Lawman

I'm looking forward to "Lawmen: Bass Reeves" (Paramount+). From The Wall Street Journal review:

The real Bass Reeves (played by David Oyelowo) is a great story and the miniseries—the first in a proposed string of biographical adventures called “Lawmen”—is a sturdy, moralistic, traditionalist’s western, in which a conflicted hero guns his way through an entire population of frontier felons. .... Reeves...was born into slavery and became America’s first black deputy marshal west of the Mississippi. Reeves may not be as famous as, say, Wyatt Earp, but he has been a recurring presence in Wild West folklore. “Lawmen” sticks pretty firmly to the truth as it is known, though not everything is known. ....

How Bass Reeves becomes Bass Reeves, and why he comes to the attention of Isaac Parker (Donald Sutherland), the real-life federal judge for what was known as the Indian Territory, involves Bass’s time among the Choctaw. There, he learns their language and becomes a lethal marksman as well as something of a diplomat. Parker admits to Bass that he wanted a black man for the marshal’s job—to better deal with the Native American areas from which he’d have to extract fugitives. But Parker also wanted Bass, and the exchanges between Messrs. Sutherland and Oyelowo are composed of some of the better acting in the series. ....

“Lawmen: Bass Reeves” is an action series that applies moral questions to its action. This doesn’t make the gunplay any less enjoyable, but it does make it seem more intelligent. And if this reviewer seems to be rationalizing, it probably says something about the show’s entertainment value, and the solid performance by Mr. Oyelowo, from whom no black American biopic is safe....

John Anderson, "‘Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ Review: Freedom on the Frontier," The Wall Street Journal, November 3, 2023.