Fire of Spring
...so you're after the road to Samarkand
to watch (or not to watch): Deadwood 
6th-May-2006 05:20 pm
gt_anne.smoking
"It ain't your granddaddy's Western."

Deadwood returns to HBO next month for its third season, and it's a personal mission of mine -- and [info]chele74's, and [info]call_me_daisy's (and now [info]so_spiffed has answered the call to arms, hurrah!) -- to bring as many people as is possible into the fold of obsessed viewers, given the limits of freedom of speech and without resorting to physical coersion and arm-twisting.

Deadwood is, hands down, one of the BEST shows on television EVER. If you haven't given it a chance, you're missing out on something truly incredible. In fact, when [info]nm973 asked me months ago what tv shows I thought should endure for all eternity, I think I named M*A*S*H, Battlestar Galactica, and Deadwood. It's superbly clever, darkly funny, beautiful and grotesque, it has so many memorable and vivid characters. And it's a show that has something to say -- about people, race, gender, vice and sin, the sacred and the profane, human weakness, order that emerges from Hobbesian chaos, the unbeatable forces that drive communities -- and about it's America, the politics and economics of how it came to be (and hence the modern world itself).

Do not let the Western-factor frighten you off. The fact that it's a period piece give Deadwood licence to swear like no show has sworn before, not to mention the costumes, the deliciously colourful and textured language that's like Guinness in your stomach...

Just LOOK at it:




~~~

A pair of well-written reviews from last season:

Deadwood, located in the black hills of the Dakota Territory somewhere between Casablanca and No Exit, is the anus of the Old West. Through these portals pass the primitive accumulators of capitalism's oral-anal stage — the evil-smelling and flesh-peddling flotsam of Manifest Destiny: Indian killers, claims jumpers, real-estate swindlers, road agents, opium addicts, and the saloon girls who love them anyway.
-- The New York Magazine
Even many devoted HBO fans declined to watch "Deadwood" in its first season because they do not like westerns. But "Deadwood" is a western the way "La Grande Illusion" was a war movie or "Vertigo" was a horror film.
-- The New York Times


On The House Next Door there's a terrific essay/interview on Deadwood and Robert Altman's classic pseudo-western, McCabe & Mrs Miller: McCabe and Mr. Milch

To some degree, nearly all of Altman's films are anatomies of community. Ditto “Deadwood," which week to week showcases a panoramic concentration that recalls Altman at the top of his game. Like Altman, Milch is not content to fixate on the plight of one individual -- a fundamental creative choice that puts both men temperamentally at odds with much of American popular culture. Both Altman and Milch prefer to see the big picture, the pointillist mural that takes shape when an artist asks the audience to take a few steps back from the canvas. They study human constellations comprised of distinct human beings who embrace different religions, inhabit different social strata, imbibe different substances, muse on their own pet obsessions and pursue their own strange agendas, all the while remaining largely oblivious to theirimpact on everyone else. Both Altman and Milch are not just storytellers. They are dramatic anthropologists, devising a collective organism in order to scrutinize it.
~~~

Links of interest:

- HBO Deadwood: official site
- Genius show writer/creater David Milch talks at MIT
- Salon interviews David Milch
- The Real Deadwood Podcast: interviews, news, music, photos.
- Deadwood Blog: maintained by the background actors on the show
- The Deadwood Stage: forums, spoilers, pictures
- King Straggler: folk, alt-Americana band of which John Hawkes (Sol Star) is a member (MySpace)


ETA: Speaking of Battlestar Galactica, [info]so_spiffed has just posted a picspam of screencaps from season 1 of the show. Being Dae, of course, she doesn't just have her eye on people, but colour, composition, and lines. You already know the actors are gorgeous, now just take a moment to marvel at the artistry and craftsmanship of the crew -- the set decorators, artists, directors, cinematographers, light designers -- everybody that makes it all look so good.
Comments 
6th-May-2006 12:52 am (UTC)
You are so totally right and I am nabbing this to spread the word. I will assemble my own picspam...because...well, it's like my favourite thing to do in the whole world. :)

Plus, I must make more icons.
6th-May-2006 12:57 am (UTC)
I've been meaning to ask you if you have the issue of Vanity Fair that had the Deadwood photoshoot in it? I've been hearing a lot about it recently, but I can't find any of the images online. Just thought you'd be the right person to ask. :)
6th-May-2006 01:55 am (UTC)
I haven't seen it unfortunately. I've been trying very hard to avoid buying Vanity Fair, as you know. I love the pretty, but it always manages to piss me off beyond all necessary reason. However, if I should stumble across anything, I will let you know asap. And since I now know of its existence, I will be doing more than stumbling. :) I may fake a stumble to make it look like an accident and not a desperate and slightly tragic desire for the pretty.
6th-May-2006 05:05 am (UTC)
Oh also. I really love this Deadwood icon (one I'm using now). The colours and the pretty pretty lettering. *happy sigh*
6th-May-2006 03:43 am (UTC)
You know, I'm ever so fucking annoyed. I downloaded S1, and put it on our external hard drive, which Joey proceeded to drop to the floor and now it won't work. She's supposed to take care of it and still hasn't and in the meantime I'm stuck after 1x05 and I desperately want more and I find myself addicted to the pretty of Supernatural instead.

Grmpf.
6th-May-2006 04:58 am (UTC)
Those pesky butter fingers! ;P
6th-May-2006 09:47 am (UTC)
I'm going to upload S2. *cracks whips*
6th-May-2006 02:28 pm (UTC)
Hurray for the great and noble cause! *g*
6th-May-2006 08:39 pm (UTC)
7th-May-2006 01:37 am (UTC)
Some are good. Some...are not.
8th-May-2006 06:21 am (UTC)
A mi si. I agree.
8th-May-2006 06:27 am (UTC)
Just home? *patpat*

Mum's coming back on Wednesday! :)
8th-May-2006 06:38 am (UTC)
Home a little while ago, (10.30P) but had dinner before hitting the 'net. ;)
8th-May-2006 06:24 am (UTC)
Also, starting to just now sort through 600+ caps of DW S1. Soon... SOON!
8th-May-2006 06:28 am (UTC)
*impatients*

(Yes I know that is not a verb.)
9th-May-2006 08:55 am (UTC)
7th-May-2006 07:47 am (UTC)
Oh I am totally planning to do a huge pimping post in which Deadwood and Carnivale are featured one day. It's such a shame more people don't watch this show because it truly is one of the best, I think, ever created. Can't wait till the S2 dvds come out!
7th-May-2006 08:28 am (UTC)
Doooo it! *g* We'll have the world watching yet.
9th-May-2006 07:09 pm (UTC) - Thanks for RDP link
Hi Diana --
In checking my website stats I came across your visit, and subsequently the Real Deadwood Podcast link on your blog. So thanks. If you don't mind I've added a link to your blog in the "Friends of RDP" links area. And make sure to subscribe and check out all the episodes.

Take care,
Paul Dennis
Host, The Real Deadwood Podcast
http://www.realdeadwoodpodcast.com/
9th-May-2006 08:13 pm (UTC) - Re: Thanks for RDP link
Paul,

Of course I don't mind! All for the same cause, and all that. :) I was very happy when I came upon your podcast in an iTunes music store search, and I'm definitely a subscriber.

Thanks for the link.

Diana
9th-May-2006 09:27 pm (UTC) - Re: Thanks for RDP link
Anonymous
What's a grynne? Is it like a smylle?
9th-May-2006 11:10 pm (UTC) - Re: Thanks for RDP link
It's such an old pseudonym, I can't even remember where it came from. But I think the irony was realised only after the fact.
17th-May-2006 11:56 am (UTC)
Anonymous
Save Deadwood!!!

http://www.savedeadwood.net/
5th-Jun-2006 02:24 am (UTC)
Hey darlin'? I seem to remember you posting the promo pics from season 2 a while back (y'know, the 'only law is..." series) but I can't find the post... Must make icons...!

In other words, I finished season 2.
5th-Jun-2006 08:13 am (UTC)
Hmm... I don't think I did, but might have linked you to [info]call_me_daisy. She posted this picspam about the same time as I did mine. She posted these pictures from the s3 promo a little later. And of course, you've seen [info]so_spiffed's massive picspam.
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