Walker: Independence (TV Series) Blood & Whiskey (2022) User Reviews

Dueling Plots

[Sarah423 · 10/10 · 21 October 2022]

This episode didn't so much have an A plot and B plot as two A plots. What a wild ride again as we watched.

The "Blood" presumably related to the townie story. The sisters working out their differences, Abby working with Kate and also facing her losses.

(Kat McNamara and Katie Findlay have made me love these characters so much in such a short time.)

Anyone who's ever lived in a truly small town will feel how absolutely authentic this set up is. (No, not all of us live like pioneers, but I connected immediately to how fast news travels. And also how people make it their business to help each other out.)

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The "Whiskey" plot not only furthered the idea of area corruption. It also let the duo of Hoyt and Calian bond. Poor Calian who at the end is on the edge between blood and whiskey, having helped out.

There were points where Matt Barr and Justin Johnson Cortez made me howl. (Others where they had me in my feels)

Stunts were perfectly executed. Timing on jokes landed. Visuals were just stunning.

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I still love that I'm not sure what to make of Kai and Augustus. Kai seems to much a stalwart friend and helper to everyone, but is he a little TOO good to be true? What does the man feel?

Augustus absolutely keeping his thoughts and judgments to himself makes me wonder the same in reverse. He seems to be on Tom Davidson's side, but is he?

Shout out to Lawrence Kao and Philemon Chambers for having that acting challenge--and meeting it well.

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The uncredited main character of this show is the sweeping panorama of 1870's Texas.

The care that's been taken to be realistic while also serving the story is amazing.

Thanks goes to Director Larry Teng for that.

Don't shoot! You'll hit the whiskey!

[militarymuseu-88399 · 6/10 · 22 October 2022]

Abby presses on in her investigation by infiltrating Sheriff Davidson's office, and Calian lends a hand to the Reyes family's rustling problems. Hoyt's past as a con man-preacher catches up with him, and business interests in Independence clash.

W:I's characters are still works in progress, and introduced here are the sisters Margaret and Molly Sullivan, storekeepers who spend most of the day bickering at each other. Deputy Augustus is starting to be drawn into Davidson's mind games, and we also get a look at the Reyes ranch, a bit more realistic-looking than the Ponderosa. Thrown in for action fun is a variation on the stagecoach robbery - but this time a hijacking of a whiskey freight wagon (cannot imagine the typical Western highwayman would expedite a fast getaway after discovering that particular cargo).

While it used to be a somewhat firm rule of tv Westerns that the "respectable" women and the saloon girls did not mix, social relationships are apparently more relaxed in Independence. Also of note is the existence of a whiskey distillery in the nearby town of Angel Springs - maybe someone with local expertise can weigh on, but is Texas whiskey even a thing? Finally, we get some apparently authentic Native language dialogue from Calian's tribal setting, but why Apaches are living in what geographically the Comancheria at least offers a substantial challenge for the writers to overcome.

Now that the character introductions are largely accomplished, hopefully the storylines will strengthen in the coming weeks.