User Reviews

John Steinbeck might have appreciated this Bonanza episode as it was a different take on his classic Of Mice And Men. Walter Burke and Dick Peabody play the George and Lennie characters respectively.

Who happen on Lorne Greene by chance as Ben Cartwright is stuck in a mudhole. Peabody lifts the buckboard with cargo and Cartwright all together.

The variation here is that Burke is the one killed by a wild horse and Peabody can't function without him. Try as all the Cartwrights can to get him to adjust.

In the end he kidnaps a young boy and keeps calling him by Burke's character name and what happens to Lon Chaney, Jr. in Of Mice And Men is what happens to Peabody.

Both Peabody and Burke turn in a pair of fine performances as the guest stars really shine in this story.

Although I feel like certain characters could've seen Sonny had some violent tendencies before they were told about Sonny's past.

Ben's wagon is stuck in the mud and a couple of guys come along and get Ben unstuck courtesy of Sonny's strength. Jesse is Sonny's friend. He's an older man that looks out after Sonny. Unfortunately Jesse gets killed and Sonny really has the odds stacked against him. There's parts of Sonny that knows something happened to Jesse. Sonny blames a horse for Jesse's death and you see Sonny trying to hit the horse. So yeah, you'd think Hoss would definitely see Sonny might have a temper if in the right mood. It turns out Sonny killed somebody in another area they were in.

But there's also scenes that show that Sonny also doesn't understand that Jesse's gone and not coming back. But it also takes a twist in another direction as Sonny meets up with a little boy towards the end of the episode and he's calling the little boy 'Jesse' even though that's not the little boy's name and he constantly tries to tell Sonny that's not his name.

I think this was a well told episode for the time period. The subject matter was handled well imo. I have no idea if the episode would hold up for those that view things through a 'problematic' lens. I thought the writing and acting went hand in hand with each other and worked. Everybody did an excellent job imo. I see the resemblance to 'Of Mice and Men' and think you'll enjoy the episode especially if you enjoyed that book.

This retelling of the story "Of Mice and Me" was only fair. I guess at some point writers run out of stories and rehash other old ones already been told. The acting was OK but the story line was not very interesting. The episode was watchable but barely. Would not care to see it again.