Dead Man's Gun

When I found this show, it was must see for me or I would set my VCR to tape it. I have stated in other postings that I am always ready to watch a western when I find one and especially a western that is outside the box. This is a western series that Rod Serling would have been proud of. It is also fun to see actors who do not usually do westerns and how they tackle a genre that they are not used to. As I said, I wish it would come back and I hope to see the reruns when I can find them. Henry Winkler, who starred in a couple of episodes, picked a very property to produce. Good job everyone.

A dark and depressing Western repertory series centred around what appears to be a beautiful S&W Russian (or Schofield) single action revolver, probably .44 Russian calibre. This in itself makes it worth watching at least once to see a Western featuring something other than the ubiquitous 1873 Colt Single Action Army revolver. "Dead Man's Gun" comes off as something bred from old 1950s Western morality series, Richard Boone's repertory series and a large chunk of "Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits". Several episodes have a twist at the end with a sting in the tail. Strong stars such as John Ritter,John Glover and producer Henry Winkler turn in fine performances, but maybe the handgun is the real star. The cynical and often sardonic look at human nature may well be accurate but can get one down after a few episodes.

Dead Man's Gun is a good series, overall, with really a wide range of actors and plot lines. Like any series, it has some episodes which are better than others, but none are bad. None are even mediocre. I did not even know this was a series until 2024, and have watched the entire series. Surprising that it is from the 1990s, but I guess I was too little to watch it back then. The filming is great! Nice tight stories that come to a sometimes haunting conclusion in each episode. Wonderful background music. Set in roughly the 1890s, or so, the episodes still feel relevant to today.

Excellent storytelling, the way shows and movies should be done.

I usually see this series by night, as it is aired during these hours. In my point of view, there are episodes which are really good, and others with no significance. But the good ones,are really good! The gun of title is always present, while different characters find it on their way. Sometimes it causes misfortune, some others is a great help, it depends on the person's qualities. The episode "The Hangman" with Henry Winkler is simply fantastic, intelligent and very positive. A true masterpiece, it deals with this hangman and the reasons which made him choose this job. Simply full of human comprehension, this episode symbolism is almost religious in feeling. Some female characters lead in several episodes. Truly beautiful, if something forced, the one with Joanna Pacula as the revengeful but very human heroine:"Four of a kind" (italian title: The four aces). Her blonde haired character is inspired by the Sharon Stone role in The Quick and the Dead, but I prefer this episode to Sam Raimi's movie, which is without any significance(in my point of view). Another blonde heroine played by beautiful Monika Schnarre co-stars with a tormented gambler, during a poker competition in the intelligent "The Gambler". The series is various in themes: the revenge of a beautiful blonde heroine, the sadness of a tired loveless Calamity Jane-like woman, the perils of two nuns in "Sisters of Mercy", the horror of a mad hypnotist doctor who ties his patients in an undead situation, the redemption of a coward and his love for a young teacher, the desperation of a sleepwalker who knows he himself is a murderer during his night-walks, the beautiful ghost story of a process.... It is a truly magnificent series, I don't know why it is not very famous. The best of these tales are full of morality, not moralism, the series is modern-looking and scifi-like sometimes, but classic in spirit. The music is as good as some of these pearls. I know that watching to all the episodes may be hard, but it is necessary in order to discover the above mentioned pearls (they differs from everyone's taste). In my point of view, they are truly pearls, also considered the fact that the most of nowadays series don't consider the moral side, and are full of incoherences. The legs of a beautiful woman or furious battle scenes are not enough to make a good series. Violence is also used senseless. Henry Winkler is good both as the producer and as the actor of the above mentioned episode. So, I prefer this series to a lot of celebrated ones.

Dead Man's Gun is a western anthology series all tied together though a cursed gun. The production quality, the stories are interesting and the leads for each episode are usually TV stars. (If you do not know them by name you will know the face from there other work.) The series is mainly about regular types of people of the old west (not only lawmen, outlaws and gunslingers). The people that come into contact with the Dead Man's Gun then have a life changing experience with a moral lesson by the end. It is worth watching. The only problem I had was the lack of subtitles on the sets that I could find. Hopefully if this is released on blu-ray it that problem will be fixed.