I was very pleasantly surprised with the originality of the stories in this second season. Twists and surprises which shatter a lot of the stereotypes of 1950's TV westerns.
(Mild Spoiler Warning for what follows...)
Unlike most western "good guys" Matt Dillon is a realist; willing to bend the rules a bit to enforce the law in a hard-bitten town like Dodge City. For example, in one episode he draws first to kill a gunman who wants to make his mark by shooting down a U.S. marshal. We've all seen so many one-on-one shootouts in westerns, how can anyone write one that's original? Well, this one was. Plus, the bad guy somewhat justifies Dillon's action by trying to creep his gunhand onto the gun before actually drawing. (Obviously if you have your trigger finger ON the trigger before actually drawing the revolver, you're going to have an edge... unless you're confronting a marshal like Matt Dillon who's savvy and realist enough to draw first!) Of course, drawing first even for a lawman is pushing the limit of righteousness so the storyline evolves into one where the dead gunslinger's brother arrives in Dodge to avenge his death... with a nice final twist that I won't give away.
Another episode Dillon and Chester set up a "sting" operation to entice 6 seriously bad guys (they've been stealing horses from settlers by slaughtering entire families, including a little girl and making like it's the Pawnee Indians who are to blame---over the edge reprehensibility especially for 50s TV!) into attacking a shed where the pair are hiding. Chester is understandably uncomfortable with the two lawmen confronting 6 armed desperadoes... and he's even more discomforted when Dillon tells him they're going to AMBUSH THE BAD GUYS! Dillon shoots down 4 (not clear if Chester does anything since he's apparently a bit concerned about lawmen ambushing even child-killers); the 2 wounded survivors surrender. They have the gall to deny their guilt and accuse Dillon with murder ("even a lawman can't shoot down innocent people in cold blood!")... until Matt finds evidence on one of them (a bit of ribbon from the little girl they slaughtered) to prove his case. But, boy, did he take a rather big chance ambushing 6 cowboys who could have been innocent travelers. One wonders what he would have done had he been wrong...
Which leads to another episode where Dillon tracks down and wounds a suspected murderer and turns out to have been WRONG. In this case not only was he wrong but he messed up what passes for an investigation (in those days) by not properly checking out the suspect's alibi before spending two days tracking him down and dragging him back wounded to Dodge... only to find out his alibi... Doc's statement... is sound! Well, he does apologize to the wounded cowpoke... who while lamenting how his shoulder will be stiff the rest of his life, does gamely offer to buy Matt a drink if he ever has the misfortune to run into the marshal again!
My point here is these stories are clever and original, unpredictable and sometimes even unsettling... much more mature and sophisticated fare than typical for 1950's TV programming of any sort.
I share the irritation of others here about the format and delay in bringing out the entire series but for stories alone I give this DVD 5 stars.
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