"Summer Binge-Watching Guide: Deadwood" Topic

"If the apocalypse came tomorrow and put an end to all future TV shows (::shudder::), Deadwood would go down as one of the best television dramas of all time. It may also go down as the greatest TV show that never got to finish its story. Following the third and final season, showrunner David Milch was supposed to make a pair of two-hour specials to complete his affecting, poetically foul-mouthed series about life in a South Dakota mining camp. But those specials never materialized.

It's a shame. What Milch created with Deadwood was something of an American masterpiece—a piece of historical fiction where pimps, s, gold miners, and tomboy drunks give profanity-laden soliloquies worthy of Shakespeare. ("Gabriel's trumpet will produce you from the ass of a pig." Direct quote.) It's also a people's history of the United States from a time (1876) before Deadwood itself was even part of the union. If you've ever wondered why America seems incapable of going a month without some political or corporate scandal, throw on an episode of Deadwood and realize that the nation was largely built by crooks who would do anything to get rich or get by. (If you really want to fact-check, watch the show with your laptop open and Google the characters. Most are based on real people who, although liberties were taken, actually did a lot of what happens on Deadwood—right down to the moment Wild Bill Hickok met his end.)

Deadwood, in that sense, is a microcosm of every new society. There will always be generally honest people like hardware-store-owner-turned-sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), and there will always be guys like saloon/house operator Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) who ruthlessly pursue their own interests. And it will always one day become evident that those two people really aren't that different at all. At the end of the day we're all hoopleheads, and c*cksuckers, and motherers—it's just that in Deadwood, everyone's up front about it. To say you love Deadwood is like saying you love the worst people in town (it was making us fall for antiheroes long before Walter White broke bad), but aren't those the most interesting people to know?…"
Full article here
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Best serie ever!!

Amicalement
Armand

"Go to Heaven for the climate, hell for the company." – Mark Twain

Yep, I really should watch this. Was on before I subscribed to HBO. One caveat, however- although I do believe that the world is dark under the surface, and that many of us are deeply compromised, I do NOT believe that there is no such thing as a truly good person. I find the tendency in HBO shows to portray everyone as having a bad side, or being strictly self centered, is just as facile as portraying most characters as goody-goody.

Indeed, it's almost time for my annual marathon…..it takes two episodes to get used to the language. The last episode of Season Two is my all time favorite.

My wife and I were talking about this the other day, and are planning a marathon at some point later this year.

It was, indeed, a great show.

It was a terrific show

Don't string me up…but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say: "meh". I can appreciate the fantastic scenery, beautiful attention to detail, etc. My problem is that the story is very slow. On top of that I didn't really care for any of the characters. Hard to get vested in a show when the characters don't draw me in.

"Swedgin" was as close as I got to really liking a character. The rest I couldn't care. I bought all three seasons and just found my attention drifting while watching it.

I really wish it grabbed me. Just doesn't. (tear)

PS: I also think The Walking Dead sucks, so… :D