Deadwood - The Complete Third Season

SPOILER WARNING I loved Deadwood up to the last two episodes. The ending of a story is the most important element and this ending soured the entire Deadwood experience for me. The entire third season built up to a grand confrontation which never happened. The series just sputtered out with the main characters, both noble and corrupt, basically giving in. As Seth Bullock said in the last episode "I did nothing." Neither did anyone else, including the writers. Sorry folks, the ending was depressing and disappointing. Though one of the third season episodes has the greatest bare handed street brawl ever filmed.

Deadwood was, together with Carnivale, arguably the best TV series produced since the 1980s, a work of art in many ways, very recommended. It was probably way too intellectual for most audiences as it has been cancelled after just 3 seasons.

The episodes were great, except for the ending, which was pretty weak. Maybe a movie sequel to tie up all the loose ends?

I purchased all three seasons for Christmas as a gift for my husband - a diehard Deadwood fan. He was so excited to receive them since it (the collection) was one of the gifts he wanted most. I searched the web and several stores and found that Amazon.com had the very best price. Thanks Amazon.com for making my husband happy. Now if I can only get him away from the dvds...

David Milch's Deadwood in its final (alas) Season 3 is even more eccentric than its predecessors as it delineates the titanic struggle between the scruffy entrepeneurs of Swearengen, Bullock, Starr and Alma Garrett with the ruthless implacability and arbitrariness of unfettered wealth and power as represented by George Hearst. The language in this Season is even more baroque, circuitous, arcane and delicious as Milch explores the strange nexus between detached Victorian propriety and the profane, muscular and gritty gutter modernity of the mining camp.

Likewise, new characters are introduced that provide side stories of no other purpose other than the fun of exploration of new characters and context, most noticeably the acting troupe of Jack Langrishe (the incomparable Brian Cox) as a sort of Greek chorus while allowing an examination of the role of Art in human community. No doubt, had the series continued, these were storylines for future exploitation. There is a nice subplot concerning Hostetler, Fields (nice to see Franklyn Ajaye again) and Drunk Steve, the appearance of the morally ambiguous and lethal Earp brothers, and the onslaught of Hearst's army of Pinkertons and their Captain Barrett. There is the continuing exploration of the harsh and bitter lot of women and the paradoxical and confused relations between the races and the dominant and minority communities, and much much more, all presented with extremely droll and idiosyncratic humor amid occasional eruptions of violence.

Frankly, I could write paragraphs on individual subtext stories and performances but I would be preaching to the choir or waxing eloquent to deaf ears. So, with a nod to the marvelous leads of Tim Olyphant's intemperate, explosive, rigid yet true Seth Bullock ("His holiness, the maniac sheriff"), Ian McShane's towering and oh so humanly complicated rascality as Al Swearengen, and Molly Parker's beautiful and beset Alma Garrett, and now Gerald McRaney's detestable tyrant George Hearst, with apologies for foregoing naming all the wonderful actors of this brilliant ensemble, we bid farewell to the steadfast and reliable Sol Starr, the loyal and courageous Charlie Utter, the beautiful and sorrowful Joanie Stubbs, the vicious and cruel Cy Tolliver, the resilient and fiery Trixie, the threadbare yet noble Doc Cochran, the fawning and pathetic weaselry of EB Farnum, the drunken yet endearing Calamity Jane, and so on. I could list virtually every player for fine work in creating the complicated characters of Martha Bullock, Ellsworth, Merrick, Dan Dority, Adams, Wu, Johnny, Tom Nuttall, Jarry, Hostetler, Fields, Drunk Steve, Richardson, Aunt Lou, etc. All the players, central and supporting, did marvelous work.

Congratulations to Milch and his production staff and this fine company of actors who brought the complex language, both elevated and earthy, to vibrant life, with wonderful sets and costumes, writing, photography, direction and editing. A marvelous imagining of characters and place, with intriguing themes of sex and relationships, race and custom, of friendship and isolation, loneliness and community, of ambition and greed coupled with sacrifice and care, and without and within, an all too human fallibility. I would have welcomed many more Seasons of this complicated and quirky exploration, but it was not to be. However, as one fine Amazon reviewer put it "we were lucky to have it at all", in all its glorious self-indulgence. This fine effort will be sorely missed by those of us who loved its daring and unique creativity, but at least we can be grateful for its preservation on DVD. As the dieing old actor says "The Masks lie, Comedy and Tragedy are the same", and Deadwood brought it all to us with a howl and a roar.