Post #263,689
8/3/06 9:19:42 PM
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Grateful for "Deadwood"
I see we have one [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=199645|previous review] by boxley, reading in its entirety: bad actors portraying fuckwits I beg, after completing the first two seasons on DVD, to differ. The acting is uniformly better than anything one might likely encounter on commercial television or, for that matter, at the average multiplex. The photography is gorgeous. The writing is first-rate, although the MF/CS* numbers are off-putting. If you rent the series, be prepared to take the first two or three hours on faith. Your devotion will be rewarded in this world, if not in the next (you'll go to hell for sitting through all those swearwords without demanding that the FCC bring cable under its vast leathery wing), as the characters blossom before your eyes into realms of complexity vanishingly rare on teevee. I have particularly delighted in the unfolding of a character who seemed on first look an utter villain, a murderous, unprincipled cutthroat...and who upon further consideration and context remains a murderous, unprincipled cutthroat in whom the viewer recognizes an odd integrity. So far this is the best television drama I've seen since The Singing Detective. cordially, *MS/CS = Motherfucker/Cocksucker — probably the two most frequent words in the script apart from "I" "the" "a" and so forth. Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
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Post #263,694
8/3/06 9:50:47 PM
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that is fair, I couldnt sit thru more than an the first hour
it appeared to be carboard cutouts of 21st century director of the Friday's movies envisioning what the wild west was like. I gave up.
thanx,
bill
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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Post #263,699
8/3/06 10:18:47 PM
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box, you need to give it another chance
Honest. I almost gave up, and was glad the spouse bullied me into sticking with it. I have never seen more complex characterization on TV, and that includes the previous recordholder (which I also recoiled from initially twenty years ago), The Singing Detective. Trust me on this one, and give it another try.
cordially,
Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
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Post #263,704
8/3/06 10:23:48 PM
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On your recce I will. May take a while to report back
seem to be doing a lot of video editing lately.
thanx,
bill
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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Post #263,719
8/3/06 10:59:22 PM
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Seconded
Since I've heard from several people that it was worth the watch, the wife and I watched it after we put the kiddies in bed in the privacy of our bedroom with the door closed.
They were right. While we would have appreciated less MF/CS, once we got over it, the show was very enjoyable. The "Making of Deadwood" extras on the DVDs had too much sucking up to the show's creator, but the information about the town and the real people being portrayed in the show made up for it.
Right now we've moved on to "Prison Break", another well written, well acted nighttime soap opera (is every show for adults on prime time nowadays a soap opera? It appears that way.) We love picking out the flaws in the script when they say or show something about Chicago that's totally bogus.
lincoln
"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Never apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the United States.
[link|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net|contact me]
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Post #263,730
8/4/06 12:23:30 AM
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thirded
Like Sopranos, Deadwood is a series I didn't think I'd care for but am glad I gave it a chance.
Darrell Spice, Jr. Trendy yet complex\nPeople seek me out - though they're not sure why\n[link|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass|Artistic Overpass] [link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare]
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Post #263,744
8/4/06 9:59:56 AM
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Caught it on Netflix
Once you get past the MF/CS bombs, the dialog almost has a Shakespearean quality.
Apparently it's mostly based on real events, places and people.
Not to mention that I do a wicked impression of Calamity Jane.
"F*ckin' c*cks*cker!"
Gotta love Jane. Under the rough exterior, there's a sweet innocence.
Tom Sinclair
"This is a lovely party," said the Bursar to a chair, "I wish I was here."
-- The Bursar is a man under a *lot* of stress
(Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)
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Post #263,786
8/4/06 2:09:58 PM
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On the language
[link|http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-DeadwoodHBO-2.html|HBO's Deadwood - Fact & Fiction] Did they really use that much foul language in the Old West? This is a little fictional and a little factual. They did use bad language in Deadwood's early days, when the camp was primarily filled with rowdy men and rough characters. It was so bad, in fact, that the newspaper headlines reported, in 1879, that residents were organizing to suppress the profanity. However, in those days, such words as crap, shit, damn, and bitch were considered to be very foul language. Today, these words are used in every day common language and we hear them all the time, usually taking little offense. Therefore, the show uses the "worst" words (of today) in order to get the point across.
The original intention of the series was to use period slang and swear words; however, according to David Milch, the series' creator, the results sounded downright comical. Utilizing current profanity, the words have a much greater impact on modern audiences, sending the message of of how lawless and "barbaric" the camp was during its early days. Bummer - looks like HBO [link|http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-DeadwoodHBO6.html|dropped the series] Darrell Spice, Jr. Trendy yet complex\nPeople seek me out - though they're not sure why\n[link|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass|Artistic Overpass] [link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare]
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