Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) and Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) converse during a scene from the first season of HBO's "Deadwood." The show, which deepened and enriched the classic western, first aired 10 years ago.
Ten years ago, a show aired on HBO that many overlooked.
It dealt with the complexities of the law, power struggles, race and how a society is built.
Blu-ray and DVD sales have raised its profile, but it was canceled before it could reach the ending it deserved.
Though many may think of “The Wire,” which aptly meets all these requirements, the series in question, instead, is “Deadwood.”
While Baltimore-based crime drama “The Wire” has enjoyed a second life thanks to cult recommendation as "the greatest drama in television history," “Deadwood” is as unfairly overlooked 10 years after its premiere season debuted as it was when it first aired.
“Deadwood” commented, too, on social, political, racial and personal struggles, set months after Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s last stand.
The town marches from lawless, unincorporated — read: Native American — territory to being swallowed into the American political machine during the course of the series, which plays out in 1876 and 1877.
By weaving together the factual and fictional, famous figures such as George Hearst, “Wild Bill” Hickok (right, played by Keith Carradine) and Wyatt Earp appear alongside memorable imaginary counterparts such as Alma Garret, Francis Wolcott and Mr. Wu.
“Deadwood,” which first aired in March 2004, rode into town and broke the mold for westerns. It dismantled the fables about heroic, morally superior outlaws, throwing shade on Ian McShane’s Emmy-nominated Al Swearengen, owner of the Gem Saloon and the show’s wiliest reprobate. Though among the town’s most clever, Swearengen’s saloon doubles as a legitimate business for an enterprise that also traffics in everything from opiates to murder.
Yet he managed to be likable, too, a principle part of organizing the town’s government as well as looking out for Garret when Hearst’s mining operation escalated his interest in her claim to more violent forms of persuasion.
Nonetheless, the final scene of the series is him scrubbing blood off the floor of his office, lamenting that one of his saloon employees — perhaps like fans of the show itself — “wants me to tell him something pretty.”
Because of low ratings and high costs, HBO decided to close shop on the exquisite drama in 2006 after three seasons. There was talk of doing a pair of two-hour movies to tie up the series and though we’re in an era where shows enjoy heretofore unprecedented renaissances (“Family Guy,” “Arrested Development,” “Futurama,” “24”), the more time wears on, the less likely it seems possible.
This is a shame because the show left a number of threads hanging. The third and final season introduced pieces series creator David Milch planned to pay off in season four, such as the deep investment in a newly arrived theater troupe. (Left: The troupe's leader, Jack Langrishe, played by Brian Cox.) In the form we’re left, it can be chalked up to a description of the show’s ever-expanding universe, a way to show the march from lawlessness toward civilization.
What makes the show a joy to catch for the first time or revisit after all these years is its complex characters as well as its dense prose, lavish costumes and that indescribable French term mise en scène, which speaks to the sum of the elements put on the screen. In much the same way Baltimore was a principle character in “The Wire,” so, too, was the South Dakota town of Deadwood in its show.
The language in particular is an attraction to the show. Milch concocted a cocktail of contemporary obscenity fused with sophistication, leading its characters to speak like this:
Swearengen: Our whole goal is to get annexed to the United f------ States. We start holding trials, what’s to keep the United States f------ Congress from saying, "Oh, excuse us! We didn’t realize you were a f------ sovereign community and nation out there! Where’s your c---sucker’s flag? Where’s your f------ navy or the like? Maybe when we make our treaty with the Sioux, we should treat you people like renegade f------ Indians! Deny your f------ gold and property claims and hand everything over instead to our ne’er-do-well cousins and brothers in law!"And that's just one of the more palatable examples, forgetting entirely Swearengen's hilarious efforts to converse with Mr. Wu, a man of Chinese descent if not birth, that consist largely of a 10-letter swear beginning with C.
It also features actors who later went on to acclaim in other work, such as John Hawkes, who earned an Oscar nomination as leathery, unsettling meth addict Teardrop Dolly in “Winter’s Bone,” Timothy Olyphant, who’s played lead role Raylan Givens for five seasons on FX’s “Justified,” and Anna Gunn, who played Skyler White on “Breaking Bad,” among others.
But like any good show, it needs to be viewed to be fully appreciated.
On a network that housed heavyweights such as “The Wire” and “The Sopranos,” “Deadwood” may have been easy to overlook, but it’s held up as well as any other show since the turn of the millennium.
Edit, 6:22 p.m. 5/2/14: Corrected to "10-letter swear."
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