Volume Two starts off with the Cartwrights trying to help a lady who has grown up in a family of outlaws (and soon plans to marry another one). While the whole town treats her as an outcast, Ben (Lorne Greene), Adam (Pernell Roberts), Hoss (Dan Blocker) and Little Joe (Michael Landon) do their best to treat her right. But with her insistence that her fiance is innocent of a murder, the Cartwrights find themselves standing between a lynch mob and the outlaw couple. But that's just how this half kicks off - there were several really good episodes across the whole volume.
In "A House Divided," a man working on setting up a war chest for the Confederacy comes to town and not only does Virginia City begin to tear itself apart, but the Cartwright home has a bit of trouble. This is due mainly to Little Joe's strong southern identity as a "New Orleans Boy" and Adam's Yankee nature since he grew up in New England.
The episode, "The Gunmen" focuses on Hoss and Little Joe as they ride into a town and are mistaken for a pair of mercenary brothers (also played by Blocker and Landon) and find themselves in the middle of a family feud between the Hatfields and the McFaddens (not the McCoys, even though everything, including the feud's origin over a hog, is the same). But "The Gunmen" isn't the only episode that has roots in other historical events. In "The Spanish Grant," a long-lost Spanish princess is discovered and if she is who she claims to be, all of the land around Lake Tahoe (including both The Ponderosa and Virginia City) could legally belong to her. This particular episode parallels the story of Russian Princess Anastasia all too closely.
Other good episodes include "The Stranger" where Ben tries to run as Nevada's first state governor and "The Fear Merchants" where a group of people express their distaste for the number of Chinese in the city and one such citizen gets framed for a murder he didn't commit. But my favorite episodes actually come late in the season with "Dark Star", "San Francisco" and "Death at Dawn."
"San Francisco" features Ben, Hoss, Joe, their cook, Hop Sing (Victor Sen Yung) and a pair of their ranch hands as they take a little vacation in California. But when the group gets separated and start falling victim to shanghaiing (where ship captains take unwitting crew members around the world), their vacation ends up being a bit more work than they intended.
In "Dark Star," a band of gypsies wander onto the Ponderosa and while the Cartwrights try to convince them to leave, Joe falls in love with a strange woman who has been removed from the group since the traveling troupe claims she is possessed by demons. In the season finale, "Death at Dawn," Virginia City has been overrun with thugs who use their money and multitude of friends to get away with pretty much anything, but when a shop owner is killed for not paying protection money, the Cartwrights are deputized to help hold him in prison, even at the possible cost of Ben's life when he is captured by the thugs' ring leader.
As with the last volume, Bonanza: The Official First Season, Volume Two features old interviews with the show's creator and producer, David Dortort, as well as production photos and episode promos. Nothing exceptionally flashy or cool except for maybe the most hardcore Bonanza fans, but considering the show's age, and the fact that only one of the actors (Roberts) is still alive, you can't really expect much in the way of extras, not even really a retrospective.
Like the last volume, Bonanza: The Official First Season, Volume Two won't outright grab any new fans, though I think anyone who didn't watch the show on TV will find something enjoyable in it (there's a reason it lasted 15 seasons after all). But unless you force someone to watch the show Clockwork Orange-fashion, I doubt it will hook anyone new. So obviously these DVDs are for existing followers, and while it isn't brimming over with extras, it should still be a good purchase for those who are interested.
