Blue Ridge TV Series Review

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[00:00:52] I lost everything that mattered to me. I hate to break it to you, but your job is still the other one. There's trauma to the back of the head. It was executed. It was like there's a habit of not talking to the law enforcement.

[00:01:17] So what's the plan? We're gonna knock on the door. In a duck. Sheriff's Department. Dangerous game of chicken. This is gonna be fun.

[00:01:49] Oh God. What about your father doesn't scream old school? Outside and around here. Have started a war. My guess is it's gonna get ugly.

[00:02:14] Let me handle this. I'm not interested in justice.

[00:03:29] In this minisode, I will be dissecting the rather recent western action drama Blue Ridge. That's right. It was getting promoted a bunch on Instagram. The main people overseeing it were part of a Magicom Pictures, which produced a lot of stuff for the independent Cowboy Way channel,

[00:03:53] which is an offshoot of the INSP channel, Inspiration, for those who still have cable. But it was a big, big marketing campaign. I could tell that they were just showing people how they could access it, even if you had no longer had cable. You could watch it on Pluto and Flex, a few other channels. Right now cable TV is still your best bet, unless they release a DVD for the show.

[00:04:19] But I was in all the way. I was like, okay, I like Jonathan Shinnok. He's not... No... Or Shock, I think is how I pronounce it. But yeah, he's one of those... Ever since that thing you do, he became a go-to kind of character actor, as well as in psycho dramas like The Doming Generation,

[00:04:41] The Forsaken, and just a bunch of other movies where he'd be playing cops or The Prom Night remake was another one. But yeah, he was just always one of those guys, you know, before he started being in some movies with Frank Grillo and Bruce Willis, he was kind of the go-to for, we need a trader, we need a handsome drifter. He's had a lot of reasonable roles. He's got starred on shows like The Outer Limits and

[00:05:13] had recurring roles on Texas Rising and played Jonah Hex on the DC Comics show Legends of Tomorrow. So I am definitely a fan. I do not mind him at all. I've seen him in TV movies like Blood Crime with James Caan. Yeah, he was a go-to. He never got big big, but he never stopped being a solid actor.

[00:05:36] And yeah, it was pretty clear that his heart was in this material because it's like many of these shows. It's not trying to be a cheap Hallmark show, but it is trying to be something that you can watch with kids while still watch with people who like westerns and cop shows.

[00:05:55] And it had some reasonable editing, solid music, and a good digital look without looking cheap or by the numbers. And it was filmed in North Carolina, which makes sense because Blue Ridge is to indicate that it is set around just the Appalachian Mountains.

[00:06:19] And apparently that is supposed to be a fictional small mountain town, but I like it. They just flat out set it up as this guy. He's a former Marine. He's now a sheriff. His name is Justin Wise. So if that doesn't sound manly, then nothing will. It had a reasonable cast. I saw, oh, hey, Sir Lancaster from Chuck.

[00:06:49] The go-to TV actress. Okay, cool. So she's here as the ex-wife who's still on good terms. A Martinez is another TV legend. I didn't watch many soap operas, but I liked him on Profiler and LA Law. And he has made a huge comeback with both Longmire and Dark Winds as the go-to Navajo Latino actor.

[00:07:15] And he gets to play a councilman this time. But of course, they fleshed this all out, like out of the bounds, like just from just the start. And they had Tom Proctor, who was a go-to heavy guy who many will probably recognize from Guardians of the Galaxy. And I was just like, okay, cool. So they're getting an unusual cast of people who, you know, are always staying busy.

[00:07:41] Bruce Boxletner got to play a rancher for a few episodes. It's like, okay, cool. They're comfortable doing their own thing. I did see the original movie. I had heard of it. Aired in 2020, post-COVID. And I saw that one and it was interesting, but it wasn't quite there yet. But how interesting that they took, you know, an abandoned TV pilot that then became an original TV movie that premiered on the internet and streaming sites.

[00:08:10] And then they decided, okay, let's build on that. Cross the country, take a job in some small town. Sir. Sir. What? We've got a problem, Sheriff. There's no murder weapon. Who are the suspects? At this point, the whole town.

[00:08:39] You sure? Now it's mountain justice. Your wife's murdered. You lied to me about where you were. This town wants answers. Clean this up. You're the bravest man I've ever known. When a man leaves his life, all he has is his legacy. Would I kill for that man? Absolutely. But did I? The innocent people here. It's my family.

[00:09:13] They must have just had delays in working out a deal. But I really dug this. It wasn't something schlocky like Walker, Texas Ranger. And it wasn't trying to imitate all the other stuff. It wasn't a cheap, you know, let's do the CSI thing where there's nothing going on. But we'll get sexy people to song crimes while electronic music, you know, plays. No. It was six episodes. And I was like, okay, cool. We're off to a good start. There was a few occasional, not quite there.

[00:09:43] But it knows exactly what it wants to be. The daughter wasn't annoying. But the family melodrama also was decently worded. Again, not going to win Emmys. But it didn't feel like something like, okay, this is just bottom of the barrel lifetime, you know, Hallmark type cheap stuff. And the deputies had a Navajo background. So it was a very diverse cast as well.

[00:10:11] And again, I liked how Martinez, you know, was getting a lot to do. He's the new councilman. But he has his own agenda. But he's not all bad. So there's some gray area. And again, the sheriff doesn't always have to end the thing. And again, for a PG-like show, like this could easily be something for an NCIS type crowd where it's intense, but not to the point of it's gory or, you know, put the kids to bed.

[00:10:35] So a decent PG, PG-13 show to watch with people who are Western nuts and completists. It appears to be on some Amazon freebie platforms. I did not have any luck finding it on there. So it must be shifting. But yeah, I would like to see this continue. I think this is a decent free four season deal.

[00:11:00] And again, if you like any of these actors or in our tire to just oversaturated mainstream, you know, big budget shit, that's just feeling empty. And you want, again, you want an action mystery show with a Western setting that isn't too intense. You know, yeah, this is the way to go there.

[00:11:22] And I think too, the reason I like this is it was clean in terms of the pacing and editing and style. And, you know, bad guys show up and they're often bikers or outlaws, but they don't just do the dreaded just monologue before I'm about to shoot you only to get shot by the hero. And it's also doesn't always have to in every way.

[00:11:50] And literally someone is getting injured every other episode, including the sheriff. He loses a fight. He's not, again, Mr. Invincible. I'm going to solve the day. So this is clean, again, clean cut in the filmmaking department, but the story isn't. And I mean that in a good way. Like there's surprises every moment. It's not hackneyed. It's not too low budget. It's one of those mid-budget shows that has enough going on.

[00:12:20] And the Western music works for creating the mood instead of feeling like, hey, it just needs to be there just because. And again, I liked how the guy is trying to make the family thing work, but they're not focusing on that every inch. You know, because they want to avoid melodrama, but they also want to show them something to go to at the end of the day. And again, kudos to everybody.

[00:12:46] I bought them as deputies because they are pretty clean cut in their appearance and how they come in and approach every scenario. And the mysteries were all involving everything from, you know, who tried to burn down our jail cell, you know. And now we got to, while we rebuild our police station, we got to hang out in the local church, which again, Councilman is overseeing.

[00:13:12] And some of the other just supporting actors were people I'd recognized. I had seen that they were in other Texas and Louisiana and Georgia productions. So that was cool. But I don't ever feel like, hey, you know, this is just a vanity piece. This is just, you know, shiitake. No, it was pretty solid. Those who are action completists, who want something else new, go for it.

[00:13:39] You really won't feel like it's cheap, you know, steroid-induced cheese. It's really solid. And kudos to anybody who can do their own thing with a mixture of unknowns and semi-knowns. And again, all these actors are at this stage in their career where they're just always going to be giving. They are always going to be needed. And they're always going to give it their all instead of, this is my career on the line. And it was a good follow-up from the movie because that movie wasn't quite there yet.

[00:14:10] It just needed a little more fine-tuning and a little tighter, less cliche writing. And here, this knew exactly what I wanted to be. It was way more comfortable. So perfect example of a show which they sat on it and then they reeled it out. And I think everyone's liking the numbers. The right audience who is looking for this seems to be finding it solid instead of cliche or stupid.

[00:14:37] Now, obviously, it is not a 10 out of 10 star thing, but that goes to be expected. People are always playing games on IMDb. But it's also not a free or for, you know, out of 10 star show either. It's not cheap or soapy or, you know, a vanity piece with nothing that is show. It's got some ideas and I think they're going to continue making good on the Western concept.

[00:15:03] So again, I wouldn't mind seeing more of this because I don't mind having multiple programming. The problem is we either have too much and then we get to the point where there's really not too many options anymore because people keep taking stuff down on streaming and cable. So I would like something like this to be on for a bit just because it's fun to have just other Western options.

[00:15:24] And, you know, my heart goes out to all those Western fans who do want to find something, but they're tired of rewatching all the same old Westerns all over again. So plenty of cowboy stuff here for modern day take. Eat it up, guys. Fun stuff. We'll return after these messages.

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