Thoughts on Deadwood Season 1

After we finished off The Sopranos and Rome and with Lost and Battlestar Galactica seemingly both taking their sweet time to get back on the air, we recently looked to another HBO series, Deadwood, to fill the gap.

First impressions: it's good - I'd even say so far it is superior to Rome. If you are unfamiliar with the show, it is set in the city of Deadwood in the South Dakota territory before it had been annexed into a state. The 'camp' as they call it therefore has no laws, which provides some pretty interesting characters that are not bound by laws or even morals.

The most interesting character so far is that of "Wild" Bill Hickok, based in part on the real life gunfighter/lawman. The writers really knew how to set him up so the audience didn't know what to expect. In the very first episode, everyone is aware that Bill is coming into camp, and everyone has a different story about him, and it really leaves you wondering what he will be like when he actually shows up. When he finally does, he's portrayed essentially as a gentleman, he's soft spoken, well dressed and relatively cultured. I have no idea what the real Wild Bill was like, but the way he is portrayed here is pitch perfect.

The local saloon owner (well one of them), Al Swearengen is basically Quark from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine if Quark had no laws to bind him and no lawmen to watch him. So far he's portrayed as the main villain of the show but I have a feeling more is in store for him than just evil deeds.

One thing to mention is the language, the show is almost legendary for gutter mouth dialogue. I'm not really opposed to cursing in any type of media, but I will admit that Deadwood seems to stretch it a bit thin. In The Sopranos, cursing was just a regular part of speech, it rarely if ever seemed forced or out of place. In Deadwood the cursing gets to a point where it seems to smack of laziness, or to just add a bit of shock value. I have no doubt that people of the old west used salty language, but it gets to a point where cursing loses the value to shock and serves little purpose. Still, it has not hurt my interest or enjoyment of the show and I look forward to the next discs heading our way now.