Deadwood = what TV can be if kept out of the hands of myopic idiots

Ian McShane as saloon owner Al Swearengen in HBO's Deadwood and is perhaps the best damn character TV has ever seen.

I love this show. Let me say that again, I LOVE THIS SHOW. I don't have cable, but I found Deadwood on DVD and poured over the the first season (12 episodes) over a three week period. I was enthralled with it. This is a classic example of how great art can be produced for what is generally considered (and rightly so) a vapid intellectual slagpit with a built in audience of simpletons in mind (TV).

Normally I would never encourage anyone to sit in front of the box but there are exceptions to this rule and Deadwood is one of those. The writing alone is reason enough to wrap your arms around this show. Language is KING in Deadwood and the and it's gruff, crisp, fluid and absolutely beautiful to listen to. Every "Fuck" and "Cocksucker" is there for a reason and adds a cadence to the dance of words as they glide off the tongues of Deadwood's wild bunch. The standout (in a show full of standouts) is Ian McShane as Gem Saloon owner Al Swearengen. In my opinion, this has got to be one of the best actor meets character pairings in television history (Falk = Columbo, Garner = Rockford, Duchovny = Mulder, etc).

Season two is now playing on HBO. I haven't seen it yet, but I look forward to the DVD release. In fact, I prefer watching these things on DVD rather than as a stand-alone experience. You can watch it on your own time, you can pause it when you need to do something and the DVD usually comes with 2-3 episodes, so you can seriously LOCK IN without having to wait a week for the next episode. This is how I was sold on The X-Files (which puts 4 episodes on each DVD). Plus, you get all the commentary tracks, which run the gamut from interesting to funny, to both.

DIALOGUE SAMPLE:

Swearengen: "Bad news or tries against our interests is our sole communications from strangers, so let's by all means plant poles across the land and festoon the c*cksuckers with wires to hurry the sorry word and blinker our judgments of motive."

Dority: "Say the word, them f*cking poles are kindling."