The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

Bruce Campbell stars in the sci-fi western _The Adventures of Brisco County Jr._, the “coming thing” from television producer Carlton Cuse. A throwback to old movie serials, the series follows bounty hunter Brisco County Jr., who’s hired by a group of robber barons to hunt down the notorious outlaw John Bly and his gang; which murdered Brisco’s father during their escape from custody. Set in the 1890s, a lot of the comedy is based on anachronistic humor (with Brisco coming across things like a tank, motorcycles, a machine gun, and a Zeppelin airship), but after a while the gimmicks get a little ridiculous and lose some of their charm. Also, the show’s inclusion of strong minority characters (in the Old West) sets a rather odd tone. Yet overall the eccentricities and campiness end up making for a fun and wildly entertaining ride. But sadly the ride didn’t last long, as _The Adventures of Brisco County Jr._ was abruptly cancelled after one season, however it quickly gained a cult status and continues to find audiences.

It would be a spectacular thing for an American network television program to fail to find an audience because it’s not weird enough, but that’s just what might have happened to The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

It’s especially odd as the earliest television starring vehicle for Bruce Campbell, given his oeuvre of work in film. Campbell is well cast as the titular bounty hunter, his lantern jaw is not only made for pulp adventure, but he also seems to interpret the character in the way that’s needed. Where the main character is unaware of the oddity or irony of their situations and instead just takes it into their stride. So too do most of the recurring characters, including Christian Clemenson as tenderfoot lawyer Socrates Poole and Julius Carry as rival bounty hunter turned partner Lord Bowler. In some cases, the actors might be too good. As in Billy Drago as the series original main villain, outlaw Billy Drago who is revealed to be a fugitive from he 23rd century. The trouble is, Drago just fits in far too well in an Old West setting that the reveal of him as a time traveller doesn’t hit properly. Even after the reveal his demeanour nor anything else changes to reflect his true origins.

And that comes back round to the issue that the program overall just isn’t weird enough. Though usually billed as a weird west or even steampunk work, these elements only truly play a part in a handful of episodes. Aside from the mysterious orb and Bly’s origins, supernatural or science fiction elements only play a role in a handful of episodes. As for steampunk elements, early versions of tanks and motorcycles appear in different episodes, and an airship makes an appearance in the final two-parter, but that’s only four out of twenty-seven. Some elements wound up appearing more mundane due to budget, such as “Pirates!”, which was scripted to feature a landship patterned after a sailing ship, but when this could not be realised instead, we were given a gang leader who likes to cosplay as a buccaneer instead. It also leads to one of the more notable aspects in its portrayal of the Old West, where misogyny is underplayed, and racism is totally absent. Given that in the aforementioned “Pirates!” Lord Bowler, a Black man in the Old West, is flogged by the villains, slavery only being abolished for the US within his lifetime is never mentioned.

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. was inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade which is why its screenwriter Jeffrey Boam, and his writing partner Carlton Cuse, were sought by Fox to develop a television series of the same ilk. In the respect of providing a series of rollicking adventures in the vein of Indiana Jones, it is mostly successful. The issue is that there are so many episodes that are too similar. Again, this might be because of fewer high concept episodes. Compare with The X-Files, which debuted the same season and was actually hoped would be helped by a lead-in from Brisco County. The quality of the production, and acting are mostly comparable, indeed director Kim Manners started out on Brisco County before moving to X-Files after the former’s cancellation, but X-Files had a far more diverse crop of episodes compared with Brisco County. In comparison to Mulder and Scully dealing with their monsters-of-the-week, County seemed to run into the same bland bandits most weeks.

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. is still a fun adventures series but it’s impossible to feel that with a few chances taken in the writer’s room it could have been so much more.