But because, as a Black man who loves Westerns, I have been complaining for decades about the need for someone to make a great TV show or film about Reeves, a real person who was among the first African Americans to serve as a deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi. (This is a recurring theme which also doesn't get much explanation – how was Reeves able to develop the habit of beating up white men who violate his strong moral code, given how oppressed most Black people were at the time?) One trap the series falls into is showing Reeves as a singular superman – he is the only Black character whose skills, smarts and moral code elevate him above the oppression most of his people faced, even after the Civil War ends.