Texas Ranch House is the most recent of the “House” series, aired in 2006. The picture on the DVD box is reminiscent of Brokeback Mountain, so initially, it feels like the DVD was trying to capitalize on that film’s popularity. However, it’s nothing like it.

The Cookes, a suburban California family of two adults, Bill & Lis,a and three daughters, Hannah, Lacey, and Vienna, along with the dog Howie, are the family chosen to be the owners of this rural ranch in Texas. Others are lined up to be their workers:

Stan “The Colonel” Johnston – former Army Colonel, foreman
Ignacio “Nacho” Quiles – from New York, cook
Robby Cabezuela – from Texas, meat inspector, top hand, vaquiero
Shaun “Big Howdy” Terhune – from Vermont
Jared “Slim” Ficklin – from Texas
Anders “Swede” Heintz – from Sweden
Johnny “Dirty Johnny” Ferguson – from England
Ian Roberts – from Arizona
Maura Finklestein (maid), a.k.a “girl of all work”

For 2 1/2 months, these people live in seclusion in Texas, expected to act and behave as people did in the 18th century, just after the Civil War.

The opening seems right out of Bonanza. It does a much better job of introducing the viewer to all of the participants than previous entries in this series. The narration is provided by Randy Quaid

Texas Ranch House picks up on the theme of what Texas was like following the Civil War. Homesteads had been abandoned during the War, and many cattle were roaming free.

These shows are half history and half reality. Sometimes, that balance works well. At other times, the personal drama and reality side smother the rest of it. In Texas Ranch House, that was the case. Almost immediately, “The Colonel” starts a physical fight with Nacho. I found it hard to believe that someone who was in his position in the military would do that. The Colonel is fired and put out of the project. Robbie is then made the foreman. This seems to work because the workers step up to the plate for him, at least in the beginning.

However, there were continuing problems between Nacho and the men because the men wanted something more than what he could provide. He also seems to have a bit of a prima-donna complex.

The worst problem was the sexism, which reared its ugly head. Mrs. Cooke wants to insinuate herself into the business of the ranch hands, and that wasn’t what women did in general during this time period. Women had their place, and men had theirs, for the most part. Obviously, there were some women who took over the ranches quite successfully after their husbands were incapacitated or died, but for the most part, this wasn’t the case.

She also has a confrontation with Nacho, simply because it seems she wants him to do what she wants when she wants it – she wants him to abandon his schedule and his way of doing things to do what she wants. However, when Mr. Cooke stands up to Nacho and ends up firing him, the inspection afterward proves that it was warranted. Nacho practiced poor hygiene in the kitchen, and a good deal of food was unfit for consumption.

More trouble happens when the Cooke girls want to go out riding and appropriate the ranch hands’ saddles. Back in 1867, saddles belonged to cowboys, and they brought their own with them wherever they went, so this goes against all protocol. This happens in the third episode and seems to mark the beginning of the downfall of relations between the family and the workers.

About halfway through the project, Rob Wright, another ranch hand, is brought in to compensate for the people who have already been lost. In addition, when planning the cattle drive, Mr. Cooke decides to assign Maura, the housemaid, to help out with the horses during the drive. He does this without telling his foreman. It comes out just how disliked Maura is among the men, and even one of the Cooke daughters labels her a troublemaker.

Early on, one of the hands, Jared, proposes exchanging his wages for a horse, which Mr. Cooke agrees to. Later on, Mr. Cooke reneges on the deal due to a technicality that Lisa Cooke eggs her husband on with.

Lisa Cooke is the epitome of every 21st-century woman who’s been on these projects, who couldn’t put aside their 21st century values and accept their role. She’s Karen Glenn. She’s Michelle Voorhees. There’s one major difference – at least they worked their behinds off! When she interferes with how her husband is running the ranch, she makes everything worse every single time. She sits in on meetings with the ranch hands and gives input on managing the ranch, which a woman would not have been able to do and have her husband command the respect of the men under him. That is exactly the result here. Her husband looks weak, and it is like his wife runs the show and tells him what to do. In the end, he breaks many of the promises he has made to his men simply because Lisa is dictating how the ranch should be run. Perhaps if she and her girls had paid more attention to things they should have been taking care of, such as the garden, the dishes, and cleanliness around the house in general, they wouldn’t have had many of the issues with food supply and flies that they did.

One of the comments by one of the Cooke daughters at the end indicates where they are coming from. Vienna states, “I never want to see another dirty dish”. So how does that get taken care of at home? It’s telltale in the special features extra diaries that one of the girls stands there and equates being spoiled with getting a new Mustang for your birthday.

This is close to the most dramatic of any of these projects. That is not necessarily a bad thing. However, it was also the most disappointing, and in my eyes, that was due to the family chosen and Maura. The women signed onto a project to be women of 1867 and then kept whining about how unfair everything was. Many times, it seemed like they thought they were going to a dude ranch for vacation rather than accepting what their roles would have been. At the end, I was so happy with how the ranch hand stood up to the family, especially Jared.

If you like reality TV, even this might be too much for you. The impact of the history part gets totally lost in the ridiculous actions of the Cooke family and totally devalues the impact this show has on demonstrating the differences between the two time periods.


EPISODE LIST:

Episode 1 – A Home on the Range
Episode 2 – The Good, The Bad, & The Colonel
Episode 3 – The Cookie Crumbles
Episode 4 – The Great Divide
Episode 5 – Showdown at the Cooke Corral
Episode 6 – Lords of the Plains
Episode 7 – Trail Blazing
Episode 8 – The Reckoning


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Auditions for Ranch House
• More Diaries