Confessions of a DEADWOOD virgin.

Just wait until you hit the second season. I still think the second season of this show is the finest series of episodes produced for a television audience in the history of the medium. It somehow has this vicious momentum without sacrificing the awesome pacing of the story and development of characters and a finale that somehow manages to wrap up every single subplot of the season in the most awesome way possible within a hour. No show has any right being as awesome as season two of this show.

BREAKING BAD is fantastic. But DEADWOOD kicks the shit out of it. McShane is a force of nature. There is literally not a single average performance in the whole show's run.

The dialogue is a language unto itself, I always tell people this is what Shakespeare would write if he were a mean, foul-mouthed son of a bitch. Al Swearengen's oral sex soliloquies were a genius dramatic device.

There are just nuggets of profound, profane wisdom in every scene.

I just recently revisited the series and it really is the finest thing HBO ever produced. How virgins* feel about Firefly getting cancelled, I feel about Deadwood.

* I'm just messing, Browncoats. I love you** really.

**Ok, not really.

One of the greatest series ever made. Enjoy it, especially how they elevate swearing into a goddamn art form.

And oh man, wait until you reach the silk-tongued soliloquies of Racist Steve.

When he first arrived I thought he was this loathesome piece of shit who needed putting down, but with every scene he appeared in I became more and more enamoured with him. He became less vicious and hateful and more hilariously tragic. His final speech is one for the ages.

His line delivery was just remarkable and his voice really stood out from the crowd, not that there was a single actor on the show who didn't completely dominate Milch's gorgeous writing.

And that is the sign that this was a truly great ensemble, not one of them was intimidated by the dialogue and those were some fucking tall words they were being asked to deliver, and they delivered each and every syllable as if it were as natural as breathing.

This. You should feel no guilt when you cackle maniacally at the ignorance of Steve the Racist.

McShane's Swearengen is easily my favorite character in all of my TV-viewing history. Just a magical performance.

Yeah, Breaking Bad is great, but Deadwood, along with The Wire, is just that little tiny bit better.

I've been through this series twice and both times it took me weeks to get the language out of my system. Same with The Wire. Something about the poetry of the writing for shows like these just gets into you and comes out of your mouth, scaring your friends and family.

Ya know who doesn't get nearly enugh credit when talking about DEADWOOD as a whole? Gerald MacRaney. Motherfucker is downright evil.

If that doesn't do anything for ya, you're dead inside.

If you guys haven't caught Kings, it's on Hulu and you really, really should. If you dig highly stylized dialogue, rigorous storytelling, and awesome performances for Ian McShane, it really is the show for you.

Oh man, I fucking LOVE to call people "mopes" now. It just fits so well.

"Look at this mope."

I've long since taken to referring to all drunks as "hooples" and any commotion involving drunks as "hooplehead bullshit". It's just fun to say.

Oh yeah. Hooples is another great one. And of course, any excuse to throw out a "cocksucker" or two.

I love that Deadwood surely set a record for use of "cocksucker" and "cunt."

"LOOPY FUCKIN' CUNT!"

Especially when done in your best Mr. Wu voice.*








*Side Note: the Al-Mr.Wu stolen heroin conversation is just about the greatest thing ever.

Totally agree, but when it comes to quotability, I prefer E.B.-- who is like Gollum crossed with some great, Shakespearean idiot.

Other than Bullock and (moreso) his business partner, is there a single likeable character in this series? A more despicable collection of sleazy, evil, abusive, pathetic individuals I've never seen.

And to be honest, it's kinda turning me off of the series, five episodes in. I acknowledge the quality, but the fucking show makes me miserable. Dammit.

Charlie Utter
Ellsworth
Joanie
Doc Cochrane
Trixie
Jane (despite irritating tendencies)
Merrick (despite really irritating tendencies)

But the peculiar genius of the show is in how these scumbags and cutthroats all slowly grow in complexity and sympathy until eventually, Swearengen seems a more likeable and healthy person than Bullock, who comes in as kind of the white-hat hero.

Stick with it. The show can be incredibly harsh and ugly, but that allows it to really earn grace notes in a way few works do. It has a giant beating heart so wide it can encompass even the worst of the scum as part of a flawed but real community.

Charlie Utter
Ellsworth
Joanie
Doc Cochrane
Trixie
Jane (despite irritating tendencies)
Merrick (despite really irritating tendencies)

But the peculiar genius of the show is in how these scumbags and cutthroats all slowly grow in complexity and sympathy until eventually, Swearengen seems a more likeable and healthy person than Bullock, who comes in as kind of the white-hat hero.

Stick with it. The show can be incredibly harsh and ugly, but that allows it to really earn its grace notes the way few works do. It has a giant beating heart so wide it can encompass even the worst of the scum as part of a flawed but real community, although it admittedly takes a while for that to become apparent.

Sol, Jane, Charlie, Doc, Ellsworth and the Nigger General are the only really likable characters that survive for more than a few episodes.

Bullock is actually one of the least likable people on the show. He fucks around on his wife, is kind of a textbook sociopath, tries to drive Sol and Trixie apart for not entirely noble or reasonable reasons, and seems to side with the idea that retribution is justice.

Bullock basically boils down to "I'm really pissed of right now and would like to smack somebody, let's walk around camp and hopefully find somebody breaking the law".

And, eh, how on earth is Swearengen not likeable?

Come to Washington D.C. and see all of the Republican and Democrat politicians. Deadwood is genius. Yeah it takes a while to get going but Season 2 is a thing of beauty.

I think it hits the ground running. Maybe it takes an episode to get used to the voice of the show, but the early episodes are wonderful, just for the Hickok stuff alone. Here Was a Man is one of my favorite episodes of the whole series.

I actually don't think there's an unlikeable character on the show until Hearst shows up. Al and the people in Al's employ are pretty much my favorite characters on the show, but I even have affection for Tolliver and Wollcott, because they're so fiercely intelligent and verbose.

I've been avoiding this thread because when I get to talking about Deadwood, I usually can't stop and end up watching the series again.

Yes, I was terrible to not include these three. Charlie Utter alone made me enjoy the actor's performance in Sons of Anarchy that much more. What a powerful voice! Thing is, the way things were going where I left off, I thought Utter had left the camp for good. And I thought Ellsworth was going to get fed to the pigs, and soon.

I also like that preacher guy who works for Sol and Bullock. I kept waiting for him to show some other shitty side, like fundie rage or something, but he seems pretty cool.

Al Swearengen entertains me, but fuck no I don't like the guy. Christ, he's a few shades removed from Satan in some scenes.

I'll give it another try this week, and return with findings.

You know, I ain't even going to argue here. I'll just sit back and wait for the inevitable oops post.

Just wait... the way Bullock and Al are set against each other, the sort of old-school, outraged quality of Bullock's sense of justice vs. Al's devilish, amoral self-interest is only the beginning of these two very complicated characters. What's so great about Al is he never becomes a good guy, but our perception of him changes as Deadwood grows. He's brutally pragmatic, and a survivor, first and foremost. His movement from devil to "the devil you know" is probably my favorite thing about the series.

How intentional do you think that was? And how much was just 'Holy shit, this McShane guy is a goddamn phenom, let's make him the central character"?

Milch has always been upfront about rather not planning, but I think it was intentional. Every comment I've read of him about Bullock seems to indicate he knew precisely what the character was going to be about from the start and it was probably only the audience that figured "Bullock hero, Swearengen villain". Plus, their tentative union seems too central to Deadwood's themes not to have been a part of the original.

Wolcott is downright tragic by the end of season 2. He's mentally ill, unlike the cold, calculating viciousness and evil of Hearst. Cy and Hearst are the only two died-in-the-wool shitheels in the main cast, although even Cy seems to lose his shit somewhat when Hearst has Ellsworth killed.

This. Keep watching and if you don't love the bastard by the end... I don't know what to tell you. It's about context as well. You have to look at where/when they are. Rough times and all that.

What about Johnny? He's pretty likable.


Oh and yes, E.B. is arguably my favorite to quote. Such a fucking shithead, but my god is it funny to watch him lose it.

"Why am I on my ass?"

Reverend Smith's condition is fucking heartbreaking. I really liked the guy. I was wary at first that he'd reveal himself to be some sort of asshole, particularly with regards to Sol's ethnicity, but he's such a genuinely compassionate, friendly and faithful guy. And this is coming from an agnostic. I think the irony of his fate, as well as his stoicism, speak more about the harshness of the town than the language and violence.

I also appreciated the indignation voiced by even Swearengen and his henchmen at Smith's presence among the whores. You guys are right about Al being pragmatic and reasonable, but I also wonder whether it was as Arjen put it. I don't think the Swearengen who ordered a hit on a little girl at the beginning of the series is the same Swearengen I'm seeing being secretly compassionate to Rev Smith and honorable to Wu at the end of the first season.

Any show takes half its first season to figure out how the characters work, and while I doubt Al is beyond ordering a child's death in later seasons, I think it would probably have been much bigger deal. But yeah, without knowing it, Al is basically Deadwood's first politician, and as such values protection and expedience over morality, which he seems to regard as luxury easily discarded.

i cant read this thread very much cause im currently watching the series.

so far im only seen up to the first episode of season 2. I've been watching this show at a snail's pace because i LOVE it soooo damn much. I know its a incomplete series. so I've prepared myself for an unsatisfying ending. But Its gonna break my goddamn fucking heart when i have no more left to watch.

I've seen the first season at least twice. Currently going for a 3rd. Everytime I show one of my friends the first episode they love it, and i end up having to rewatch the 1st season with them. Not that it bothers me though. This 3rd time, I'm rewatching it with my girlfriend who's immediately fell in love with it too. I think watching the 1st season two or three times makes me love these characters even more. I've invested A LOT of time in them already.
So I'm sure Season 2 will really surprise me. Shit watching Bullock and Swearengen have that fist fight was fucking great. Knew they we're gonna throw down sometime. Though at the end of the 1st season i though they were kinda hitting each other's stride. But my heart started to pound once their fight got out in the street. And my jaw dropped when Johnny started shooting.

It was nice to see that badge on Charlie too

And here comes my inevitable post about the ending of Deadwood, which, without getting spoilery, basically boils down to the fact that I was okay where it got cut off; though obviously there were more stories to tell.

Something should be said of the fact that Al eventually chooses to handle the Sophia situation differently and that, the main reason for the order in the first place, is pragmatic in the "not ruin the camp's reputation" sense, which is later contrasted with Cy Tolliver's handling of the robbery at his place and his less community-oriented and more "don't fuck with me" motivation.

Plus, Al is sacrificing people to maintain the order of the town even in the last episode.

Oops.

Just finished the first season finale. I think seeing Al's scenes with Rev. Smith and the corrupt magistrate back to back explained the character a lot more to me.

"I'm as nimble as a forest creature." Wonderfully human ending.

Often I've held, and tried to explain, that of all the things I've ever watched, Deadwood is probably the most human/joyous/alive and that scene is near the top of the reasons why.

I've been toying with re-watching Deadwood. Now I have to. Although this will lead to me talking like Joanie and/or drunk Jane for at least a week.

I think it's because I keep seeing commercials for Jonah Hex and John Malkovich looks JUST like Brad Dourif. I've done many a double take.

The Jewel/Al conversations might be my favorite. She's the only character to consistently call him on his shit and in a funny fashion.

Feeling a need....

I dreamed last night I was clamoring up a fuckin’ creek bank, which is often required of a drunk. It was dark, and I couldn’t tell where I was till I cleared the bank and come face to face with Charlie Utter’s ugly mug. Now Charlie’s, as usual, on the lookout for Bill, that’s as usual too, losing at poker inside the joint we’re outside of. ‘Where are we, Charlie?’ This could be any fucking place the last number of years. And he said: ‘Jane, don’t you know this is the No 10 saloon here in the camp where Bill’s gonna fuckin’ get killed soon?’ ‘Jesus Christ – how do you know, Charlie?” I asked him. He said: ‘Don’t you know,’ he says, ‘some point we know these fucking things? Don’t you know the world says its fuckin’ name to us?’ ‘What the fuck? What the fuck do I have to dream about this for?’ I say to Charlie, ‘Wasn’t I miserable enough?’ ‘Jane,’ fuckin’ Charlie says to me, ‘Don’t you know this is the night you couldn’t look out for that little girl when you was at Cochran’s, and Swearengen come in and scared you and you went down to the creek to weep? That’s where the fuck you’re coming from. And don’t you know,’ he says, ‘this is the night you spirit that child from Cochrans, and to where our stock was outside of camp, and we watched out on that little girl and sung to her, and you, with the presence of mind to continue the fucking round when I was too fucking stupid? And you said you would ‘row, row, row’ and I said ‘row, row, row your boat’ and we had this … now,’ Charlie says to me, ‘don’t you understand what I’m trying to tell you? Any evenings in your life you made mistakes, remember where even evenings you was as most ashamed as you ever thought you could ever be are able to wind up, and don’t fuckin’ only remember the middle of the fuckin’ dream!’ If I wonder why I dreamed that dream, yesterday you sent Mose to find me, and I was nearly dead-drowned drunk, and Mose made me get up, and you and me walked them kids to school, and before I went to sleep … you kissed me.

That's some fuckin shit, boys. The world says it's fuckin name to us.

Just started watching this over the weekend (first 3 DVDs after restarting Netflix). The show is pretty great but I'm kind of hating having to wait 3 days to see the next couple episodes. Netflix waiting for the next discs to arrive from Netflix is just too frustrating sometimes.

Finished season 2.

I fucking love this show.

More later.

Yeah, huh? They're goddamn geniuses.

Ok, my thoughts as I remember them:

- The "I am not the fine man you take me for" speech was simultaneously one of the funniest and one of the saddest things I've seen on this show so far. And the *crunch* still makes me cringe.

- I love the way they're slowly revealing Al's childhood abuse over the course of several monologues. The best so far was the last one I saw, where his young buxom companion related to his experience.

- The dialogue seemed to take a heavy turn toward Shakespearean form a few episodes into the second season, and then it toned down a bit near the end of the season. It was fantastic during that period.

- I couldn't help but tap my toes along with the music at the end of the second season finale.

- The Bone Shaker (bicycle) scene had me grinning from ear to ear. Wolcott, I agree with you...the show's dreary setting really makes for deeply joyous expressions of humanity. The smiles the "childish thing" cracked across the faces of even the most cynical of the characters was a high point for me.

- Which leads to...Bullock's kid. Damn...the funeral episode was rough. I really missed Rev. Brown during that episode.

- As much as I love Al's three henchmen, I get the feeling that Dan's character changed a lot between the first and second seasons. He's every bit as deadly as before, but he didn't seem to fawn over Al as much initially.

- I love Blazanov and Nigger General. Ellsworth and Doc Cochrane are great characters too. I feel bad about Ellsworth's heartbreak, and I hope he gets involved in the camp politics soon. But he probably has too much integrity for that.

- Why did Hofstedter do that?

- I like the relationship Al has with Merrick, and I wonder why Al has a soft spot for the guy. I'm guessing it's because Merrick, despite not being cut from the same granite as Al, Bullock and their ilk, sticks to his guns and moves as easily among them as he does among the less rowdy sort.

- Hearst is a cunt.

- Brian Cox!

- Why was this show cancelled? There was room for so much more story! It feels a lot like a reverse The Wire. Instead of the wrong types working against each other and slowly destroying a city, we see these rough types working together slowly building a city up from nothing.

- Merriweather, yeah. Loathe as I am to say it, Dillahunt gave the character some pitiful, almost confused facial expressions that made it look like he hated his actions (condition?) but couldn't control theme. I almost felt sorry for the guy. Almost.


There's more, but I think I'll finish up the last 6 episodes first.

Because that's what the show was about: Individuals finding a way to overcome their own pasts and needs to form something larger than themselves.

From the very excellent Onion AV Club....

If I'm not mistaken, very soon after Hearst left the camp the town was actually mostly destroyed by fire. So we know that the following season probably would have built up to that as the finale. But that's not what the show was about...that destruction. The season after that, had there been one, would have likely been about restructuring the town and the relationships of the principles. Again, not really what Milch had wanted to do. Granted, both seasons would have likely been awesome. I still grieve we weren't granted them. But what we were given, these three seasons of excellence and heart, is enough for me to keep close for a long long time.

Read this: http://www.avclub.com/articles/a-con...mething,32655/