I've been going through this series the past few weeks and wanted to comment on what I think is one of the weakest episodes so far. My basic complaints are that the script seems highly improbable and even if you ignore that, it just didn't have much of a plot.
Joshua and Thaddeus are riding along in the western wilderness far from civilization when suddenly a bounty hunter gets the drop on them, hiding behind a rock, and captures them, announcing that he is going to turn them in for the $20,000 reward.
The gimmick is that the bounty hunter is black, a former slave named Joe. He is going to take them, not to the nearest town's sheriff because he "isn't very friendly to black folks" but to another town about two days ride away.
As the captured heroes ride along, a snake scares Joe's horse and throws him. Our guys ride away, escaping, while Joe gets back up and tries to chase them, recklessly shooting and somehow happens to shoot a horse. The horse belonged to some men-who didn't seem to have any reason to be out there in the middle of nowhere. They decide they are going to hang Joe for accidentally shooting their horse.
Thaddeus and Joshua, somehow look back in their wild escape attempt, see what is happening to Joe and decide they can rescue him by firing off shots at the group and then they'll ride off. They chase away the group of men, but Joe frees himself so fast he is able to quickly capture our heroes before they can get away.
Later the trio encounters another group of men. They ask and learn the story of our trio, and after letting them pass, decide to overpower Joe and take his prisoners into town to get the reward themselves. Their leader is about to shoot Joe, but Thaddeus gets loose and shoots-Lone Ranger style-the gun out of his hand.
Unfortunately, his gun only had the one bullet, so Joe was quickly able to recapture our heroes again.
I think you can figure how this all ends up.
The improbability of Joe being able to capture our heroes so many times when they seem to have gotten away was one problem. The fact that EVERY group of white men they encountered was totally hostile to this black man, one of them lecturing Joe about how it wasn't right for him to try to capture any WHITE man, seems a bit extreme. Of course, our heroes had all the politically correct attitudes toward Joe, so much so you'd think they were living in the 1970s instead of the 1870s-oh wait, they were.
This show was so politically correct that we never heard Joe's race mentioned except to use the term "black." The word or words far more common in the Old West were never used.
I get that most whites then wouldn't want to have Joe as a neighbor or co-worker. They wouldn't want him to date their daughter. But simply seeing a black guy doing an honest job while these people were far from home, simply should not have gotten them to be so hostile to Joe.
I really disliked Joe when, after Kid saved his life two different times, still wanted to turn them in for the reward. His explanation about how gratitude was taken out of him "a long time ago" just didn't work for me.
My other main criticism is that the plot was so weak: Guys get captured, get loose, repeat and repeat. They have no focus other than getting away. The best Smith & Jones episodes have them on a mission, such as the one with their friend Clementine, to get back money stolen by a bad buy to do a good deed.
Newsflash for anyone wanting to write a story of the 1880s West: Because of the wide open spaces, there were a fair number of black people who did settle there, because they could live away from others and not be bothered as much as in the bigger cities in the east. If you want to portray things realistically, have your characters occasionally encounter black ranchers or farmers or blacksmiths and other hard jobs. This series, like many others, only includes a black person when he is the focus of the show: Otherwise, they are nowhere to be found.
Joshua and Thaddeus are riding along in the western wilderness far from civilization when suddenly a bounty hunter gets the drop on them, hiding behind a rock, and captures them, announcing that he is going to turn them in for the $20,000 reward.
The gimmick is that the bounty hunter is black, a former slave named Joe. He is going to take them, not to the nearest town's sheriff because he "isn't very friendly to black folks" but to another town about two days ride away.
As the captured heroes ride along, a snake scares Joe's horse and throws him. Our guys ride away, escaping, while Joe gets back up and tries to chase them, recklessly shooting and somehow happens to shoot a horse. The horse belonged to some men-who didn't seem to have any reason to be out there in the middle of nowhere. They decide they are going to hang Joe for accidentally shooting their horse.
Thaddeus and Joshua, somehow look back in their wild escape attempt, see what is happening to Joe and decide they can rescue him by firing off shots at the group and then they'll ride off. They chase away the group of men, but Joe frees himself so fast he is able to quickly capture our heroes before they can get away.
Later the trio encounters another group of men. They ask and learn the story of our trio, and after letting them pass, decide to overpower Joe and take his prisoners into town to get the reward themselves. Their leader is about to shoot Joe, but Thaddeus gets loose and shoots-Lone Ranger style-the gun out of his hand.
Unfortunately, his gun only had the one bullet, so Joe was quickly able to recapture our heroes again.
I think you can figure how this all ends up.
The improbability of Joe being able to capture our heroes so many times when they seem to have gotten away was one problem. The fact that EVERY group of white men they encountered was totally hostile to this black man, one of them lecturing Joe about how it wasn't right for him to try to capture any WHITE man, seems a bit extreme. Of course, our heroes had all the politically correct attitudes toward Joe, so much so you'd think they were living in the 1970s instead of the 1870s-oh wait, they were.
This show was so politically correct that we never heard Joe's race mentioned except to use the term "black." The word or words far more common in the Old West were never used.
I get that most whites then wouldn't want to have Joe as a neighbor or co-worker. They wouldn't want him to date their daughter. But simply seeing a black guy doing an honest job while these people were far from home, simply should not have gotten them to be so hostile to Joe.
I really disliked Joe when, after Kid saved his life two different times, still wanted to turn them in for the reward. His explanation about how gratitude was taken out of him "a long time ago" just didn't work for me.
My other main criticism is that the plot was so weak: Guys get captured, get loose, repeat and repeat. They have no focus other than getting away. The best Smith & Jones episodes have them on a mission, such as the one with their friend Clementine, to get back money stolen by a bad buy to do a good deed.
Newsflash for anyone wanting to write a story of the 1880s West: Because of the wide open spaces, there were a fair number of black people who did settle there, because they could live away from others and not be bothered as much as in the bigger cities in the east. If you want to portray things realistically, have your characters occasionally encounter black ranchers or farmers or blacksmiths and other hard jobs. This series, like many others, only includes a black person when he is the focus of the show: Otherwise, they are nowhere to be found.
