Deadwood: Complete First Season

Reviewed by:
Paul Ulane

Before there was Compton, Queens, or Camden, Deadwood, South Dakota, was the scariest 'hood in America. Described by show creator David Milch as a "urine-and-horseshit-filled lovefest," Deadwood combines history with HBO to dramatize the fortunes of the gold-diggers, burnouts, and prostitutes who flocked to the fledgling mining community. Real people like Wild Bill Hickock (Keith Carradine), Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert), and obscenely foul-mouthed saloon owner Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) mingle with fictional characters to round out the locals. Watching this motley crew lie, cheat, and murder while trying to build a town from the horseshit up is must-see TV, and the extras wallow deeper in the pig slop. "Making Deadwood" examines the characters to differentiate the "half bullshit, half real" stories of the legends, while "The Real Deadwood" has historians document the rise of the outlaw town. "An Imaginative Reality" is a one-on-one with Milch and Carradine on how the characters' stories are woven together week after week, and "The New Language of the Old West" is the same pair discussing the show's expletive-heavy dialogue, order without law, and everything else about the HBO show that'll soon render Tony Soprano as forgettable as the rest of New Jersey.

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