Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ on Paramount+, A Taylor Sheridan-Adjacent Western Series With David Oyelowo As A Valiant US Marshal 

Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Paramount+) extends the Taylor Sheridan TV Universe once again. This time around, the prolific writer, filmmaker, and Yellowstone creator with the “national park-sized ego” serves as the developer and an executive producer of Bass Reeves, which was created for television by showrunner Chad Feehan, is adapted from the first two books in author Sidney Thompson’s Bass Reeves trilogy, and stars David Oyelowo as the titular deputy US Marshal, the first Black man to serve in that position west of the Mississippi River, out in the wilds of post-Civil War Indian Territory. Oyelowo is joined here by Dennis Quaid, Lauren E. Banks, Joaquina Kalukango, Garrett Hedlund, Forrest Goodluck, Donald Sutherland, and Shea Whigham. 

LAWMEN: BASS REEVES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: March 1862, Pea Ridge, Arkansas. In the face of withering cannon fire from a Union battery, Confederate Army Major George Reeves (Whigham) and Bass (Oyelowo), an enslaved person, form an improvised two-man cavalry charge that briefly turns the battle in favor of the Confederates. 

The Gist: Wait, Bass was fighting on the Confederate side? Well, yes, because as an enslaved man he had no choice. But after the battle, while serving coffee and tea to the gathered officers, his master tells him to tack their horses – they’re heading back home to Northern Texas after a disagreement over tactics with Confederate General Earl Van Dorn (David Lee Smith). There, Bass briefly reunites with his wife and fellow slave Jennie (Banks). But when Major Reeves cheats him in a card game, violence ensues. “I ain’t watchin’ you get strung up and dead,” Jennie tells Bass. “I ain’t. So you gonna run.” And run Bass does, barefoot and without supplies, across the Red River and into Indian Territory, where he’s eventually taken in and nursed back to health by Sara (Margot Bingham) and her son Curtis (Riley Looc). They live free in the Seminole Nation, and Bass joins them there for a time. But the Civil War is never very far away.

During the battle at Pea Ridge, Bass witnessed the fervor of Esau Pierce (Barry Pepper), a Confederate officer who mirthfully took Union scalps. And the two men encounter one another again in 1865, but this time their circumstances are switched – Bass Reeves is free, while Pierce is in Union shackles. The war has finally ended, but out here on the fringes, that reality is slower to evolve, and in a pitched gun battle at a trading post, Pierce and other rebel holdouts escape federal custody. They also shoot down Curtis, an act that sets Reeves on the next stage of his journey.

It’s back to Arkansas, and the farmstead where he was enslaved with Jennie. Rachel (Jessica Oyelowo), the wife of his former master George Reeves, greets Bass with kindness, and a reunion with Jennie follows – Jennie as well as their toddler daughter Sally. Now able to live free, and reunited with his wife and child, Bass looks to farming to provide. But it’s another calling that will find him, and that’s where Lawmen: Bass Reeves will kick into its main storyline, as Bass joins on as a deputy US Marshal alongside Dennis Quaid’s Sherill Lynne. The Indian Territory is full of uncertainty, hardship, and those displaced by a profoundly violent war. It’ll be Bass’s job to protect his family and enact justice in this wild and transitional space.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Hell on Wheels, which lasted five seasons on AMC, also began in 1865, as Anson Mount’s former Confederate soldier hired onto the Union Pacific Railroad in a personal quest for retribution. And though Lawmen: Bass Reeves is no longer affiliated with Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel 1883, it gets the somewhat awkward plural in its title because it’s the first outing in a potential series universe of its own that would highlight other famous lawmen of the era. (It’s also worth noting that Delroy Lindo played Bass Reeves in the 2021 Netflix Western, The Harder They Fall.)

Our Take: The initial going of Lawmen: Bass Reeves hustles through its turnover from origin story to main narrative, taking us from Bass’s life as an enslaved man during wartime, through his scrambling pivot to freedom, and stopping off for seasoning in Indian Territory before the reunion with his wife Jennie. That way station with Sara Jumper and her son Curtis will prove important moving forward, since it afforded Bass the opportunity to familiarize himself with Native American culture, the Creek language, and other dialects, information that will make him a valuable asset to the US Marshals’ service in the Territory. It’s pretty clear that Reeves will also have reason to truck further with unrepentant rebel officer Esau Pierce – which is great, because the scenes here between David Oyelowo and Barry Pepper sizzle with intensity – and we’re looking forward to the addition of Donald Sutherland as a creaky and feared frontier judge as well as Garrett Hedlund as Reeves’ confidant and sure hand with a pistol. Hedlund, of course, first joined the Sheridan-O-Verse as Mitch Keller in Tulsa King, where he supports Sly Stallone’s mobster main character in a similar way.

It’ll be interesting to see how Bass Reeves continues to incorporate matters of heritage and race relations into its storytelling. Reeves himself, as the first Black federal officer west of the Mississippi, will undoubtedly face blowback to his standing beyond that of standard-issue outlaws trying to escape . The Native American experience in the late nineteenth century deserves representation here, too, and with all of the fallout from the Civil War, Indian Territory is sure to be a place full of uncertainty as the series’ eight episodes unfold. In short, there’s a lot to work with. And solid casting will certainly help in that regard.

Sex and Skin: A brief, network television-safe love scene between Bass and Jennie.

Parting Shot: A tender scene between Bass, Jennie, and baby Sally reestablishes them as a family unit in the months immediately after the Civil War. We also get a glimpse of future episodes of Lawmen: Bass Reeves, including the arrival of Dennis Quaid as Deputy US Marshal Sherill Lynn. “Out here, there ain’t no laws. Only outlaws…”   

Sleeper Star: Barry Pepper has “Alright, I’m in” powers. Pepper, an Emmy winner, always brings a compelling and fully-realized gravity to his characters, and that power is in full effect here as his grizzled rebel officer Esau Pierce trades barbs with Bass Reeves both on the battlefield and in the chaotic months after the war.   

Most Pilot-y Line: “Boy, I don’t think I cotton the light in your eyes,” “Collect your whelp and take flight, for Hell is coming on wings of its own” – the touches of nineteenth century language and speech patterns in Bass Reeves are welcome, and lend depth to its setting.    

Our Call: STREAM IT. Lawmen: Bass Reeves benefits from a sturdy performance by David Oyelowo at its center, effectively strikes the balance between tough talk, gunplay, and sentiment typical of a Tyler Sherdian production, and offers some perspective on a formative era of US history.   

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.