Pickett Recommends...

Deadwood (Insert phallic joke here. That’s what she said.)

We’ve been watching HBO’s Deadwood fairly obsessively for the past few weeks. It’s one of the best TV series I’ve seen in a long time, and one of the most unique as well. It’s got a lot of action and a really interesting plotline set in “the realistic West.” Deadwood’s the kind of show that, even though you can’t smell the people on it, you KNOW that they reek. The streets are full of human and animal waste, and people regularly get dangerously ill from things that we don’t even consider major sicknesses anymore. The show completely de-glorifies the idea of the West and the frontier. And true to form, Deadwood messes with the idea of who is a hero and who is a villain and what traits embody each, something that HBO is famous for.

There are all reasons the show is great. What makes me love it though is its incredibly unique style of dialogue. These characters don’t just fire conversations back and forth at each other. Instead many of the characters tend to have several large soliloquies in each episode where they wax on metaphorically about their circumstances in a way I find reminiscent of Shakespeare. It’s a strange paradox that South Dakota in the 1870s would go so well with a Shakespearean style.
I have to admit that it takes some getting used to. You don’t hear this sort of dialogue anywhere else these days. The first episode I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on because I couldn’t follow what they were saying. But once you get into the rhythm of the show, it’s a joy to watch.

The only downside to this series is that it is only 3 seasons long. Like so many great shows (e.g. Firefly, Rome, Arrested Development) the audiences don’t find out about it until it’s too late. And when you can’t stop watching it three seasons goes pretty fast (we’ve already finished 2).

My favorite characters: Al Swearengen and E.B. Farnum
My favorite trivia: Over the whole series the word F**k and it’s derivatives is said 2,980 times, which means on average they say the F word over 80 times per episode.