So there’s a new show on BBC America
called Copper that is getting a lot of attention on the Western blogs
and web sites. Interesting that, in that it takes place entirely in New
York City. It does take place in the 1860’s, and being set in the 19th
century seems to be enough to make something a western to most people (I’m
looking at you, All-Star Western). Having a lawman carrying a
sixgun doesn’t make you a western, though. Without even the idea that
there is freedom over the horizon, where is the draw to move on, grow,
expand?
I’m watching the show now and looking
at the fetid squalor of the immigrant tenements, lingering in the shadows of
privilege. A good part of my family ended up in the Philadelphia versions
of places like that in the 19th century, many others ended up
working in coal mines not too far away. I’m not sure which would be
preferable. They are still better than poverty, pograms, and political
oppression in the homelands, but not much.
So how is the show? Not
bad. Ain’t no western, that’s for sure. The acting is good, though, the
plot is interesting, and the anachronisms not too bad. It manages to have
an Irish character without Irish nostalgia, a rare feat indeed. If
anything, an hour of watching the vile corruption in a place where the taint of
aristocracy won’t die and capitalism stomps the downtrodden unchecked sure
makes you respect the purity of a Utah canyonland.
