Deadwood Season 1
Growing up without cable has taught me a few things now that I am exposed to it in a Collegial environment:
- There is a lot of crap on TV
- There is a lot of wonderful things on TV
- There is more crap than wonderful things
One channel that I have not been exposed to, however, is HBO. The only HBO shows I have ever really watched are Curb Your Enthusiasm, and as of this Spring Break, Deadwood.
Set in an ungoverned stretch of South Dakota soon after the 1876 Custer massacre, Deadwood concerns a lawless, evolving town attracting fortune-seekers, drifters, tyrants, and burned-out adventurers searching for a card game and a place to die.
Part of my liking it is my love of the Western, and another part is my love of a good telling of a story. It has interesting characters, settings, and the writing. Well, there is part of the writing that is not part of regular television. It seems that the good people at HBO like using words that refer to parts of people's body and actions to take with them. I understand that in the Old West colorful coarse language was used, but I don't think some of these terms were used until the 1970's, but what do I know.
Watching television shows all at once instead of serial once a week is a much more desirable experience. Sometimes I wish that TV was just old movies and reruns and people saw the newest shows just by renting or buying a season's worth of shows... but, this is the current way we all get TV. But, I never saw
Deadwood on television, and I probably won't see the current second season on TV either. It is surprising there are only 12 episodes in an HBO season, as opposed to the usual 22 or so episodes for network series.
All in all, I reckon Deadwood to be on the list of shows I would saddle up with (please excuse the previously used out of date language). I suggest you all go out and rent/buy/borrow the DVDs.
Comments
deadwood is incredibly fucking sweet. the best part is ian mcshane's closing monologue in the second-to-last episode, delivered while receiving oral sex. this may be the best monologue ever written for television.
Posted by: farbs | March 4, 2005 01:19 AM