I'm admittedly a very big Bruce Campbell fan, I love both his books (which are surprisingly touching in places), all his terrible B movies even.
I can't really say too much more than other fans of this show said so well 20 years ago now (20 years???), most reviews being contemporary to when this was airing.
I love the historical inaccuracies that place this series on a different Earth than our own, one where Wolfe was beaten on the Plains of Abraham and Canada remained/become more fully French, being ruled by Napoleon; it leads so much more room for the writers to take things in completely unexpected directions with history completely fluid and mostly unknown. Things like that, other little things like the peg-legged pirate dancing a jig on top of a pub table in the opening credits even (such a little touch, but there are soooo many little touches like that) have made this a show I've never forgotten and watch every few years or so from beginning to end still (on DVD, I'd so love a Bluray release).
This is one of those series that I cherish as almost "all mine" because it's so unknown to the average TV watcher, or maybe even fan of the Sam Raimi films Mr. Campbell starred in. Another side of me just thinks about what an absolute pity that this didn't catch on the way I think it could have if, say, it came out today with audiences having an increased tolerance if not even penchant for quirky settings and scripts.
For a historical comedy-action series, this way so very much ahead of its time, and I really believe it would have done fantastically ratings wise if it were to come out as a new series on Netflix in 2020, it would be a smash hit. It was worthy of a good 5 or 6 seasons I think before it could get stale because of such a wide breadth of directions the writers could have taken this, and a very real seeming emotional rapport between the two leads. But, alas, not to be and all that, but for the episodes that were produced, they are just that much more precious to me by how relatively few there are.
If you are a fan of 60s screwball action-adventure-comedy series or films (I was reminded a bit in very good ways of the "Our Man Flint" series, or even "Get Smart"), I'm quite sure you'd like this, but it isn't a prerequisite by any means. If you enjoy light historical set-pieces, you'll like this as well I figure. If you can see past the old aspect ratio, the video quality for it's time and on DVD only is excellent, as is the sound, and there are even some ultra-creative shots that I don't remember seeing anywhere else, either in film or TV, ever, and I have an eye on cinematography almost instinctually, I'm almost always on the lookout for innovative shots or lighting (even at the expense of blowing up my suspension of disbelief).
I missed this myself when it was first out until a good year at least after it was cancelled, and I was already somewhat of a Bruce Campbell fan, which says a lot about the lack of promotion that kind of doomed the series. If I had known it even existed during its run I wouldn't have missed an episode for anything. It's a real shame series aren't given time to develop (there was a series on Fox a few years ago that was announced as cancelled before the pilot episode had even finished it's airing!). MASH, Cheers, etc., were huge ratings bombs for several seasons before they got their footing and went out to be these huge iconic series that make imagining TV history difficult without them in the picture. I wonder how many other series that could have become just as iconic were strangled in the crib?
For a nice light, funny, sometimes sexy in an innocent way, with good action sequences, and a very distracting binge-watch through what is shaping up to be a very long winter with COVID-19 infections spiking in Europe and the US, this is just the kind of engaging, but easy to watch, mindless fun that maybe all of us could use a bit more of.