Lancer

This western, compared often to Bonanza, is worth seeing. It's too bad one can't find it on DVD. It's family dynamics are more intense and less surface than Bonanza's. These three men (the father and his two half-sons) have just met. The father sends for his sons, to help him save his ranch. The draw he uses to brings them to his side, besides resentment at their absentee father, is a $1000 and the chance for adventure.

Although one is more down-to-earth and a gunslinger, and the other is the educated Boston-ite, still both are capable of fighting the war required to win the freedom of Lancer. Scott, from Boston, fought in the Civil War in the Calvary unit.

After this, their bond, from being three strong men, grows immediately. Each episode is interesting and enjoyable.

Some people called Lancer a Bonanza clone but, I disagree. This show was unique in bringing two sons home from two different circumstances, two different mothers and backgrounds to fight for a stranger - their father. The acting is very well done. The stories could have been better. But, we have the half-Mexican gunfighter - Johnny Madrid Lancer, and the Boston-raised elite Scott Lancer. Two completely different men we watch bond as brothers. The chemistry between these two was wonderful to watch. Their father, Murdoch Lancer is a tough as nails, no-nonsense businessman who 'loves his ranch more than anything God ever created'. These words are spoken to the brothers the first day they meet their father. My first impression of Murdoch was not good but, as the show went on, he seemed to 'soften' into a warm and caring though, still stern, father who gave advice to his sons yet expected them to 'do as told'. Johnny Madrid Lancer is the younger son whose mother left Murdoch in the middle of the night and disappeared. Nothing else is really known about her but, Johnny had spent the last five years around the border towns as a well-known gunfighter. It's really a bit amazing that this character is so well-adjusted. He has a good heart and becomes fiercely protective of his family. Yet, there is still a care-free young man here who had trouble adjusting to the routines and schedules of ranch life. Scott Lancer was born in California but taken to Boston by his grandfather after his mother died in child birth. Murdoch had sent her away during troubled times at the ranch for her safety. The grandfather refused to give Scott back and threatened Murdoch with a lenghty custody battle. So, Scott lived with the wealthy grandfather, served in the Civil War as a lieutenant and spent a year in a prisoner-of-war camp as well as attending Harvard. He was engaged to be married at one time in Boston. We know precious else about his past, either. He seems to settle into ranch life easily, a little too easily in the show. There wasn't enough exploration of the relationship between these men and how it developed, in my opinion. But, considering the era in which it was filmed, this is understandable.