Deadwood, season 1

[selenak]

While I'm in bed sipping tea and trying to get rid of that pesky cold:

I watched the first season of Deadwood this last week and decided that so far, there hasn't been a HBO-produced tv show I haven't liked. Extra points for making the actress playing Calamity Jane actually look like a woman who lived outside in the same clothes for most of her life. Trixie also has a worn and sharp look that makes the "whore in frontier town" thing believable. Alma and Joanie are conventionally pretty and cleaned up, but that's okay because of their background. As for the menfolk, Keith Carradine was suitably dignified and imposing as doomed Wild Bill, and it shows how little I know Western legends if I admit his death came as a shock instead of me expecting it due to the assassin being introduced episodes earlier. It took me a while to recognize Brad Dourif as the Doc - I knew he was in the show, but I had expected him to play one of the saloon owners. He's reliably excellent, of course. Blame my BSG watching for calling him "Doc Cottle" though his character is actually named differently - Cochran, I believe.

But while Deadwood is a good ensemble show, we do have two leads of sorts, Seth Bullock and Al Swearangen, and you know, this show gets right what Lost (first season, I haven't seen the second yet) has a problem with, to wit, making the good guy in this combination interesting. Had I not been travelling in trains with a lot of people around, I'd have danced the dance of relief that Bullock doesn't have Daddy issues. (If it turns out he does later on, don't tell me.) Early on I thought the show was going for a showdown between him and Swearangen, but no, what we got was more interesting. When Bullock basically asked Swearangen, via sidekick, to assassinate Alma's father in the last episode of the season I held by breath, and was ever so relieved when he went back on that and sent Alma's father out of town alive. Instead, we got a very different killing in that episode.

Which brings me to Swearangen. Definitely the most interesting character in an ensemble where no one is dull. Having recently rewatched some American Gothic, I think Lucas Buck would approve. He even has a Selena of his own. (And btw, I find the relationship between Swearangen and Trixie more realistic than the one between Cy and Joanie.) Mind you, when Trixie went back to him I was depressed for her sake, but again, it fit with the characterisation. If the Tighs on BSG remind me of Edward Albee, these two are more in the Tennesee Williams vein. What surprised me about Swearangen was, again, no showdown with Bullock but instead going for the more intelligent use-and-let-use instead, and something that dawned on me when I was watching the scene where he watches the preacher in the street. To wit, what the climax of the last ep was going to be. Swearangen, who uses murder as a business tool left and right throughout the show, killing someone not for profit but out of pity. And may I say that the Preacher slowly and incredibly painfully rotting away of brain tumour for several episodes was well played, if incredibly painful to see? No prettyfication of madness here, no, not all.

Anyway, I could see it coming from that point onwards, but the way it played out was still so good that I sat glued, staring on my computer screen. I'd need a screencap to be sure, but I think they even staged it so Swearangen ended up in Pieta position, with the Preacher susbstituting for dead Jesus. Again, extra points to the script for trusting us the audience and not letting anyone make an obvious comment.

Now: is there any fanfiction?

Comments

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Now: is there any fanfiction?

It has been my experience, for whatever reason, that if it is an HBO show, there won't be much fan fiction. I'm not exactly sure why, but as far as I know, even Carnivale, the most culty of the network's shows, never spawned a huge amount of fan fic.

[ion-bond.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what's up with that, anyway?

But then again, I haven't had much luck in my attempts to write Deadwood fiction either.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Checking through some people's ljs, I found about four or five stories... and they were Sol/Seth slash. Figures. Mind you, not that I object to Sol/Star, it just wasn't what I was interested in. And that was it. But perhaps I must just look further?

True about HBO, and I don't get it. Lots of interesting characters! Good writing!

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Must really get my hands on Deadwood...

Get well soon!

[lynnb.livejournal.com]

Hope you're feeling better!

Season 2 will be out on DVD next month, and season 3 will be telecast in June, and I can't wait. There was much written about the rhythm of the dialogue, which for some people is difficult to follow at first - then I read the scripts are written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It makes more sense after finding that out :)

Of course some people believe that people did not curse like that back then, or spoke so formally, but according to David Milch he has the historical documentation to back it up, and I believe it.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I read the scripts are written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

That's interesting - I kept saying last season that it felt as if Swearengen and Trixie were speaking in blank verse, but it didn't occur to me it was written that way! It's a pity so many people have got distracted by the swearing, because I think the use of language is one of the show's great strengths. Farnum's fantastical speeches are a joy, and the scene where Mr Wu attempted to explain the situation armed only with "Cocksucker!" and "Swear'gen!" was one of my favourites.

[lynnb.livejournal.com]

I totally agree, there is too much emphasis on the swearing. The language is so rich, and even at its simplest, as you said with Mr. Wu, it's better than most anything else on television right now.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Re: unrhymed iambic pentamenter - now you're making me wonder about Firefly dialogue as well because if would be just like Joss to steal pay homage to that. Fascinating, anyway.

[herself_nyc]

Re: dialogue that feels like its iambic pentameter--one of my fave movies, Force of Evil with John Garfield, has this kind of wonderful dialogue. I can't recommend this film enough. It's a little masterpiece.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Noted for future use in a video store.*g* Also, it seems the writers like their literary allusions - as soon as we heard the names "Flora and Miles", I knew these two a) weren`t what they seemed and b) were doomed.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I love it to death, though I'm afraid I don't think Bullock's very interesting. My theory of the first season was that he was frustrated in his love for Sol, and flirting with Wild Bill and Alma to try to provoke him, while Sol was suffering guilt about being completely uninterested. Otherwise, what on earth was that bit where Bullock blurted out about Trixie to Swearengen? But by the second season, I just stopped worrying about Bullock, and enjoyed everyone else. Swearengen is a role to die for; I love Sol and Trixie; and in the second season, which is even better, I began to love Dan Dority too, and Richardson.

And that was the most tender murder I have ever seen.

Get well soon.

PS

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Rome is crap, though.

Re: PS

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Huh. I adored Rome.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to the second season then, and may I ask whether you have made these icons yourself or whether you found them somewhere, and if so, where?

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

They're my own, I'm afraid; I've struggled to locate many screencaps outside the official site (http://www.hbo.com/deadwood/), which is very good, but does tend to err on the side of yet another picture of Bullock when I really want one of [classic Richardson moment in late season two]. But I haven't looked recently, so maybe an obsessive Deadwood screencapper has appeared by now - let me know if you find one!

[kathyh]

it shows how little I know Western legends if I admit his death came as a shock

Whenever he played cards I was waiting for them to show him with a hand of aces and eights, which I think are the cards Wild Bill was holding when he was shot, now called the Dead Man's Hand, but of course they didn't!

What I loved about Deadwood is that we started off wondering what the hell was going on and ended up caring about more or less everybody no matter how dark they were, though I must admit I've never particularly warmed to Seth.

Now: is there any fanfiction?

I haven't read any as it's one of the shows I'm content to just watch but killabeez has a page of recs up here. Warning: I strongly suspect the vids contain material from Season 2.

Hope your cold is better soon.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

See, you're obviously far better versed in Western lore than me. *g*

And thanks for the link and the warning!

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

People have written Deadwood stories for yuletide. I think I remember that most of them this year dealt with the second season, though.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Are there spoiler warnings?

[strangemuses.livejournal.com]

Isn't Deadwood brilliant? I finally had a chance to start watching it about midway through S2, and after seeing just a couple of episodes I promptly went out and bought the S1 collection so I could catch up.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's brilliant, with really good writing and acting for all the characters.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

It's totally unrelated, but have you seen this? (http://alias-media.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=278&pos=21) Slightly Alias spoilery, but maybe worth it to you anyway, I dunno.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

No, haven't, and it's so adorable that it at once makes me suspect it must be someone's dream sequence...

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's legit! But adorable regardless.