The Sixth Gun TV Pilot

Well, well, well... 

After 11 long years, the rejected pilot for the Sixth Gun (based on the critically-acclaimed comic by Cullen Bunn) has finally turned up online!

As a huge fan of the source material and the writer of the Sixth Gun Roleplaying Game for Pinnacle Entertainment Group, I have been eager to see this pilot for a very long time, and today, I finally carved out 42 minutes to kick back and give it a look-see.

Without turning this post into a full-fledged review (I’m sure you can find one or two of those online already), I will say that the pilot is quite ambitious and it gets a LOT right, however it is also plagued by a few oddities that make it less than perfect:

1. It’s obvious that titles, captions, and a few visual effects are not in any way final. The visit to the Hanging Tree, for example, is a clear example of some of those incomplete VFX which, unfortunately, ruin what should have otherwise been a phenomenal sequence!
2. Pedro Pascal (yes, THAT guy) appears here as Agent Ortega and is fine in the role, however, he LOOKS like he should have been Drake Sinclair, even down to the moustache, hat, and tie. Meanwhile, Michael Huisman as Drake does a decent job, but comes across more as a fast-talking rogue versus a driven and haunted soldier in an ongoing war for reality. Additionally, how could someone look at Drake’s appearance in the comics and then do a complete 180 from his signature ‘stache, dapper suit, gloves, and bowler?
3. In the comics, Becky Montcrief is instantly recognizable by her flaming mane of red hair, yet here, she appears as a blonde. That said, Laura Ramsey still does a good job.
4. Continuing with the hair theme, Missy Hume, as presented in the comics, sports long, raven-black hair, but inexplicably, in the pilot, she’s the one with a mountain of red hair! Elena Satine still delivers a good performance and it’s nice that we get see her in her aged form for one quick scene.
5. I can think of no reason why the name of Missy’s saloon was changed from “the Silver Palace” in the comics to “the Emerald Palace” in the pilot. I’ve never been much of a fan of change for change’s sake.
6. The hard rock music tracks (mercifully used sparingly during a few fierce battles) are jarring and completely out of place. I get what they were trying to do, but I would have instead preferred a powerful, dramatic score during these moments.
7. I would have LOVED to have seen General Hume in all his undead glory, but alas, all we get is a bloodshot eye, a grim voice, and a couple dusty hands in the last 10 seconds of the presentation.

As for things I quite liked:

1. James Le Gros, in an understated role as Billjohn, is spot-on! Had Billjohn’s story unfolded as presented in the books, it would have been interesting to have seen if Le Gros would have continued in the role as a silent reanimated husk or if they would have ignored that storyline altogether.
2. It’s nice seeing René Auberjonois as Becky’s stepfather, Gregory.
3. The Six Guns, with Roman numerals emblazoned on their grips, look very nice. I wonder where those props wound up.
4. The opening attack on the monastery, with Silas wielding the Fourth Gun to great effect, is exciting stuff, and the husks exploding out of their graves is pretty awesome!
5. I quite like the way the flashes of both future and past are handled when Becky uses the Sixth Gun.

Overall, this pilot is pretty entertaining. On the one hand, it packs too much into its short running time, while on the other hand, it leaves a LOT of great material out with the assumption that those things (the rest of Silas’ gang, for example) would have been revealed in future episodes.

If you’re looking for a little weirdness in your westerns, give the pilot a look. If you want to really see what the Sixth Gun is all about, read the dang comics (and there are plenty of them out there) and get your hands on the RPG (the core book is still available in both softback and PDF from Pinnacle Entertainment Group)!