Series mines profane gold in them hills
The NY Daily News
March 18, 2004
DEADWOOD. Sunday night at 10, HBO.
"Deadwood," the new series from David Milch, a creator of "NYPD Blue," introduces itself with a salvo of such unrelentingly raw language that some viewers may either reject or laugh at it outright. Those who stay with the HBO show will eventually be rewarded - but at first blush (and you're likely to), it's a long #!@% haul.
"Deadwood," premiering Sunday night at 10, is set in 1876, in the real-life frontier town of the same name. Deadwood was established, illegally, on a Sioux reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota, as hundreds flocked there in search of the newly discovered gold reported by experts accompanying Gen. George Armstrong Custer.
No white men were supposed to live there, so Deadwood was a famously lawless place - no sheriffs, no courthouses, only a ruthless town boss named Al Swearengen, who controlled everything from the drugs and liquor to the local saloon and whorehouse.
The series opens just a few weeks after Custer and his cavalry, who were charged with keeping whites off reservation land, were massacred by the Sioux at Little Big Horn. But settlers kept organizing wagon trains and arriving in Deadwood, chasing gold, opportunity, or total, frightening freedom.
Milch uses the actual history of Deadwood to inform stories that otherwise would seem like far-fetched concoctions. Wild Bill Hickok lit out for Deadwood; so did Calamity Jane. And many characters in this series, from the bullying Swearengen to low-life gambler Jack McCall (Garret Dillahunt), affected the town and its residents in real life, just the way they do in Milch's story.
Milch defends the excessively crude language of "Deadwood" by saying it was historically documented, and altogether fitting for a town with constant danger and no laws. That's true, though several language experts contacted by the Daily News, including Geoffrey Numberg of National Public Radio, expressed great skepticism that some of the curse words heard in "Deadwood," but not documented until a century after the time the drama is set, were actually used then.
Get past the language, though, and "Deadwood" slowly but surely draws you in. Keith Carradine, as Hickok, brings quiet stoicism and strength to a new level; Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock, who has hung up his lawman's badge to hang a hardware-store shingle in town, isn't far behind.
Other very memorable characters include Ian McShane as the venomously evil Swearengen; Paula Malcomson as Trixie, his most unpredictable prostitute; Molly Parker as Alma Garrett, a prim drug addict whose well-bred husband is seeking a gold claim; Robin Weigert as "sewer-mouth" Calamity Jane; Powers Boothe as a rival saloonkeeper; William Sanderson as Swearengen's conflicted assistant; and Brad Dourif as the town doctor.
The leads all are strong. So are the scenes, from a cleverly staged gunfight to a brutally sloppy method of corpse disposal.
The violence in "Deadwood," as in "The Sopranos," is sudden and disturbing. Disturbing, too, is the actual history of Deadwood, which includes underground cities, a Pony Express connection and a series of fires and floods.
If HBO and Milch keep this show on the air for a few more seasons, then no matter how many people die and cheat and scheme in these first hours of "Deadwood," we ain't seen nothin' yet.
Originally published on March 18, 2004
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