angel fame. Speaking of the guest stars, it feels that about half of them later ended up on Lost (not surprising since Carlton Cuse was a showrunner on both shows), but there's a few other major genre stars here and there. Also, Timothy Leary. In case you missed that. This and the increasingly odd street signs helps the show hide that nearly every episode takes place on the same Warner Bros studio lot (used in several Westerns), although after marathoning the show, I couldn't help but wonder if the Orb (Orbs?) was (were) making everyone just happen to go into the same jail cell over and over, baring a slightly shifted desk.
Oh, and Comet the horse. Did I mention the horse? The horse plays chess, opens bank vaults, solves mysteries, rides trains (after buying tickets), and arrives whenever needed for the plot. (As a stunned character asks, "Do you have him on call 24 hours a day?")
What I most love about the show, though, is how it never hesitates to go for a pun or a joke, no matter how really, really, really bad. And I mean, bad, or how long the setup. One episode adds an entirely unnecessary scene for the sake of a Dunkin Donuts joke. It's hilarious mostly because you keep waiting for the scene to have a point, any point, and when it turns out to be Dunkin Donuts – what can I say. I laughed. It helps that the actors play all of this perfectly straight, even the Elvis bits. It also helps if you have at least a modest tolerance for puns.
If you do, I highly recommend checking the show out. It's held up well.