Joe Pickett is a must watch for any western fan. It seems most people who've watched it seem to really like it. The only people who seem not to like it are fans of the book that are mad that it isn't exactly like the book. They don't understand that it's based off the book and has to be adapted for television. Try not to compare it to the book and just take it for what it is and that's a very good show. This started off as a Spectrum original but gained a much bigger audience when it went to Paramount Plus. I have to say I really didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I'm really looking forward to more seasons in the coming years.
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Rob13316 September 2023
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Supermanfan-136 September 2023For some reason I've been putting off watching Joe Pickett ever since it came out. Now that I've actually seen it I'm mad at myself for waiting so long. It was so much better than I expected it to be. I'm not sure why I waited so long because I'm a big fan of westerns. Michael Dorman is terrific as Joe Pickett. I remember Dorman from one of the most underrated shows of all-time in Patriot. This is another underrated show that he's terrific in. It's not the best show I've seen but it's definitely worth watching. It may start a little slow for some but stick with because after an episode or two it becomes addicting and the next thing you know you're going to want to binge it as fast as you can.
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vqyzxncq29 December 2021As a huge fan of the books I had reservations. Especially after Big Sky turned out to be such a disappointment. I was won over quickly by the actors. They brought the world of the novels to life for me. Joes commitment to his family,job,and sense of right and wrong is a breath of fresh air in our troubled times. One quibble would be the casting of Nate as a softer guy than I would have liked but future seasons could correct that. Please make more seasons!
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melaine-1396922 September 2022Joe Pickett is my choice for best Neo-western. I am a big Yellowstone fan, but I have never felt like the characters capture the essence of the old western protagonist. Unlike Yellowstone, Joe Pickett has the same great character qualities of characters like Ben Cartwright and Marshall Dillon. I like that Joe is a underestimated hero throughout the show. I also love his smart and level headed wife, Mary Beth. They make a lovable couple and team. I like that they both grew up in bad situations and the show often shows them overcoming past trauma. I like that Joe is clearly the good guy of this story and I really rooted for him the whole time. The only complaint I have is the CGI elk. Why do they look like that?
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djcmnv2 January 2022Been so tired of the trash being put out that it was refreshing to watch this show.. It's back to basics... Other than a few scenes that could have been shot better, the story plot, suspense, and acting all support ne another. A very cohesive thriller that relies on all three. A real art... and no fake.action scenes used as fillers. I.m hoping and looking forward for more to come.
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supermellowcali1 January 2022Series one: well done production, good story details and character motivation. The cast is excellent and acting overall good. This is a soft thriller, not overly violent and fairly realistic. The first episode is representative, but the story becomes complex and interrelated as it continues...
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vickenn7 December 2021I have lived in Wyoming all of my life and we do not have southern accents, it's like they were trying to make the characters stereotypical country hicks.
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WinnieWillow4 September 2023A bit sappy, but good enough storyline throughout the entire series. You couldn't pay me enough to live in Saddlestring , a horrid place, as pretty as it is.(It was filmed in Alberta CA ) I didn't read the books, but teachers and police are portrayed as idiots and/ or incredibly corrupt with Joe , a troubled and depressed game warden, and his likable family ,the only decent people around , with the weight of straightening out all the horrible misdeeds in the area while staying alive since everyone wants to harm them.it's pretty obvious who will become the bad guy early in each season, but it's the twists to get there that are entertaining.
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barcmeister495816 April 2022Wasn't sure about the show for the first few minutes-seemed like it might be hokey but I'm glad we persevered and watched it further. Really great storyline, loved the characters and the comedic relief throughout and it had great scenery to boot. Really enjoyed this.
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Badger121016 August 2023Many TV shows will, in the end, not be perfect with things like poor cgi, editing, writing and acting. For the most part, Picket was pretty darn good for the first 6 episodes before any major issue surfaced.
By episodes 7-9 the needed information or thing just started to fall into the lap of the good guys and the bad guys seemed to get dumber or suddenly acted out of character. Episode 8 went on way too long and episode 9 wrapped up halfway through.
There is a little environmental preaching in here and what little there is fits into the overall story and I don't feel like I have been clubbed.
Even with that the show was entertaining and I found myself liking the main characters. All of the actors did an excellent job, even the children.
I have never read the books but want to and I will be clicking on season 2 here shortly. -
sd-lister22 July 2023I never read the books, so I'm coming at this based solely on the series, but where Picket was a damaged man in the first series, in this second season he's becoming a pathetic pushover. And just when I thought the writers couldn't tear him down any further, he's now apparently impotent. Picket's character is being so badly written, that it's getting harder to even like or root for him this season. I don't know if this is how Joe is portrayed in the books, but I'm guessing they wouldn't have been popular enough to become a series if he was. The same is happening to Nate, to a lesser degree, with the absolutely annoying character of Cricket, a person who seems utterly oblivious to the danger around her or Nate's repeated efforts to keep her safe, her constant whining notwithstanding.
Aside from these two characters, plot holes abound, along with people making silly decisions that really stretch credulity. And then there are the repeated assaults against Picket, physical beatings, guns in the face, all the way up to attempted murder, with zero repercussions or consequences. It's all treated like nothing more than an insult, which is exactly what it is to the audience. There's a lot more, but I don't care enough to waste anymore time on this show. I'll finish the season with two episodes left, mainly because I'm a completionist, but I'm not excited about it. At all. -
skycvg29 December 2021Really enjoyed the plot twists and turns, a refreshing change to the same old, hope it continues. Found myself wanting just one more week. Spectrum has a winner here.
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debbiedeanln27 December 2021Honestly, I appreciate the effort to stay close to the characters & storyline - this production has done it much bettter than most book to film adaptations but I was shocked to see Nate. The actor is giving it his best shot but casting a big beefy African American to play the part of a tall, wiry, white ex special forces guy is jarring when you know the books. Kind of like casting Tom Cruise as 6'5" Jack Reacher, it just doesn't really work. Someone like Eric Christian Olsen would have been a much closer physical fit. And Missy really needs to be more of a snobby bitch, but all in all, i'm hoping that there wil be more than 10 episodes. It's a good start.
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sonflower-968968 December 2021I'm hooked. Believable characters in the great outdoors, with a good storyline and the occasional heartwarming or comical relief. It's easy to look past minor flaws, when the acting is as good as the writing. (Not that there were flaws to gloat about.). I watch a fair amount of fantasy-sci-fi, which have much more visible flaws.
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jackie-507324 September 2023Wow. On the one hand, the main characters of the Pickett family are really great people, each character in their own right. However, if I had to judge how the two parents behave in situations relevant to the story, I would have to describe parts of their decisions as extremely stupid and simple-minded.
Were the characters intentionally created so naively in the script? It must have hurt to write it. Otherwise a great series. A nature that is really worth seeing, so pretty that I could easily imagine living there. Aside from the trigger-happy idiots who are recurringly sketched throughout the series.
A short-lived, great series with a lot of entertainment value, but also painfully stupid acting characters. -
musicnetwork-850331 January 2022The story is good, and from what I gather from other reviews, this is because it's based on a book series which many seem to find upper-tier enjoyable.
I gave this 7 stars more for the story than for the actual production, direction and acting. My main complaint is with the directing. There are quite a lot of scenes that could have been way better. Some of this is caused by weak/silly dialogue, and some is caused by plain overall poor direction.
If whoever was in charge had hired Nick Gomez, the director of Sundance's Hap and Leonard series, it would have been a much better fit in my opinion. Right now it just seems like a lot of wasted potential. Hopefully someone will smarten up and hire a better director and possibly different producers for more seasons. Given the state of TV and movies these days, it's doubtful though.
Still overall worth a watch in my opinion. -
chiefjournalist26 August 2022Paramount+ Has done it again. They've added a solid western drama series to their lineup.
New Zealander Michael Dorman (of "For all Mankind) gets his star turn as the title character and turns in a solid performance as the honest game warden in a corrupt county.
Pickett, transfers into his new job and begins to shake things up by enforcing the law and looking into things.
And we people and animals begin dying under suspicious circumstances... Pickett finds he must not only enforcing the rules, he needs to keep his family out of harm's way. -
b-peacock-156-13740814 August 2023Generally good overall but why make Nate R black, smaller and a less important component of tbe story. , it makes no sense. NR is supposed to be an imposing fellow, very tall, blond hair, pony tall and with a temper and known as the viking. If the characteris going to disappear, both in essence and actuality why keep tbe name? The girl playing Sheldon has a most annoying voice but maybe that's just me, also too much cgi for me. Otherwise character development was decent, as was most of the acting. I would recommend that anyone that hasn't done so that they read the books, there is more depth to them.
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snowdogmom-710-8055031 January 2022First, this review is from the perspective of a fan of the book series. I've read all 21 books multiple times and have lived with these characters for years. Those not familiar with the books may have a different perspective about the content of the show.
Second, I was really looking forward to this series praying the adaptation for TV would do the material justice.
Third, I watched all 10 episodes with an open mind knowing the adaptation for TV would not exactly follow the books. I didn't really know the prior work of most of the cast except for Sharon Lawrence and David Allen Grier so started with pretty much a blank slate for the actors playing the characters. I saw the trailer early on and have to say my heart sank on seeing the portrayal of Joe.
First the positives: They need a new trailer as Michael Dorman's portrayal of Joe grew on me. I have no problem with how Joe was portrayed once I watched multiple episodes and think Michael did a good job. They do need to ditch Joe's hat no self respecting Game Warden would wear a hat like that. He needs a true Cowboy hat! Joe's hat is also a major element in the books. I also had no problem with David Allen Grier's portrayal of Vern even though he did not fit the book description of the character. I also thought Patrick Gallagher as Sheriff Barnum was a good fit. They based these 10 episodes on the first Joe Pickett book Open Season which has a good storyline.
Now the negatives: Even though the episodes followed the Open Season storyline they merged in elements from book 3 Winterkill which is where Nate is introduced in the book series and the connection between Nate, Joe and Joe's family takes hold. Then they took the Scarlett family characters from Book 6 In Plain Sight and totally changed how they interact with Joe, the wardens, and the town. I guess just to introduce more villains to the TV plot. For me it was too much of a mashing together of elements from several of the books. I really thought overall the TV scripts were weak and if you hadn't read the book I think how they tried to relate the backgrounds and relationships between the characters was confusing. I thought the flashbacks were way overdone and they really annoyed me. Joe's "childhood" was not the main focus of his character in the books and he wasn't as damaged in the books as the series makes him out to be. What people like about the books is that Joe is an "everyman" with not a lot of old baggage to overcome. The book Winterkill was one of my favorites of the book series and that storyline was was so good and how the relationship developed between Nate, Joe, and Joe's family was interesting and FUNNY. I was extremely disappointed in how they melded the introduction of the Nate character in the TV series using pieces from Winterkill including in a few cases dialog word for word from the book but leaving out other major interactions that are the basis for future book storylines and retained NONE OF THE HUMOR. I hated how they introduced Marybeth to Nate as compared to the books. I also hate that they changed the MaryBeth character to be almost be unrecognizable making her a lawyer. I guess they didn't have the budget to pay actors to play lawyers so they thought they'd get two for one with making Marybeth a lawyer and not a Librarian. This leads me to believe if there are subsequent seasons they will not be doing the Winterkill storyline which is a major shame.
The writing for the MaryBeth character and Joe's daughters was disappointing. The Sheridan character had no spark as in the books. The casting was off for all of them as they and Nate are the most described characters in the books and casting an actor for April that was much taller and bigger than the actor playing Sheridan was ridiculous since April is younger than Sheridan. Marybeth and the Pickett Girls are described over and over in the books as stunning green eyed blonds. They are starting off Joe's girls older in the series than they are in the 1st book. The only actor that I thought I would love when I heard the casting news and would knock it out of the park for sure was Sharon Lawrence as Missy. Sharon could easily play book Missy, a real spitfire, but unfortunately in the TV series Missy was written as a pathetic alcoholic and Sharon did her best but couldn't do much with a bad script. A major disappointment. Having Missy and Deputy McLanahan jumping in bed was laughable for us book fans. He didn't have the minimum required bank account to interest book Missy. The actor playing McLanahan was way too young for the McLanahan in the books, even the early books. Bad casting yet again.
Now for the character of Nate! Nate is by far my favorite character in the books and adds excitement and humor to the storylines. I was so looking forward to his character. I tried to keep an open mind when they cast a stocky, black, short haired actor when Nate in the books is described as an intelligent, intense, man of few words, tall, lanky, long haired ponytailed, Blond, blue-eyed, ex special forces operative, master Falconer in tune with nature, staying off the Grid in WY. Ignoring the fact that if you're trying to stay off the grid and not stand out why would a black ex special forces operative pick WY to blend in? Did they check the demographics for WY? To me it insults the intelligence of the viewers. So ignoring that they cast basically a total opposite type for Nate I wanted to see what Mustafa would do with the character since CJ Box stated in an interview that the producers wanted to pick an actor that could portray the "essence" of Nate and weren't concerned about the physical looks of the actor matching the books. Box said the producers had a hard time finding an actor that portray Nate. Well they failed on several fronts! How they wrote Nate and how Mustafa portrayed Nate was NOTHING like Nate in the books. There was absolutely no "smoldering charisma" as how Nate was described in one of the books. The whole Nate bad-ass "presence" just wasn't there. In fact in one scene Joe's character looked taller than Nate. They took a great part of the WInterkill book where they take Nate into custody and gutted it. Nate "camping" on park land is ridiculous for someone trying to stay off the governments radar. They changed Nate's backstory saying he was thrown out of the service and gave him a wife that was murdered. Really! Totally changes the reason why book Nate is how he is. Total miscasting and taking a pivotal interesting book character and making him lackluster at best. Without a solid Nate character I'm not interested in watching.
Missy and Nate add the spice to the stories and the writing for TV fell way short for Missy and was an all around failure for Nate.
The animal sequences seemed low budget. The CGI ELKS were unbelievable. Joe using a .22 rifle was also such a joke. Not sure what Nate was wielding but the Freedom Arms 454 Casull is also a major player in the stories. Will they have the budget for it or for actual Falcons if this gets a season 2. Doubt they can pull off the storylines or have the budget for Winterkill, Free Fire, or Force of Nature which are my favorites of the books. The worst thing they can do is use Open Season's storyline for season one and then abandon doing any of the subsequent book storylines and attempt to do there own scripts with the characters. The Scarlett clan and the book they were in, In Plain Sight, were actually one of my least favorites. It looks like they are going to use the Scarletts as typical "rich" entitled villains, boring!
There was a lack of chemistry with the cast overall and lackluster/convoluted writing. Missing the mark on both make this a major disappointment for me compared to the books. -
tmfwctt10 July 2022In the books Nate is a major character who saves Joe repeatedly. He was only barely present in this season and they never explained why he was even in it or what happened to him. Would have been a 10 if I'd never read 15 of the books. I really hope it keeps going.
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bburkhill10 February 2022After watching the first episode I was astounded that they'd changed the character of Nate, a 6'2" blonde white American is now an Afro American, weren't there any actors that matched the description in the books?
Lee Child did it first selling his soul to the dollar with a 5'2" Tom Cruise cast as 6'4" 245lb Jack Reacher.
Why can't film Makers for TV or the Studio have the cast as portrayed in the book. Did they feel that they had to tick all of the right PC boxes. -
amyallan-0357312 December 2021I am a hug fan of CJ Box..and I fell in love with the Joe Pickett series.:I'm not a huge fan of reading books but CJ Box ..he sucked me in and gave me the passion of reading books...n ver thought it could happen to me.:but it did.:the show doesn't align as close as the first book, but does it ever? .. I love the the character playing Joe..he is just as I pictured in my mind while reading:..I say keep running the series but put it on Netflix or Prime where people can have easy access to such a freaking fabulous CJ Box, Joe Pickett Series.
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bobetjo2 September 2023Joe Picket is simultaneously engrossing, exciting and silly. Set in the Wyoming wilds, new game warden Joe manages to embarrass himself in his first week in town before accidentally interfering in a corrupt plot where every villain possible comes out the woodwork. Poor old Joe hasn't a clue what is happening as the bodies pile higher than Midsomer Murders. Meanwhile the sheriff doesn't want to know. The story, based on CJ Box's books doesn't stop moving. The acting is pantomime on occasion. But overall I enjoyed this. Several times there were convincing arguments for having hands free kits in the characters cars.