oh i had so many early in the thread and am drawing a blank...

ok... the scene where the whore is really blowing al good and he goes...
do you have a ****ing train to catch?

the line where utter is telling that guy he is going to chase him down and he says something like... you won't need sleep for all the ****ing running you better be doing..

that is so sub-par...

You’d better see to that yourself, ‘cause if he don’t make it, you’ll be eating your spuds runnin' till I hunt you the **** down.

is the quote i was looking for...

also.. the one where al goes there is no better way to make god laugh than to announce your intentions... one of my fav lines of all time...

what i loved about deadwood was how complex it was... i could rarely figure out why ppl were doing the things they were until much later...

best show ever imo...

WTF? Charter still hasn't put them up yet!!!

I cranked out the next 6 eps in 2 days. And i'm about to begin the rewatch.

Swearengen has a wonderful sense of humor. I love how he tells the kid that comes to work for him, "we teach a special sweeping technique here, follow her lead" nodding toward the crippled lady working the stairs.

just started watching this show after reading some of this thread and wow its really amazing it sucks that its only 3 seasons...i plowed through first two but have been goin slow in season 3 (im on ep 5) because i dont want it to end...Al really is my GOAT character. Im a typical 2+2 type who has the wire and the sopranos as my favorite shows of all time (with sopranos slightly surpassing wire....cue hate) but i really think the dialogue in Deadwood just crushes those shows..the writing is fantastic. Don't necessarily like it more than the Sopranos just because im a sucker for mafia stuff but it is definitely amazing.. I urge any lurkers to start watching, you can find links on internet

rewatching eps 7-12... why? why not, **** sucker

I'm 5 eps into season 2. Deadwood just moved into my fav tv show of all time. Swearenger is my fav character of all time.

Just listened to this fantastic podcast by Stephen Tobolowsky where he talks about his experiences on Deadwood. Must listen!

Although I did listen to the first parts and enjoyed them, he doesn't start talking about Deadwood and David Milch until the 17:15 mark.

Thanks for the link btw, this is really great stuff.

Finished watching the entire series last week. Disappointed that it ended too soon as well, but I wasn't as thrilled with S3 as with the first two. Still good on many levels but I just wasn't a fan of the Hearst storyline, especially how it ended.

Dority vs. The Captain was pretty ****in' fantastic.

The struggle against a much stronger force in Hearst made for a really good season I thought. I just hated him and his cronies so goddamned much.

Yeah, that was a pretty awesome fight scene! I forgot about that.

It's a great fight scene but goddamn the desperation that this Swedgin's best move. I feel sick to my stomach thinking about that ****ing Captain holding Al down for Hearst, and then Al can't figure the angle.

I'm only a few eps into the 2nd season and this post sums what much of what I think so far. The Sopranos, and especially the Wire, just try so damn hard at times it gets kinda painful to watch. This one just purely tells a story - one that seems fairly historically accurate from what I gather- and for that, I am really enjoying it.

Does anyone have a link to a site that gives good episode by episode summaries? Sometimes I like to do a sanity check to make sure I didn't miss or not fully understand anything.

I'd advise watching the episodes a few times before resorting to the summaries because once you read someone else's take it will taint your interpretation from then on.

One of the good things about Deadwood is it's always funnier the second time through. The characters are priceless.

Al Swearengen is the greatest TV character ever made. There are 2 parts to why Swearengen rocks the ****ing ****.

1. Written perfectly - Dude has the best lines, best story arcs. I know when I really like a show when I start coming up with various scenarios of what I wish would happen or what I wish would have happened. I started Deadwood wishing Bullock would eventually clown the **** out of Al and then punish him with high murder. I end up rooting for the **********, and hoping he does to Hearst what I hoped Bullock would do to him. How that happens I don’t know, but it’s a giant Bat Signal to the script’s quality.

2. Acted even better - This mans face is a roadmap to character. It's like he has a team of microscopic gnomes beneath his saggy ****in cheeks, pulling strings at his behest to accomodate wheveter subtlety the script demands. Seriously, just watch his face in any scene. I dare you to not be impressed by his facial affectations.


He's not bad, but he's further from good: This only becomes apparent through the various monologues he gives, of course, to the very whores that he takes care of in his own twisted way; twisted by his upbringing. He’s the most vicious personification of tough love. He initially uses Trixie to his own gain, trying her out as an agent against Alma Garrett. Then, when she manages to rise up with the help of Sol, Al vehemently refuses to bring her back: “I have no patience for loopy ****in ****s that can’t see when they’ve improved their lot in life.” He is a man forged from hardship. His drive can be summed up in his talk with Merrick (after his printing shop was jacked up). "The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man, and give some back." He's not bad, he's simply a man born from punishment, and he act's accordingly.

He's Bullock's natural counterpart in the American experience: One is virtuous, the other capitalist. Both see in-between lines of the American frontier, and both have urges to act opposite their inclination. Bullock's are the beatings against people who really ****ing deserve it, while Al's are acts of kindness and openess (like when he cares for the Preacher during his last few breaths, Al cradles him like a brother. He recognizes he’s broken, means nothing but good, and he feels sorry for him. This is where you see Al at his truest. He murders the preacher, but it's a mercy kill, because he see's the preacher is only suffering on his way out, might as well make it a quick exit. "you can go now, brother". This is only exemplified by juxtaposing it against the Doc begging God to send an angel to end the Preachers suffering.

The scene at the end of s03e04 when he's been complaining all episode about the prostitute’s changed blow job abilities. With the end monologue he reveals that it's his head that’s causing the problem. It's not just that Hearst got to him, bested him, and broke him; it's the way he did it that triggered an earlier memory which also gives us more insight to what makes Swearengen the man he is today.


This brings me to likely the greatest accomplishment for the show:

Hearst is the perfect foil for Al.

Gerald McCreany plays him with proper complexity. He's a sociopath, even stating that he can only put up with ******s, or whites who look to him as dogs to a master. He must be in control, and has no interest in human interaction beyond that which furthers his quest for "the color"; his lust for Gold , which is driven outside the natural want for money. He is wholly unnatural. Hearst is contrasted perfectly with Al. Al Swearengen is a man who simply wants his piece. He feels no need to extend beyond what he deems reasonable, such that he dives head-first into a pool of spite if only to impede those who feel a self-righteous justification to take theirs and everything beyond

Deadwoods usage of Black actors:

Blacks are portrayed uniquely from any other show. They have the archetypes, but bust through them to reveal fleshed out characters. Hearst's nanny for example. She is the introduced as a classic "Mammy" archetype, but then through her mahjong session shows that she is aware of the power dynamic being displayed between her and Hearst, as well as showing she is aware of the psyche behind the "master". Even further, she's the only person that Hearst shows any element of subordination to, in an odd BDSM-esque play that he acts out. Part of this is clearly that he grew up with her, another is that he enjoys being chastised, by a ****** no less, in sharp contrast to how he treats everybody else in the world; but also, I think, there was a sexual undertone to their relationship. There is a scene where he's eating his food, and she's milling about. He mentions how he hates this place, like all other places, including him home in San Francisco. Going on he mentions his role as the boy the earth speaks to. He ends the confessional by stating that "her [the earth] telling me where to dig into her", then he and Aunt Lou have a moment where they look to each other as a punctuation to the sexual metaphor of digging into her. It's a stretch, but given the complexity of this show, it's not much of one to think that he raped her at one point in her life. Then, just like his introduction to the town where he is opened to us as a subtle, considerate and understated, even stately, man, his relationship with Aunt Lou quickly grows dark; such that he must be blamed for the death of her baby boy, even though he likely had nothing to do with it. That’s just a statement to the kind of man he is: one who owns, infects, corrupts, and destroys everything around him.

This show ****ing rocks.

I just wrote this more or less stream of thought, so I apologize for the lack of coherency.

Thug B- your thoughts on Doc?

Just finished the series. The season 3 finale has got to be one of the worst season finales of all time. Really enjoyed the show. They for sure could've gotten another good 2 seasons out of the show.

The Doc is a cool character because while they barely touch on it, the Civil War has clearly ****ed his head up. It seems like he's the only one to stand up to Swearengen, but he really doesn't, he simply is forceful about telling people he can help them, even going so far as to give free treatment to Cy's asian whores if he won't pay to care for them. He voices his disgust, but doesn't act on what "should" be done. The only time he stood his moral ground was when he wouldn't let Dan kill the little girl early in season 1. I may be wrong, but I don't remember another time in the show where he actually defied Al or anybody else that didn't involve him doing something that would help them in the process.

The Civil War experiences, though, pushed him to a point where he's disgusted with the lack of care people give to themselves. It seems like when he was presented with young boys who lost their arms, legs, and lives in agony, he carried those experiences and judges everything else around him against them. So he'll see a rich, beautiful woman drowning in opium and demeans her even as he supplies her with "medicine", so much so that she's afraid to see him at one point so as not to incur his judgmental stare. He talks down to the whores, and while openly states his disgust of Al's behavior he still helps when he can because in a world of **** you just keep shoveling.

Which reminds me of why I loved Trixie. She's arguably the second smartest character on the show behind Al. She's basically Al minus the conniving temperament. She's so hyper sensitive that she over reacts to the various characters faults. She sees that while Bullock wants to do good, his brashness leads to waves that hurt people around him, so she curses his name at every turn. She yells at Sol and goes on anti-semetic rants because he's ultimately a pussy who won't stand Bullock down when his temper flares up and he rages into rash decisions. And of course she's keen to the demeaning, pet-like, way that Alma treats her, and constantly talks **** to her, but helps because she wants to make sure the little girl has the best chance at surviving Deadwood.

And then the Doc. She's the only one who refuses to put up with the Doc passive-aggressive bull****, and in that they both have an interesting equilibrium of honesty about the world they exist in. They are the only two characters who see the world as hopeless, and do what good in it they can before their own agenda. Doc will work for free or turn a blind eye to the horror Al, Cy and friends commit so he can at least fix up one more hooker to live another day. Trixie risks the vengeance of Al to help sober up Alma so the child can have a stable parent, or even pull a rifle against Al's men (albeit from across the camp and out of sight) to give Sol and Bullock that much more help in the standoff.

Doc is my second favorite character in the show. Even down to his sunken walk and delivery of dialogue that has to be forced out of his mouth like it's being impeded by anger, frustration and a twinge of madness. Everything about him speaks to an inner turmoil ingrained by years of savage warfare. He's nearly broken, and only exists to heal as if it's a convulsion.

Also, I just recently found out the guy who plays Doc played the young kid in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrU_o...eature=related

Watch that and tell me it doesn't remind you of his scene in Season 1 when he screams to God to let the preacher die.

2nd half of season 2 came available on comcast on demand today. f yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah

and thanks for hte writeup above

btw you asked a month ago for writeups on deadwood, and while like that guy, i advise watching the show a second time before reading them, here's some good (and LONG) writeups.

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/tvshow/deadwood,76/

the 2nd half of season 2 is awesome, really enjoying it. I love the dynamic going on now that pretty much EVERYONE is neither good nor bad.

the last ep finished with:



doc hasn't been around much lately ,thats about the only downer

By your spoiler, you must not have seen:



- MOD NOTE: In Snot's post he's talking about the last ep he saw, not of the season, and the above spoiler spoilers the end of S2.

Any else stop watching this cuz they couldnt understand the dialogue? It was forever since Ive watched this show but I remember loving the first season and then I think the 2nd season I came back and it just felt like work trying to listen to these people talk. It was also funny to me how they had such an expansive vocabulary even tho you know those characters didnt receive as much we would in 6th grade by today's education standards.

No