A television series? On a film site?

Yeah, I know. I know. What can I say? If HBO is kind enough to ship me off a copy of their Blu-Ray edition of Deadwood: The Complete Series, well I sure don't have the heart to not review it. So, permit me this momentary diversion towards the boob tube because this is one mighty fine series.

Deadwood ran for three seasons on Home Box Office (HBO) from 2004-2006 presenting a grand total of 36 episodes. Deadwood the series takes place from 1876-77 in Deadwood, a lawless camp in the Dakota territories before they were really territories. Deadwood arose out of the ashes because nearby gold prospectors were striking it rich and them thar' gold prospectors needed a place to buy booze, women and shelter.

Deadwood was born.

The place is sort of overseen by Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), definitely an appropriate name as the guy swears quite often and quite regularly throughout the series. There's a sheriff, Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), a city woman to whom the sheriff takes a shine (Molly Parker) even though he's got a wife (Anna Gunn). Bullock also runs the local hardware store with a Jewish guy named Sol (John Hawkes). Every town needs a doctor (Brad Dourif) and every gold prospector needs a prostitute, the best in town being Trixie (Paula Malcomson). While Al owns The Gem, the town's main joint, there's another place in town owned by Cy (Powers Boothe) and even some well known types show up named Wild Bill Hickok (Keith Carradine) and Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert).

Yep, that's the town of Deadwood. Of course, there are others interspersed throughout the series' three year history but these are the key players that you really get to know over the course of three years.

According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), Deadwood drops the F-bomb over 3,000 times over the course of its three years and 36 episodes. In case you're trying to do the math (I suck at math), this roughly figures out to over 80 uses of the one word in each one-hour episode. We can cross family friendly off the list, eh?

Deadwood never quite caught fire like many of HBO's presentations, however, over the course of three years it certainly maintained its loyal audience fairly well and consistently gave audiences high quality production values, well developed characters and terrific acting down to even the most minor characters. The series was graced by a host of Hollywood well knowns over the course of its three years, though you'd have to be a fool to not believe that Ian McShane's Al Swearengen is the heart and soul of the entire series and McShane is consistently remarkable throughout the series. Seldom has a western seen such a marvelously rich character who vacillates between sadness, apathy, anger and so much more often within the course of a single episode. Paula Malcomson, Brad Dourif, Jeffrey Jones, Keith Carradine and Gerald McRaney all give remarkable performances throughout the series, but it almost seems unfair to single out anyone as Deadwood features a truly outstanding cast.

Deadwood: The Complete Series comes on 19 DVD's. Yes, that's right...19. 18 of the 19 are repeats, however, from season collections so the decision really becomes "Do I really need to pick up the entire series if I already have seasons 1-3?"

To be honest, "No." While the packaging here is remarkable (and stunningly compact), the final 19th disc doesn't come close to justifying a purchase IF you already have seasons 1-3. If you don't, however, then you'll be super hard-pressed to find a better presented television package anywhere with well over 2,000 minutes of material included here and a final disc that features a wealth of additional material including a remarkably frank and heartfelt piece called "The Meaning of Endings: David Milch on the Conclusion of Deadwood," a somber and poetic piece in which series creator Milch takes us on a journey through where Deadwood would have gone had the series lived past three years. It's a remarkable piece that would almost qualify as performance art except, it would seem, Milch isn't acting but is reflecting a genuine melancholy at the ending of the series that is refreshingly honest.

Fans of the western genre and certainly fans of this series would do well to pick up Deadwood: The Complete Series, available on Blu-Ray and DVD. The DVD will likely set you back close to eighty bucks while the Blu-Ray package can set you back nearly double that though a quick perusal of Amazon found it for right around $150 on Blu-Ray.

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic