Deadwood - The Complete Second Season

A great series. That being said, here's a couple important things you should know about these DVDs. The box explicitely reads "These Discs Are Copy Protected and May Be Played Only On Licensed Devices."

So what are licensed devices? I own a 2.5 yr old Sony DVD player. It's an expensive high end player, top of the line. It's a Read/Write DVD and can also take VHS and convert it to DVD format. But it doesn't want to recognize the discs. HBO, you got something against Sony products?

Secondly, when I play the DVDs in my computer they work fine; however, you have to watch a 2 Minute HBO commercial everytime you insert a disk. You can't stop it, nor can you go straight to the Menu.

What!?! I shell out $80 for this set, and I can only play it on my small computer moniter? And I have to watch a 2 Min commercial everytime I insert it?

HBO, don't you get it? We want DVDs that play on all brands of DVD players, and we don't want to have to watch your 2 Minute Commercial everytime we insert a Disc. That's crap, and that's the reason for 2 Stars only.

Get a clue, HBO.

David Milch's profane masterpiece, "Deadwood," continues to demonstrate that HBO has mastered the art of the TV series. Bloody, sexy, funny and sad, Season Two offers plenty of surprises for fans still thunderstruck from Season One.

Season Two opens about seven months or so after the close of the first season. Sheriff Bullock (Tim Olyphant) and saloon-owner/prime mover-and-shaker Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) have settled into an uneasy alliance, but one as fragile and explosive as nitroglycerine. A harsh look and some brash talk set these two at their throats in the very first episode. It's no secret that Bullock's nerves are shot, as his affair with Alma Garrett (Molly Parker) is about to be terminated by the imminent arrival of his wife (Anna Gunn).

The various sub-plots of the camp continue to roil and seethe. The continued prosperity of the camp has attracted the eyes of the outside world. Montana and Dakota are jockeying to annex the camp for statehood, and Swearengen and Cy Tolliver (Powers Boothe) try to work the necessary angles to make sure they won't get lost in the shuffle. George Hearst, the most successful and ruthless gold miner in the West, has sent his representative to scout out the town and use ruthless methods to acquire mining claims . . . and this representative is a "specialist" with the local prostitutes. Trixie and Sol Starr continue their "relationship." Doc continues his lonely war for the virtue of the camp. There is even a battle for the alleys and shanties of the Chinese community in town. And Calamity Jane continues her struggles with the bottle and the death of her friend, Wild Bill Hickock.

This series is far to vast to be adequately summarized here. Suffice it to say that "Deadwood" continues to offer some of the most colorful and insightful writing on TV, and the cast does an excellent job capturing the essence of frontier life in 19th century America in all its varied forms.

Several cast commentaries highlight various aspects of the show, including the actors' collective ignorance as to what is going on. Aaron Sorkin was notorious for providing scripts to his actors that were still warm from the printer - David Milch does much the same here, but his scripts are much more complex and subtle. There is also a great DVD extra showing how hard Milch actually works writing this stuff, lying on the floor reworking line after line of dialogue until it is just right.

If you haven't seen the show yet, get Season One immediately. Then I won't have to convince you to watch Season Two.

I love all three Deadwood seasons, but was disappointed by this one, only because it is the final installment. Maybe a movie will come in the near future. What a bone-head move to cancel a GREAT series.

A modern day type of Western and full of humour and a great series to watch we enjoyed the first and second season and now have the third season to watch highly recomended

If you like westerns (and even if you don't), and want to see something a little more outside the box- give this series a try. The stories and the production quality are unbelievably good. What a shame HBO yet again cancels one of its best series at the end of season three.

Deadwood is a genre breaking western that cuts to the core of how the west was settled and won- and how what was won was often stolen by robber barons and corporations. In other words, you can learn a lot about how power really works and how the human spirit struggles and rises above it from watching this western.

On a pure story and character level Deadwood is one of the best made television series of all time. It takes a little getting used to the language and sometimes the violence, but it's worth it.

Deadwood is a masterpiece. Let's hope HBO lives up to its promise to conclude the series with two movies.