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Brisco (Bruce Campbell) and Bowler (Julius Carry) are tasked with freeing Jennifer Hart (Ely Pouget), daughter of a powerful newspaper mogul, from the hands of Mexican revolutionary Carlos Falco (Victor Rivers) without causing a war between Mexico and the USA. For this task, Brisco and Bowler recruit a small team consisting of their de-facto sidekick Whip Morgan (Jeff Phillips), lovable bad guy Peter Hutter (John Pyper-Ferguson), Elvis impersonating Sheriff Aaron Viva (Gary Hudson) and scientific genius professor Wickwire (John Astin). Now their scheme to free Jennifer despite being grossly outnumbered by Falco's men works admirably well, there's just one little thing: It doesn't look at all that Jennifer was kidnapped by Falco, she rather appears to be his girlfriend. But whatever, Brisco and Bowler deliver her to their employer, presidential candidate General Quarry, only to learn at handover that Quarry actually only needed her as bait to lure Falco over the US-Mexican border and then use the incident to start a war where Quarry wants to present himself as strong man going into the presidential election. Brisco and Bowler free Jennifer and deliver her back to Falco before he can cross the border, and danger averted ... but it ends with Brisco and Bowler being court-martialed and condemned to death. And episode 26 ends with them being shot by a firing squad. But not shot to death as Wickwire had the good sense to load the soldiers' rifles with rubber bullets. Brisco and Bowler head back to Mexico, but General Quarry sends a squad led by Colonel March (Terry Bradshaw) after them, a squad that soon manages to capture Falco, and Jennifer can escape capture only thanks to Brisco and Bowler. But March and company are determined to hunt them down, and ultimately it's only thanks to Wickwire's latest invention, the blimp, that they escape. Back in the US, President Cleveland (Richard Herd) is preparing for peace talks with the Mexican president, where March is to shoot Cleveland dead in the guise of Falco - but of course, Brisco and Bowler can prevent just that in the last moment and ultimately all charges of treason against them are dropped ...

The series' only two-parter unfortunately was also its very last episode, as despite its quality The Adventures of Brisco County jr just failed to catch on with a wider audience, if mostly for the fact that westerns in general and this kind of western in particular weren't really en vogue in the early-to-mid 1990s. As a swan song, High Treason works inasmuch as it brings many loveable characters back, but inasmuch not as it doesn't give any sort of closure - and the fact that Brisco tells Bowler they'd come back after a hiatus suggests this was never intended as a last episode. All that said, taken by its own terms, this is a fun adventure, even if the politics driving the thing are over-simplified and quite muddy at the same time, the story isn't exactly cliché-free, and as a two-parter the episode also goes on a tad too long - but on the plus side, the characters are all at their best, there's plenty of humour and excitement, and its charm as a continuation of the B-westerns of old is quite disarming, even if probably also one of the reasons the series didn't catch on. In all, not the greatest entry, but a fun watch still.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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