Maybe you should have paid attention in 6th grade.

It's been discussed before, they may not have been "lettered", but spoken words were far more eloquent than todays language. The flourishes that Ian McShane can deliver are also far more entertaining than a "yup, yup", or a Bonanza styled production.

Or maybe Festus from Gunsmoke.

The dialog is the best thing about the show to me, and there's many, many, fantastic things about the show.

perhaps you would prefer the dialogue in spartacus on starz?

ok cranked thru the first 4 eps of season 3 via ondemand

hearst is one crazy ass mofo... any real-life validity to his (ruthless) portrayal on the show?

I don't know what this is, but I know Alan Sepinwall is solid. And Jim Beaver has been posting in the comments.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-al...eadwood?page=2

What I learned: the pilot's original script called for Swearengen to ask Ellsworth if it was true that he was descended from royalty. Beaver, thinking that McShane was the one with the "Limey" accent, suggested they turn that around, and they did. Beaver now regrets giving up the line about being descended from all those ***********.

Like I said, Sepinwall is solid, I look forward to seeing how that develops over the summer.

The way this fell off the front page, I guess nobody is following these.

Your loss. Sepinwall's reviews offer great insight on subtleties I hadn't noticed, the reader comments offer more, and Jim Beaver is there every week with behind-the-scenes stories.

His latest: His license plate still says HOOPLHD. They wouldn't give him LIMBRDK.

Link to the discussion of the pilot is in the post above.

Ep2, Deep Water

Ep3, Reconnoitering the Rim

Yeah I have been digging this. As well as watching each episode on demand about 100 times.........lol

"I am a sinner who does not expect forgiveness. But i am not a government official"

so great

^ favorite line from the series

My favorite Jim Beaver quote so far:

My very favorite David Milch quote came from that day. He was talking to Powers about playing a scene from the pilot where Swearengen is about to kill Trixie, and he was trying to get something going in the eye-contact communication between the two characters, and he said, I swear, "You know when you strangle a dog...." And he proceeded to talk about the look in the dog's eyes of supplication and terror, yet also love, and how that's what Swearengen should be seeing in Trixie's eyes. And he went on, but I think everyone on the set was still stuck back there at "You know when you strangle a dog?" I think it was the matter-of-fact "You know", the acknowledgment of shared experience, that kind of arrested our attention.

Watched S1 recently. Al is just so insanely interesting and like no character I can think of. I think he's even more morally evil than Tony Soprano and while that doesn't totally bother me, I find myself rooting against him more than I should.

His best asset, which is isanely valuable IRL and also really rare is that despite him getting really mad all the time, he seems to let it slide instantly and be sick at damage control. I find it hard to believe he wouldn't just get randomly shot though. I was really sad when Hickock died. I imagine they romanticized him a bunch but man he really ruled. I have a hard time rooting for Seth. He's just too much of a dick to people who don't deserve it too often. The dialogue is elite but the story leaves a lot to be desire. I'm not craving the next episode as soon as on ends like I did with The Wire, Sopranos, BB, and even some lessor shows.

Thanks for the Spoiler, *******!

Just kidding!

Hey, when I'm done with a fine meal, I'm not craving the next one yet, either. An episode of DW gives you a lot to chew on.

Comcast puts 4 episodes a month up and today was the new ones, S3 E5-8. Right around the time I stopped watching. So well written.

comcast's website has all 36 eps, watch them on your computer if you're a comcast hbo subscriber.

http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/

(Or, find a buddy who subscribes, get his username/password...profit)

Great googily moogily!!!!!!!!!

(Least I could do, to show my appreciation for your longtime avatar.)

I just watched Ep4, in prep for this week's discussion. My "comments" might be longer than the review Sepinwall plans to post. I thought I'd put them here, in the slim hopes that some of you are playing along with this "Watch Season One Again This Summer With Jim Beaver" game.


***


After the Sopranos' controversial finish, a famous essay appeared on the internet titled something like, "Not only did they whack him, they practically gave him a funeral."

If not for fear of spoilers, Episode Four could easily have been titled "Bill's Funeral", or at least, "Bill's Farewell Tour". Each scene he's in takes on a whole new meaning, when you realize that he's having a final one-on-one with every character he's close to.

BILL: Pretty quick you'll have laws here, and every other damned thing. (note he said "you'll", not "we'll")

SETH: I'll settle just for property rights.

BILL: (long look at Seth) Will ya? (pregnant pause, to make the point that he knows Seth better than Seth knows himself, as if he sees already that Seth will be appointing himself as guardian of the camp, under rule of LAW, not rule of "just property rights")

BILL: The missus operates a circus. She's in Cincinnati, waiting for word of my success.

SETH: Sol and I put our last sifting cradle aside for ya. Why don't you go ahead and use it, Bill. (note that sentence ends with a period and not a question mark)

BILL: What slows me down is thinking about freezing my balls off in a creek. Or the *********** I'd lose the gold to at poker.

(they swap grins)

BILL: (grin falls off, as Bill realizes that he has no interest in hard work, and his meager poker skills aren't enough to avoid the disappointment from those who love him, leaving him nowhere to go) I'm flat-out tired.

SETH: Turn in. I got 'er covered. (said while looking out over the town like Batman from a skyscraper ledge, the lone sentinal protecting the town)

BILL: I believe I will.

That "I'm flat-out tired," and, "I believe I will," sound so RESIGNED. It's like he's throwing in the towel on life itself. In a later episode, Charlie will lament that he can't understand why Bill would let McCall get close to him. If he had heard how DEFEATED Bill sounded when he announced his intention to "turn in", he needn't wonder at all.

BILL: G'night, Montana.
SETH: G'night, Bill.

The final farewell between these two friends. We didn't know that the first time we watched. Like I said, it takes on a whole new meaning in retrospect.

From there, it's straight to his final scene with his best friend Charlie. "I'm tired of fighting it," he tells Charlie, and asks him to stop "pissing in my ear about it." Charlie consents, and chokes out a tearful goodbye, unable to even look at his friend as he leaves.

BILL: So long, Jane.
JANE: So long, Bill.
(then he sits down to pen goodbye to his wife. After that, all that's left to do is pick out a fancy sash to wear to meet his maker in)

Other notes:

--You've got to watch the DVD commentaries, so you can hear gems like Molly Parker describing the mud and horse**** between her toes as she braved the thoroughfare barefoot; or to have another actor point out how William Sanderson loves to use his hands, such as in "who's coming at him, and who isn't!"

--When people tell me they don't watch this show because they find the profanity off-putting, I explain the whole "literary device" we're all familiar with. I mention, "Those who DON'T swear, don't last very long in this environment. They either flee, or get killed."

I mention this here as Alma ventures from her room for the first time, and shortly after realizing she's been left alone in this strange place, snarls, "All I asked you to do is to get the goddammed doctor." Yup, she's a keeper, she'll do just fine here.

--the shot of Farnum and Cochran dragging the deceased Brom, framed by the undercarriage of a mule, is my second-favorite shot in the show's history (my favorite? The genius who had a cameraman lie flat on a wagon in place of the dead Ellsworth, his upturned boots in the foreground, capturing the horrified reaction of Mrs Ellsworth and Utter's attempts to come to her aid; not only my favorite shot from this show, but from any show or movie, ever).

--Enjoyed the shot of Tom's long face in the poker game, while out-of-focus Bill entered in the background; followed a minute later by an out-of-focus McCall entering behind Bill, who had taken Tom's seat.

--OMG!!! Like I said earlier, this is at least my 9th time watching, and I'm still picking up things I've missed before, but this one is HUGE: as much as I always admired that shot of Brom being dragged, framed by the mule, I had never noticed that they use the same shot of Jack being dragged away by the crowd who chased him, framed by the lower half of a horse! It's not as centered and clean as the first shot, which is maybe why I never noticed it.

--Other note-worthies: Dan with Brom's blood on his hands; Alma inviting in Doc and shutting the door on Farnum's face; "shoot the craps"; "Listen to the thunder".

'He wants me to tell him something pretty.'

Just watched it all the way through again. Genius.

I'll try this one last time. If nobody cares, I'll drop it.

But this week the discussion revolves around my favorite ep of the show, "The Trial of Jack McCall".

Here is what I was once moved to post after rewatching it a few years back.

Here is what I'll be posting on Alan's blog tomorrow:

I've *SO* been looking forward to this week. This is my favorite episode of the 36. Every single scene, every single line, even every single actor we meet this episode and never see again (the guy who drags Andy into the woods; Jack's lawyer; the kid Cy sends to Nebraska), you just can't speak highly enough about any of them.

--For fun, I've memorized Al's "Where's your ***********' flag? Where's your ****ing navy or the like?" speech. I never get tired of saying it out loud, though I can never, NEVER make it all the way through it without tripping over a word or two. How I.McS. could do it AND negotiate a flight of stairs at the same time will always leave me in wonder. He rocked this entire episode (well, he rocked the whole series, of course, but like I said, this episode is my favorite, and he's a big part of the reason why).

--"Hickok breaks my balls from the afterlife!" is a Hall of Fame line. So is, "That hardware ********** has been an on-going pain in my balls since him and his partner showed up." And I'll never forget being able to fend off my nagging mother with, "Anything else on your schedule that I'm behind on?"

--Billy Sanderson's soliloquy, his best scene in the show's run. He just can't keep his hands in his pockets, waving them around while dramatizing "fear of the Pinkertons!", wiping his brow over-dramatically. Love that guy, my favorite character on the show.

--Jeffrey Jones plays a much bigger role later in the series, but I think this was his best episode. The "please don't try to bribe me," line, his silent reactions during the trial, the toast he makes at the Gem, and above all, the chilling emotion in his voice when he repeats, "They turned him loose!"

--The only thing I couldn't get was the preacher's "parts is parts!" speech. They spent so much time on it, I knew it had to mean SOMETHING, but I could never figure it. Luckily, one DVD or other explained that the town needs all it's people, the same way the body needs all its parts--because that's what the show is about, that's who the main character is: not Al, not Seth, but THE TOWN. That's why Milch couldn't continue when the network wanted to cut his budget in half. The network told him, "Just lose all those extras and livestock, shoot interiors!", which of course would be impossible; it would be cutting out the main character, the town!

--Before the show premiered, two things in HBO's trailer had me excited about it: Last week's "Listen to the thunder.", and this week's exchange between two serious men:

"Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em on the head, rob 'em, and dump their bodies in the creek."
"But that would be wrong!"

I know this is incredibly lazy not to google, but is season 3 only 8 eps?!?!

ok i checked, apparently hbo is being dicks and only releasing 4 on demand now

,

"watch them on your computer"

just marathoned, 4th best TV drama I've seen.

Behind The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men.

Al Swearengen is the most interesting character evar, interest shot way up whenever he was onscreen.

Actor storyline was awfully boring tho, as was the lesbian relationship.

reading the wiki articles about the real life characters now, pretty sweet.

wiki:

****ing pagan. Tell your God to ready for blood.