Thursday, March 10, 2011

One of My Favorites - Deadwood

Look, I understand I’m not Oprah, I don’t have a cult like following (seriously, I haven’t even cracked 10 followers), and nobody asked my opinion, but there are some things that I feel duty bound to share with you because I find them so awesome. My favorites in life mostly consist of irrelevant things, like a TV show, a recipe or a book, but no matter how insignificant, I will be sharing it with you.

Deadwood. I know it has been off the air for five years, but can we all have a shot of whiskey in honor of this great show? Have you seen it? I watched the first season with my sisters in one weekend a few summers ago. Needless to say, our daily level of profanity usage increased tenfold by the season finale.

For those of you who haven’t seen it, it takes place in the Black Hills of a Dakota mining camp. It is 1876 and the camp is primarily made up of a bunch of undesirable people that you should be wary of, but somehow find yourself rooting for. Al Swearengen is the owner of the Gem Saloon and one of the main characters, a true antihero if there ever was one. Let me try and paint a picture. Think of any villainous father from a Disney cartoon and cover him with dirt and that’s physically what he looks like. Next give him the personality of Tony Soprano, with even less regard and value for the fairer sex, and for his final act, give him the strategic prowess of the Spartans during the Battle of Thermopylae (that the Spartans eventually lost, is sort of foreshadowing. Oops – spoiler alert) and that’s kind of who he is in a nutshell. He is also funny, clever and always looking for an angle. I love him. His folly is Seth Bullock.

Bullock came riding into town with his partner Sol Star to open a hardware business, and carry on one of the greatest bromances in the history of television. He is a good guy but can be hard to like. Also, he is played by (one of) my television boyfriends, Timothy Olyphant, so that’s all you really need to know about him. Seriously.

The point is, the show has a lot of interesting characters (some based on real people in history, others completely made up) that you find yourself invested in. It is a smart show, so you have to keep up and pay attention, and it is a pretty show to look at, minus all the dirt everyone seems to be constantly covered in. The dresses and even the way people talk has a nice ring to it (not counting the over forty times the F word was used in the pilot episode). Perhaps I’m making it seem more whimsical than it is – I’ve warned you about the profanity – but I just love the story they are telling, and the entire cast of supporting characters are just as important as the main characters.

Anyways, the show is dead and gone, but you should catch up on DVD, HBO, online, or wherever. You won’t be sorry. In the words of Al Swearengen, “Welcome to fuckin' Deadwood! Can be... combative!”

3 comments:

  1. I haven't seen Deadwood... but have just added it to my Netflix queue. Between you and the peer pressure from Netflix recommendations ever since I said I liked Timothy Olyphant in The Crazies... it was probably only a matter of time before I got sucked into it.

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  2. Deadwood was AMAZING. Next you need to write about love for Oz. The only young white girls i know who loved it were us. Why???

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  3. Please finish the series, and then give me the DVD's. I am so bored. I need some good great tv. If I was able to strikethrough the word good, I would, but I can't, but that's what I wanted to do.
    Just give me the fucking DVD's already! hehe...did you see what I did there...already swearing in anticipation of the show! Can't wait!

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