Review
by Jeff Jarvis
TV Guide/March 4, 1995



The Marshal ABC, Saturdays, 10 P.M./ET

I love a surprise, on TV at least. And The Marshal is a most pleasant surprise, for this is not just another cop show. Sure, it's filled with bullets, bad guys, blood, and bravado. But unlike most cop shows, it's also filled with surprises. It takes a lot of work to do the unexpected. Anyone can watch Matlock and produce another easy, predictable show just like it -- many do. But at least in its first few episodes, The Marshal tries hard to be unpredictable. It's all in the timing.

Without the gimmicks of other hip shows -- the insistent bass beat of Miami Vice or the convulsive camera work of Homicide -- this series catches us off guard with simpler skills; good plotting, writing, and directing, plus sly humor. We see a stripper peel off her cowboy outfit and then --surprise!-- whip out her six-shooter and hold up her admirers. That's a shock you'd never get on Murder, She Wrote.

Jeff Fahey, the marshal of the title, is just as unpredictable. In his first appearance in the series, he is only a voice hiding in a snowdrift as he corners and captures a big thug who has outrun, outshot and scared three other cops.

A few minutes later, we watch a fugitive try to stay one step ahead of Fahey. She fails. Suddenly, we hear his voice, then see the back of his head as he explains how he caught up to her: "I love helicopters." He sounds more like a leading man than a bully with a badge. He's strong and decent, with the single-minded determination of the Lone Ranger. But he's also cynical, with the squint of an X-Files agent. He's tough, but he's also a family man, returning to his kids at the end of a show. All in all, he's just a heckuva lot smarter, more sophisticated, and more fun to watch than Walker, Texas Ranger.

But half of what makes The Marshal better than your average cop show is not the cop -- it's the criminals. Most television bad guys are all bad; they're one layer deep. But Fahey's cons have three dimensions. In fact, it turns out the bad guy in the series premiere (which already aired) isn't so bad after all; she was framed for a '70s murder by a wacko boyfriend. Fahey knows it and lets her go -- ruining his perfect record of always getting his man (or woman) -- just because it's right. I'm not sure that's a credible thing for his character to do. But I appreciate the point: This cop is a human. He's different.

We'll see how long The Marshal manages to keep up its zigzag storytelling and clever winks. It'll be hard. But I don't want to predict that fate for The Marshal. I want to be surprised.