Review by Ian Keogh

The Briggs family have massive influence in their remote Northern area of New York State, where their rural isolation took on an agenda of anti-government terrorism, leading to Jim Briggs spending the last twenty years in jail. Briggs Land opens with his wife Grace visiting to tell him she’s taking over the organisation. It’s a risky move considering Nazi secessionists views on women align with their views on anyone else who’s not them, so Grace first has to bring her three sons on board.

How some view the validity of the United States as an entity is a topic Brian Wood has investigated before. Rebels deals with the foundation of the nation, and DMZ concerns a near future when it was falling apart. While one was broadly historical and the other broadly fictional they shared an underlying thesis, being that where there’s power at stake there’s always someone who wants it for its own sake. That doesn’t necessarily apply to Grace, but does to people who see her as weak and what she now has as free for the taking. That includes a pair of ATF agents tracking her.

Wood shows Grace wants change, and realising power comes with responsibility. She’s a multi-faceted character, and therefore compelling, while her three sons are different enough to make them interesting, and her husband is a malign presence behind bars imagining he’s still in control. It’s a nicely achieved balance.

The characters resonate because Mack Chater’s visual presentation is subtle, yet recognisable as his tidy realism defines people. He also emphasises that ‘land’ is part of the title, and the Briggs family are at one with their environment, which is presented as beautiful and alluring.

Briggs Land was published before Yellowstone became a successful TV show exploring many of the same themes of loyalty to land, but although a little coyly at first, then overtly, Briggs Land has the additional strength of being able to filter in beliefs the majority still find abhorrent. It’s amid a structure very much resembling a TV drama, with two episodes combined here, and another two in Lone Wolves, and it’s every bit as compelling.