Colman Domingo Played A Legendary Western Figure In This Underrated Sci-fi Series

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Before "Euphoria," "Sing Sing," and the box office smash "Michael," Colman Domingo played Western icon Bass Reeves in an episode of the science fiction series "Timeless." The actor's filmography is impressively extensive, with Domingo even finding time to star as Batman in a DC project you've probably never heard of. Similarly, his portrayal of the legendary lawman in "Timeless" has been lost amid the actor's prolific output, but it's worth checking out for being, as you might expect from the man, characteristically great.

"Timeless" was a short-lived sci-fi drama series that ran on NBC from 2016 to 2018. It follows a team tasked with taking down a terrorist who hijacks a time machine with the intent to change the course of history. Abigail Spencer stars as history professor and anthropologist Lucy Preston, who, alongside Matt Lanter's Army Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan and Malcolm Barrett's engineer Rufus Carlin, discovers she's connected to terrorist Garcia Flynn's (Goran Višnjić) plan and the mysterious Rittenhouse organization that's responsible for creating the machine in the first place. It's basically an excuse for some time-hopping adventures, wherein Preston and her teammates desperately attempt to preserve history as Flynn does all he can to rewrite it.

"Timeless" was co-created by Eric Kripke, who these days is known as the showrunner of "The Boys" but also created The WB/CW's "Supernatural." Shawn Ryan, of "The Shield" and "The Night Agent" fame, was his co-creator. Their sci-fi time travel show, however, was a little different from their other series and actually fared quite well with critics, even if it was prematurely canceled before it could eke out an extra season in the 12th hour. It also showcased a great performance by Colman Domingo.

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"Timeless" follows Lucy Preston and her cohorts as they use Rufus Carlin's own time machine to try to intercept Garcia Flynn on his mission to meddle with the course of history. This sees them revisiting major moments from the past, including the Hindenburg disaster and the Apollo 11 launch. In Season 1, Episode 12 — "The Murder of Jesse James" — however, they travel to 1882, where Flynn has managed to save the legendary outlaw from being assassinated by Charley and Robert Ford. In order to track down the time-hopping terrorist and find out why he spared James, the trio enlists the services of none other than legendary lawman Bass Reeves (Colman Domingo) and fellow Deputy U.S. Marshal Grant Johnson (Zahn McClarnon).

As Flynn uses James to help him navigate dangerous Native American territory, Reeves and his newly arrived team give chase, tracking the pair to the home of a former employee of Rittenhouse who intentionally hid in the past. A standoff ensues, and Johnson is killed, leaving the rest of the team to try to set history right by taking down James and restoring the timeline.

Entertainment Weekly called "The Murder of Jesse James" "one of the strongest episodes yet." Much of that was surely down to Domingo (one of several actors who got their start on Broadway), who not only played Reeves as a full-on badass but as a man wholly committed to justice and morality, agreeing to help the three time travelers track down Flynn only if he can bring him in alive. But the episode also drew attention to some frequently overlooked aspects of the Bass Reeves legend.

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After "The Murder of Jesse James" aired, "Saturday Night Live" cast member Leslie Jones shouted out the episode for bringing attention to lesser-known historical figures. Sure, this also happened to be a cynical piece of network symbiosis, but Jones had been praising the show on Twitter prior to her "Weekend Update" segment, in which she credited the NBC series with informing her that Bass Reeves was the inspiration for the Lone Ranger. Indeed, when Lucy Preston, Wyatt Logan, and Rufus Carlin first see Colman Domingo's lawman standing on his porch, Carlin remarks, "The Lone Ranger's black? That's awesome."

Reeves has been cited as a possible inspiration for the fictional ex-Texas Ranger. As historian Art T. Burton wrote in his book "Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves," "Bass Reeves is the closest real person to resemble the fictional Lone Ranger on the American western frontier of the nineteenth century." With his sole appearance on "Timeless," Domingo helped call attention to this aspect of history.

Otherwise, "Timeless" was canceled after one season but received a renewal shortly after, running for one more season before wrapping up in June 2018, ahead of a two-part finale that aired later that year. By that time, of course, Domingo was gearing up to make his debut as Ali Muhammed in "Euphoria" and was starring in an ensemble cast in Barry Jenkins' cinematic wonder "If Beale Street Could Talk." But his brief portrayal of Bass Reeves remains one of his best lesser-known roles.