Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

A_Different_Drummer This odd combination of a western and Father Knows Best should not have worked but it did. Choosing an ex baseball player to lead a new series should not have worked but it did. Child stars were pretty boring in the 50s so Crawford should not have stood out as much as he did. But he was fantastic.In fact all the westerns from that period were wonderful. Hard work for a critic because the genre was new so they were making up the rules as they went along.In this show somehow a rifle was faster than a gun? (Made more sense in WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, there the rifle could pivot).Funny thing, on reruns Connor comes across as overly moralistic and prissy but that played well back then.The two best episodes are the appearance of Sammy Davis as a fast gun (the stunts are real) and Connor playing a double role as an evil version of himself. That one was ahead of its time

Shilohbloo I absolutely LOVE this show, the characters, and the actors who portray them. The relationship between father and son can't be beat!!! (and let's not forget that incredible rifle!! ;) A truly blessed sight to behold - especially considering the heartbreaking state of things these days - is the absolutely shameless way they pray, read the Bible, and love learning to live the way our Lord would have them live. Truly beautiful. My most favorite episode is "The Wyoming Story - Part 2", at the end, when Mark not only speedily jumps into his pa's arms, but tearfully, fervently kisses him for pure joy of having him back home for good. Serious, heartwarming sweetness, that. Lumpy throat, teary eyes, every time I see it!!

largo2032 Watching reruns on MeTv now, this show aired 20 years before I was born, yet now it is one of my favorite shows! The plot is this, a widowed rancher Lucas McCain and his son Mark run the Northfork Ranch, as Lucas tries to raise and teach Mark the best he can. Of course each week there is a bad guy or anti-hero the McCains deal with, but there is a lesson to be learned each episode of the series.Chuck Connors & Johnny Crawford are wonderful as father and son. You'd think that they actually were! (In Fact, Chuck treated Johnny like he did his own sons in real life!) Even in the opening of the show, when Chuck looks toward the audience, his eyes never leave the screen. To me, its a comforting look, saying 'As long as I'm here, you have nothing to fear.' It's a shame that a lot of TV shows since don't have that kind of impact on the viewers.

classicsoncall Starting out, I have to say right up front that I enjoy watching every single episode of "The Rifleman". Any given story is a classic example of an enviable father/son relationship, with Lucas McCain teaching son Mark an important life lesson. Taken as an entire body of work however, I see how a lot of fans are really put into a quandary about McCain's body count as a result of that quick lever action tricked out Winchester rifle. On that score I would have to say that old Lucas Boy has to go down in classic TV Western history as the great white shark of New Mexico Territory. Simply put, he's a killing machine. There's probably not another character with more kills than Lucas McCain, except MAYBE Matt Dillon, but he had twenty seasons and five tele-films going for him, and Lucas had only five. I was so intrigued by this that with the Encore Western Channel's latest go round with The Rifleman series, I began keeping track. I even had a friend of mine help me (Thanks Will), who taped the episodes so we could discuss them when there was a question mark, and indeed there were many. It seems the writers must have known someone would eventually try to keep track of the Lucas body count, so they threw innovative situations out there to keep everyone guessing. Like Episode #2.45 when Jack Elam falls on a pitchfork during a fight with McCain, dying in the process. Does that count as a 'kill' for Lucas? Or how about #3.105 when an outlaw grabs McCain's gun to shoot his partner who's bailing out on him? Lucas plugged it and it explodes, killing the shooter. See what I mean. There would have to be a tribunal of respected Western TV critics to arrive at an official Lucas McCain body count to account for all the controversial scenarios. But for what it's worth, I can offer interested observers my entirely unofficial analysis based on a five season viewing of 'The Rifleman' on the Encore Western Channel. Let me preface though by first commenting on Episode #1.12 - 'Young Englishman' - in which Lucas McCain explains to son Mark (Johnny Crawford) that killing is always to be considered a means of last resort when facing a life or death situation. By that reckoning, Lucas was the master of last resort for a total of 108 times! Can you imagine ANYONE with their life on the line as many times as The Rifleman? I mean, how do you go through life and find yourself in so many precarious situations? But wait, that was only during the run of the series. If you watch the shows and pay attention, Lucas alludes to even MORE people he's killed during the Civil War and the Indian Nation Wars before he ever got to North Fork. So how does that square with the real life gunfighters of the Old West? Well, during his lifetime, the legend of Wild Bill Hickok had him killing over a hundred men. However before he died, Wild Bill 'confessed' that he killed 'only' thirty seven. In terms of accuracy, quick draw and ruthlessness, John Wesley Hardin had no match, and his count of just over forty men killed is probably tops among known gunfighters. Heck, by the time Lucas McCain killed forty men, it was still only the second season! Getting back to the show itself, it's hard to come up with a few favorites out of the series run of 168 stories, but two that would be in my Top Ten are the Sammy Davis Jr. episodes. In #4.130 - 'Two Ounces of Tin' - Davis comes gunning for the man who killed his father, Lucas McCain. It's kind of a poignant story since Davis' character makes friends with Mark before calling out his father. In #5.151 - 'The Most Amazing Man' - Davis is put on the spot by a local gunman who challenges him to a gunfight. I guess I'm intrigued by the idea of the former 'Rat Packer' in a TV Western, which seems so out of character for the variety entertainer I'm more familiar with. And say, could he handle those six-shooters! There's also the intriguing episode #4.131, 'The Deadly Image', in which Chuck Connors plays two characters, Lucas and a fierce villain look alike. I had to chuckle at the end of the story, because if you think about it, the Rifleman is so bad a-- cool in this one that he winds up actually 'killing himself'!!! Anyway, I tried to have some fun with the whole Lucas body count thing. Again, I want to state that by no means is my reckoning meant to be an official count, but I'd say it's pretty close. You had a few episodes where Lucas teamed with Micah or some other gunslinger firing on a group of villains, so there again you have a toss up as to who shot who. Still, over a hundred 'kills' would qualify Lucas McCain as a Wild Bill Hickok, John Wesley Hardin, Tom Horn and Billy the Kid all rolled up into one!