This 2022 Western Series That Flew Under Everyone's Radar Deserves A Second Season
by Joe Roberts · /FilmYou'd think that in a post-"Yellowstone" world, an original Western series with a unique spin on the genre might do well enough to warrant a few seasons. Alas, the AMC+ series "That Dirty Black Bag" remains an underseen Western with great reviews that only lasted a single season.
The show is a riff on the best Spaghetti Westerns, played out over eight episodes and starring Dominic Cooper, who previously fronted Seth Rogen's controversial neo-Western "Preacher." Douglas Booth co-stars in the series, which was created by Mauro Aragoni, Silvia Ebreul and Marcello Izzo — all of whom were relatively green when they came to the show. Aragoni had directed multiple short films, and Izzo had worked as a second unit/assistant director on several series and films. But "That Dirty Black Bag" was the trio's first major collaboration for a United States streamer.
Like classic Spaghetti Westerns of old, the series was filmed in Italy and Spain, with Morocco also serving as a location. But "That Dirty Black Bag" also tried to modernize the genre. It sees Cooper's sheriff face off against a merciless headhunter known for literally beheading his bounties and stuffing their noggins in the titular bag. In simple terms, then, this AMC+ show is an unapologetically violent affair. But that doesn't mean it sacrifices the knowing humor of classic Spaghetti Westerns. In fact, its mix of dark humor, gruesome spectacle, and streaming-age premium drama storytelling won over critics. It's a shame, then, that it didn't win over audiences enough to secure a second season.
That Dirty Black Bag successfully updated the Spaghetti Western for the modern age
The Western has given us some legendary on-screen bounty hunters, from Lee Van Cleef's Sabata to Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name from the "Dollars" trilogy. But none were quite as unashamedly brutal as Douglas Booth's Red Bill, who in "That Dirty Black Bag" hauls his bounty's heads around in a sack simply because, in his words, "a head weighs less than a body."
The show focuses on the clash between Red Bill and Dominic Cooper's Arthur McCoy, a former fugitive who became the sheriff of a frontier town called Greenville and didn't necessarily fully renounce his old ways. When Booth's headhunter arrives in town demanding his bounty for a recent killing, McCoy refuses to pay up, thereby kicking off a feud between the pair that lasts for eight days — hence the eight episodes in Season 1. But we also get to know the townspeople during that time, all of whom are brought to vivid life by a great supporting cast.
Unsurprisingly given all the beheadings, "That Dirty Black Bag" is a dark series that isn't afraid to push boundaries. Episode 1 features a torture scene in which a man is fed his own horse for God's sake. But the unmistakably carnivalesque tone of the classic Spaghetti Western remains intact here, and it makes for a really compelling show. Sergio Leone rewrote the rules of filmmaking with his Spaghetti Westerns, and while "That Dirty Black Bag" doesn't quite do the same, it's a fantastic update to, and spin on, Leone's formula. Sadly, following its March 2022 debut on AMC+, "That Dirty Black Bag" failed to garner enough attention to remain on the air.
That Dirty Black Bag deserved to last longer than it did
"That Dirty Black Bag" may have been canceled after one season, but it can't have been due to a lack of critical praise. The show earned an 80% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and while that is based on just five reviews, all but one came from "top critics," and every one of them liked it. Brad Newsome of the Sydney Morning Herald described it as "enjoyably gruesome," praising writer-director Mauro Aragoni for paying tribute to the great Sergio Leone while crafting characters that "have agendas and atrocities of their own." Elsewhere, John Anderson of the Wall Street Journal found the show "entertaining and intriguing" not because of its "adherence to westerns past," but because of "its own tweaks on the genre."
Indeed, "That Dirty Black Bag" successfully updates the Spaghetti Western by pushing its maximalist impulses to new levels. It results in an undeniably gruesome series, but which also somehow remains fun and playful in its own way. With great performances and consistently alluring cinematography, "That Dirty Black Bag" is very much an underrated Western TV show that everyone needs to watch at least once. It's no wonder, then, that there's no shortage of Reddit threads where fans lament the fact that the show was never given a second season. You can watch the one season that does exist via an AMC+ subscription or by buying episodes from the usual digital platforms.