The Crooked Path

Former child actor Kevin Coughlin can't cut the mustard as the delinquent prodigal son who becomes a pain in the neck at Shiloh. Coughlin's gauche acting makes his petulant character doubly annoying. Still, even decidedly lesser episodes like this one were tolerable when they showed Drury, McClure and crew herding cattle, stringing fence, spinning tales by the campfire and doing as buckaroos do in general. Complementing the ranks this time are John Marley, who has a nice, rueful turn as an aging ranch hand nearing the end of the trail and Tom Skerritt, spot-on as a short-fused wrangler. Regular bunkhouse bit players Harper Flaherty and Dick Shane, who were becoming more noticeable near the end of season six, add some flavor.

Sometimes an episode is really good and then the ending is weak. Not this one. I thought the acting by all was very good in this one, it was entertaining and thought provoking. The lead character was more than one dimensional, which was good and also realistic. This is actually one of my favorite episodes. Enjoy.

Kevin Coughlin guest stars in this story of a young braggart who is the son of a famous and now retired frontier sheriff. He's come to work for Shiloh under the tutelage of his dad's friend Doug McClure.

His bragging ways don't win any friends with the hands especially with Tom Skerritt. Coughlin and Skerritt keep butting heads.

There's a nice performance from John Marley as an old time Shiloh hand who takes an interest in Coughlin. They have a great final scene together.

An enjoyable 90 minutes.