I started binge-watching the TV show Longmire about three weeks ago, and after the first episode, I was hooked, for several reasons.

For me, the first reason I latched on to the show was fairly obvious. Though the show is supposed to take place in Wyoming, it is filmed in my beloved state of New Mexico. The sheriff’s office is in a business building right next to the Plaza Hotel there in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Walt Longmire, the show’s principle, lives in a rustic cabin that is on the back side of the Valle Caldera and is featured regularly in the show, if not merely for its incredible views. Walt and his deputies do a fair amount of driving around and visiting small towns, both of which feature familiar mountains and blue skies behind them. The program showcases New Mexico nicely. It passes adequately for Wyoming, I guess, but I certainly see New Mexico in it.

Secondly, Longmire is clearly a western, and the character of Walt Longmire himself is well crafted. Longmire is a sheriff who doesn’t carry a cellphone and who lives spartanly, without a lot of creature comforts in his remote cabin, all the while serving his county effectively as a guy you can count on to keep the peace and to solve problems. He is a throwback figure in the show, a guy who drives an old Bronco as his service vehicle, and who will mount a horse and enlist his best friend, a Cheyenne, to join him in tracking bad guys in the forest on up on the mountain. Walt is iconic because while his character is in some ways behind the times, he is a man who lives with a clear code, and it’s a code that is unspoken and timeless and steers him from deep within. He works to do things right, and to make wrongs right, and if modern methods do not suit those designs, he relies on intuition, friendships, and old wisdom to solve problems- which is a wisdom that sometime turns its eyes from the law, and looks towards mercy, compassion and humanity. Longmire is a strong figure, meant to be iconic in a modern world of mobile phones, hustle, celebrity worship, and moral relativity. Walt is quiet, simple, ethical, loyal, and honest, with a clear sense of right and wrong. He just works despite distraction to try and see justice is done.

And because the figure of Longmire is so strong, I have to say I appreciate the craftsmanship and the writing that has gone into making the show. I will stop on some shows I like and watch some of the extra features included on season DVD’s. I wanted to learn more about the show right awat from featurettes on the Season 1 DVD. In the short films provided where the show’s creatives talk about it, it is clear the scripts are prepared by writers bathed in summary philosophy and the history of storytelling. From citing Greek and Roman thinkers to referring to plot elements found in Classical literature and Shakespeare, show scripts are prepared with broader insights about telling a tale, and lean back to classical plots for these contemporary stories. The shows are crafted with intelligence.

And that intelligence also strives to make sure that Longmire gets part of its subject community right. Walt and his deputies do a lot of work in and around the Cheyenne Nation, and because of this, the show- and Longmire- are sensitive to the differences found in the lives and the cultures of the ethnic groups in his county. Walt’s best friend is Native American, and Walt has spent his life walking amidst the Native and non-Native communities. We get to see glimpses into how he both interacts with both cultures, and how both cultures have influenced him. Longmire does a good job of wrangling with problems found both in Small Town, Wyoming, and also out on the reservation.

The show began in Season 1 with Longmire under a dark cloud, and despite his successes each episode in the field solving crimes, a broader plot and theme ferry the show into darker depths in Seasons 2 and 3, a ride which I think will continue to go down before it comes up.

Longmire is a good Western of substance. I still have seasons 4 and 5 to watch before season 6 comes out later this year. I’m sad the show ends after then, but until then, I will look forward to seeing how all of the subplots, and Longmire’s life, work out.

Lou Diamond Phillips, as Henry Standing Bear, is excellent in this cast, as are all of the other regulars.