Laramie

[Kitty]

I watched an episode of Laramie today. I knew nothing about it beforehand.

It's set in the 1870s and is about a pair of brothers who try to hold down their ranch after their father's death.

I watched a December 8, 1959 episode, S1E13 entitled Bare Knuckles. Subject: Prize fighting
At first I wasn't sure about this show. I mean, the main actor's name is John Smith for goodness sake! But Hoagy Carmichael is in it, and he's a pretty likable fellow.
I'm not sure if all the episodes are like this, but this story was pretty complex, save for the kind of long prize fighting sequences.
Based on this episode, it's a surprisingly good Western, which apparently went on four 4 seasons.
Have you heard of this?

[Kitty]

Next I watched S1E9 entitled The Run to Tumavaca.

This one's about a pretty young girl who leaves her rich husband because she doesn't know what she wants, runs away to Jess, the ranch's farmhand, and convinces him to take her to Tumavaca Mexico. The husband has hired a couple men to retrieve her, but things get mixy when the husband realizes that the wife stole $65,000 from his safe.

I really think this show is well written, based on these two episodes so far. This ain't no Annie Oakley, I'll tell ya that much!

[donnie]

I’ve heard of it, but have never seen an episode. Sounds interesting.

[Kitty]

I’ve heard of it, but have never seen an episode. Sounds interesting.

I think the acting is pretty good for the most part, and it has some heart.

This next episode I watched was S1E5, The Star Trail.

Jess gets word from a friend that there is trouble in another town, so he visits, only to find his friend dead by the hand of the town troublemaker. Jess confronts the troublemaker, but the sheriff gets involved, eventually resulting in the death of the troublemaker. Jess is made deputy. But that's not the meat of the story: three men rob a bank, Jess gets his man, the sheriff gets his, but the sheriff makes the bad decision of pretending the money was taken by the man who got away. He hides it, and tells his gold digging girlfriend (who previously has yelled at him and told him he's nothing and she will never be with him because he is poor) that suddenly is going to run away and marry him for $42,000.
The sheriff goes on an outing with the girl to retrieve the money he hid. Jess goes to the sheriff's house looking for him after he didn't come back to the station, but there is already a man there, the third bank robber. Jess, of course, wins the fight, and figures the whole thing out. He tries to talk the sheriff out of running away with the money to no avail. There is a scuffle, but Jess shoots first and kills the sheriff.
The disloyal girlfriend of the sheriff quickly tells Jess that she will tell the whole story. Jess, being a very noble fellow, says no, we won't have him remembered like that just because of one mistake. We will tell them that the sheriff found the third man, retrieved the money, but they both were killed in gun fight.

I like how there is so much to the stories, and it isn't merely a one track, one subject affair. There is backstory, and the man who plays Jess is pretty good in my opinion. I thought the man who played the sheriff in this episode was pretty good, too.

[donnie]

I know there was a Western sub-genre referred to as "psychological Westerns" because the plots, character motivations, etc., were more sophisticated, I assume—in contrast to the more simplistic black hat/white hat shoot-'em-up kinds. Would you say Laramie is a psychological Western?

[Kitty]

I know there was a Western sub-genre referred to as "psychological Westerns" because the plots, character motivations, etc., were more sophisticated, I assume—in contrast to the more simplistic black hat/white hat shoot-'em-up kinds. Would you say Laramie is a psychological Western?

I think Laramie could be put into this category.

So far the episodes I have seen have mostly been centered around Jess, the hand, rather than Slim, (John Smith) who is the older brother and supposedly the starring role. I rather like Jess; he is one of those noble types, and it sure helps that he is easy on the eyes.

[donnie]

I rather like Jess; he is one of those noble types, and it sure helps that he is easy on the eyes.

Aha!

Does sound like an interesting show. I'll have to check out an episode of it sometime.