This list looks at some of the very best episodes of Western TV, the ones that can go toe-to-toe with any movie. While their budgets are, of course, much smaller, they're still tightly crafted, visually stunning, and loaded with the kind of character depth, tension, and emotional payoff usually reserved for the big screen.

Whether it's a dusty frontier morality tale, a slow-burn showdown, or a burst of frontier chaos that changes everything, the episodes below all punch significantly above their weight.

10 "High Noon"

'Longmire' (Season 4, Episode 3)

"Good luck explaining this one." "High Noon" starts with a slow burn and ends with a gut punch, the kind of episode that strips Longmire down to its Western bones . Walt ( Robert Taylor ) spends much of the hour looking like the

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