Lawmen: Bass Reeves is a TV miniseries airing on Paramount+ and starring David Oyelowo and Dennis Quaid. It recounts the history of Bass Reeves, the first black deputy US marshal and the first to operate west of the Mississippi River.
This series contains examples of:
- Adopted to the House: After fleeing to the Seminole Nation, Bass is taken in by Sara, a widow who happens to need an extra hand on her homestead.
- Artistic License – History: Judge Isaac Parker is played by Donald Sutherland, who was 88 at the time. He's introduced in 1875 when the actual Parker was around 37.
- As the Good Book Says...: George Reeves quotes a Bible passage about slaves and servants obeying their masters when Bass gets rightfully upset after George cheated in a card game that had Bass's freedom on the line. Bass counters with one about being fair in your practices before he beats George into a bloody pulp.
- Asshole Victim:
- In the first episode, George Reeves is brutally beaten after promising Bass his freedom if he wins a card game and then cheating.
- Esau is killed by Bass for his illegal re-enslavement operation, stripped of all of his possessions after his death, and has his mansion burned to the ground while his African-American prisoners are freed by Bass.
- Bait-and-Switch: Episode 6 ends with the implicaition that Esau killed Jackson Cole while transporting him to Fort Worth. Episode 8 reveals that Jackson Cole was taken into Esau's mansion as a slave in everything but name.
- Category Traitor: Bass is accused by another black man after he arrests an old black lady of being only a jumped up slave catcher.
- Dirty Cop: Esau Pierce is the true identity of "Mister Sundown", using his position as a Texas Ranger to capture "expendable" outlaws, many of them African-American, and use them as his personal slave workforce in all but name.
- Disappeared Dad: Bass never knew his father too much, since he was sold prior to his birth. They only let him visit later at Christmas, then he'd be gone again.
- Driven to Suicide: Sherill shoots himself when his leg gets caught in a trap, knowing it would be a slow death for him otherwise.
- Dual Wielding: Esau uses two revolvers at once while shooting.
- Due to the Dead: In the second episode, Bass stops to give a murdered priest a proper burial.
- Hanging Judge: Judge Parker is known to never give convicted murderers anything but death when he sentences them, as we see during the series.
- Hollywood Atheist:
- Bass' enslaver George Reeves questions how he can still truly believe there's a just God or Heaven, while being a cruel, deceitful man.
- Later Deputy US Marshal Sherill Lynn also expresses disbelief in God, while he's a bitter man with a grudge against Native Americans over some attacking him during the American Civil War.
- Esau has abandoned religion and views it as something to be overcome so he could become dominant with no restrictions, saying Bass should too.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Calista is a friendly young prostitute who Billy falls for. He doesn't hold her profession against her, wanting Calista to marry him (though she declines).
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: To learn who Mr. Sundown is, Sherill beats up a prisoner and then Bass threatents him with his gun.
- Made a Slave: It turns out Esau is illegally enslaving black men who are mostly wanted and facing a death sentence, coercing them into working on his ranch as otherwise they would be hanged.
- The Magic Poker Equation: Subverted. During the poker game against George Reeves, Bass ends up with an extremely good hand. George gets an even better hand. However, Bass realizes that Georges hand is impossible since it contains a card that has already been discarded from play. As it turned out, George was cheating all along and merely getting Bass's hopes up by giving him such a good hand.
- Mercy Kill:
- Bass kills One Charlie, a Native suspect who's on fire, to end his misery.
- Later his wife Jennie shoots a calf dead who's dying after coyotes had attacked and partly eaten it.
- Billy Crow finishes off an outlaw who he wounded with a shot to the head after Bass urges him to, since there's no doctor nearby that can help.
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Sherrill Lynn is a US marshal who is mostly on the up-and-up, but he's also bigoted against natives from nearly being killed and scalped by native soldiers under Stand Watie's command during the Civil War.Bass: It's hard for a man to put his hate behind him.Sherrill: Oh hell, Bass, I ain't even tryin'.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Jackson Cole reveals to Bass that he witnessed the cruelty James Neblett was capable of as the owner of Rockrose Plantation during his service in the Union Army, burning his own slaves to death on a false claim that they took up arms against him even after their freedom had been guaranteed by the Emancipation Proclamation and Union victory in the Civil War. As such, when Jackson heard that Neblett was running for the state legislature with plans for oppressing African-Americans once more, he decided to kill him so that no one would have to ever suffer under the hands of a monster like Neblett.
- Quick Draw: Bass shows himself to be one in the first episode while pulling a revolver and shooting dead three slave patrollers within seconds. This continues throughout the series.
- Rage Breaking Point: In the first episode, Bass loses his temper and beats his master half to death after his master cheats him in a card game after having promised him freedom if he won.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Subverted with George Reeves. At first, George seems less bigoted than his fellow whites, as he treats Bass slightly better, but the facade ends when he cruelly pushes Bass to play cards with him, promising him freedom if he wins and then cheating, if not rigging the game entirely, to play a horrendously cruel joke on him.
- Judge Isaac Parker, on the other hand, plays this trope straight; although he is a stoic, intimidating figure who is known as a Hanging Judge for his strict dedication to enforcing the law, he proves to be a noble man who does care for the people working for him, as shown when he suggests lighter assignments to Bass after he picks up on his troubled thoughts regarding Esau.
- Rejected Marriage Proposal: Billy asks Calista, a pretty young prostitute he's sweet on, to marry him, which she declines. However, in the series finale he's set to ask her again after getting a very expensive ring from Esau Pierce’s estate.
- Religious Bruiser: Bass is a deeply-religious man who's also supremely good with guns.
- Sexy Discretion Shot:
- Bass comes back to his wife after a long time off at war. They begin to kiss and undress, then the scene changed. After it returns to them it's made clear they had sex.
- The scene also changes to afterward when Billy starts getting intimate with Calista.
- Slave Liberation:
- Bass frees himself from slavery by running away to Indian Territory. Before long as well all enslaved black people are freed by the Thirteenth Amendment.
- On finding that many black men have been illegally enslaved by Esau in Texas, Bass frees them with Billy Crow, sending them off to safety afterward.
- Someone to Remember Him By: When Bass reunites with his wife at the end of the pilot, he learns that he gave her a daughter, Sally, before he went away. He's delighted to learn that he's a father.
- Stab the Scorpion: After arguing over whether or not to use their prisoner's knowledge of where the treasure from his latest stagecoach robbery, Bass pulls out his revolver. His posseman, who had wanted to split the treasure, believes that Bass is going to shoot him for attempted theft. Bass just saw the Underwood Gang, who had robbed the stage, sneaking up to "liberate" the prisoner and ensure that he couldn't talk.
- U.S. Marshal: The miniseries recounts the life and career of Bass Reeves, the first black Deputy US Marshal west of the Mississippi. Several other Deputy US Marshals are also supporting characters.
- Would Harm a Child: Esau murders poor Curtis in cold blood.
