Is anyone watching this? I am not sure if there is much to add to the comments made here about season two, but I am astonished by the consistent quality of this series. Almost every moment and every scene is perfectly crafted. The language is as lyrical as ever. Every character, no matter how minor, has depth (except perhaps Timothy Olyphant). Ian McShane is an even stronger presence, and now the underlings are being given a chance to shine. Unlike the last series of the The Sopranos, here the loose story linking the episodes (the battle between Hearst and Swearengen) is never hurried, but nor is it lost: it infects every secondary character and plot in the camp. This is quite sublime and easily the best thing on TV at the moment.
i’ve been almost completely won over by season three. everything i liked about the early parts of season one is here and most of the “disappearing up its own arse”-ness of season two is gone. or maybe i’m just a sucker for a real conflict driven plot? bullock, however, continues to annoy me.
That fight scene last weekend . . . whew! It’s a great season thus far. Can’t wait for the theatre to open its doors; Brian Cox is a wonderful addition.
I’m one episode off, but I’ve loved the season, too. I still like Bullock, but he is kind of stuck on a note–while everyone else gets to evolve a complex sense of “goodness” around their depravities, he’s trapped in the Gary Cooper role. That said, his rage seems still there, and still potentially tappable.
My favorite thing this season was the return of the Hostetler and the racial battle with his ostensible successor. I thought that did a helluva good job nailing the intersections of class and racial strife, while also precisely detailing the near-impossibility of escaping from the deeply-embedded hatred and fear. I thought Hearst’s “Aunt” got a nice sharp-tongued scene, gambling with the Chinese, as well.
And this show is damn funny, too–I laugh more consistently at the beautiful writing here than at anything else currently on television.
Ok so I’ve been trying to tape episode 34 of “Deadwood” for Reynolds this past week but it is not showing up on my On Demand menu. Can other Comcast customers access this episode? Last week ep 33 was available (at least it was on Thursday when I returned from a three week vacation). After a Sunday premiere, HBO always follows the show with a reminder that the episode just watched will be available on On Demand staring the next day (Monday). I know this is a stupid thing to be bothering over but I am curious if others have run into this issue. Thanks.
I suppose this counts as a SPOILER, though not really.
The season finale of ‘Deadwood’ encapsulates what makes the series so good. Instead of a paroxysm of killing, with half our favorite characters dead at the end, it revolves around the killing of an obscure (in the sense that we barely know her from the series) prostitute, and the impact it has on Al, Trixie, Johnny and others. Bullock’s interactions with Hearst in this episode are some of Olyphant’s best work for the series. Powerful, yet low key. Great work.
i liked the finale, and i liked this season the most of all three. but i felt that the finale was nonetheless a little flat. i don’t know if this is because i know that the series is cancelled with only two feature length “films” to come. for all i know the season finished filming completely before those decisions were made.
i still have no idea what the theater troupe is doing in camp–but i imagine that was originally going to be a longer arc in anticipated future seasons.
I enjoyed Johnny’s opportunity to shine (Sean Bridgers went to boarding school with my brother so we’ve always been pulling for him to get more lines); his scene with Swearengen last night was truly heartfelt. I thought “Deadwood” was as good this year as any other, but I did find the purple dialogue (Shakespeare-lite) to get a bit oppressive as we moved further into the season. There were some lines last night that were fun to listen to but completely incomprehensible–it was like a dada western (that scene between Joanie Stubbs and Cy Tolliver, for example . . . what the hell were those two talking about). Given the dramatic build over the last three or four eps, I did like the anti-climatic ending as well.