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- HBO
- Mar 6, 2005
- HBO
- Mar 6, 2005
Summary In an age of plunder and greed, the richest gold strike in American History draws a throng of restless misfits to an outlaw settlement where everything - and everyone - has a price. Welcome to Deadwood...a hell of a place to make your fortune. From Executive Producer David Milch ("NYPD Blue") comes DEADWOOD, a new drama series that focus...
Created By: David Milch
- HBO
- Mar 6, 2005
- HBO
- Mar 6, 2005
Summary In an age of plunder and greed, the richest gold strike in American History draws a throng of restless misfits to an outlaw settlement where everything - and everyone - has a price. Welcome to Deadwood...a hell of a place to make your fortune. From Executive Producer David Milch ("NYPD Blue") comes DEADWOOD, a new drama series that focus...
Created By: David Milch
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Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
93
100% Positive
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
93
100% Positive
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
But this much is true: Deadwood is cocksure brilliant. David Milch, who put the glory into "NYPD Blue," is clearly and defiantly uninterested in political correctness. He just wants to make a great Western for TV. In that, he's succeeded. [4 Mar 2005, p.E1]
When you care about everyone in a town like Deadwood, every hot argument, every passionate embrace, every sudden murder is liable to delight, disgust or surprise. Once a week, Deadwood is a phenomenal place to visit - but I wouldn't want to live there. [4 Mar 2005, p.127]
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 98 User Ratings
9.1
93% Positive
91 Ratings
91 Ratings
5% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
2% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 98 User Ratings
9.1
93% Positive
91 Ratings
91 Ratings
5% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
2% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
A Lie Agreed Upon Part I A.
A Lie Agreed Upon Part II A-. New Money B+.
Requiem For A Gleet A-. Complications B+.
Something Very Expensive A.
E.B. Was Left Out A-. Childish Things B+.
Amalgamation And Capital A.
Advances None Miraculous A-.
The **** Can Come A-.
Boy The Earth Talks To A.
Report
SEASON 2
This is for the whole series.
I really do wish the series lasted more then three years, but then again maybe it would have declined and been a mockery of itself if it had.
Set in the town of Deadwood in 1876 where it tells the tale of the town going from open frontier with gold strikes, and how the people living there got along. Fun side note, many of the characters in the series were there in real life (and by default are real people).
No, it isn't a documentary, yes it is full of violence and sex (and let's be honest, it doesn't stay too close to the truth either). It starts with following Timothy Olyphant (of Justified fame) as he arrives in town. Then it truly becomes a full ensemble cast with Brad Dourif playing the Doc, Ian McShane playing Al Swearengen, Molly Parker as Alma Garrett and even Keith Carradine as the doomed Wild Bill Hickok.
There are a ton of other famous or semi-famous actors and actresses you will see, but there are so many I can't really list them all.
The show is as good as it sounds. The acting is superb. By the third season the actors play off each other with just a word or a motion. There was so much put into each character that you could read what they were thinking and they could sometimes have conversations with each other that were in depth without more then a few words.
The filming was good, and the direction as well obviously. I am saddened that so many people have not seen it. I was especially impressed that **** didn't play a bigger role, after all that is what most westerns are unfortunately built upon. Not saying that some things didn't happen, but for what the show was (the Sopranos in the old west) it stayed away from that most of the time.
The only thing I thought hurt the show was bringing in Powers Boothe and his whole crew. Not that there weren't good stories, and definitely not because of Mr. Boothe (he is great), but it took away from main characters in the beginning. While I started watching the show for Mr. Olyphant, I ended the show with Ian McShane (Swearengen) as my favorite character.
Pros: Great acting, directing, story and sets.
Cons: Perhaps too many secondary stories and plots and too many characters by mid-second season.
Now to find some more Ian McShane work.
Report
SEASON 2
Deadwood may not offer the vision of the Old West Americans have had for years, but it is a stunning, intelligent, almost poetic view of how we came to be a nation. [5 Mar 2005, p.1E]
The greatest dramatic series in the history of American television. [6 Mar 2005, p.1]
Deadwood will never be everyone's cup of tea, but it stands as one of HBO's most fully realized dramas since "The Sopranos" and exhibits no signs of fading in the second leg of its run. [3 Mar 2005, p.4]
It's all kind of pleasingly thematic, alternately gritty and funny and caked with moral decay. Milch loves the wordplay; the show's language is one of its constant sources of pleasure. Not everyone's drunk in "Deadwood," but the liquor flows freely, lubricating the mood; the way the show is lighted, it always seems like late afternoon, and the set is a dingy, muddy Main Street with little side neighborhoods that function as slums. [6 Mar 2005, p.E28]
In its second season this gritty frontier drama still boasts the most colorfully eccentric ensemble of any show on TV. But Al Swearengen, the malignly glowering saloon boss, played to the hilt by Golden Globe winner Ian McShane, is first among equals.
