I actually watched the first season of Deadwood several years ago, but for some reason stalled after watching the first episode of Season Two. However, with the movie coming out this year, I got re-motivated to finish off the series, and it was quite the worthwhile journey.
"Deadwood" is a town in South Dakota, and the series is set in the 1870s, prior to the territory gaining statehood. A large contingent of the characters on the show were actually real-life figures, including well-known ones like Wild Bill Hickok, "Calamity" Jane Cannary, and Wyatt Earp. Through three seasons, David Milch shows the growth of Deadwood from its infant stages to a vibrant community with inhabitants intricately tied to each other's interest and well-being.
In 1876, the righteous, hot-tempered marshal Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) leaves his post in Montana to open a hardware store in Deadwood with his friend Sol Star (John Hawkes). He soon becomes entangled with Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), the proprietor of The Gem, which doubles as a bar and brothel. Though initially presented as a somewhat dangerous antagonist, Swearengen eventually becomes the series' most important character and a sort of anti-hero.
Part of what makes Swearengen endearing is that many of the other figures that either live in the camp or filter through it are downright despicable, from Cy Tolliver (the late Powers Boothe), the owner of the rival Bella Union, to perverse geologist Francis Wolcott (Garret Dillahunt), to the gold-obsessed businessman George Hearst (Gerald McRaney). Swearengen and his seedy crew seem to have just a shred more humanity in them than those they clash with, and it's enough to get you to root for them in the town's frequent conflicts (even sometimes, when the lawful Bullock is on the other side).
That's largely a testament to McShane's performance as the charismatic Swearengen, who is just a Tony Soprano away from being in the conversation for the best television character ever created. McShane steals every scene that he's a part of, and his one-liners and monologues range from powerful to hilarious. I can't say enough about the combination of the perfect voice, spot-on delivery, and superb writing that went into Al Swearengen, and it says quite a bit that I prefer him to every one of the rich characters on The Wire.
The main knock on Deadwood is its third season, as it was cancelled too soon and left many threads lingering, which made the de facto series finale something of an anticlimax. There's a plot line in Season Three involving a theater group that moves into Deadwood that proves to be thoroughly inconsequential, which is a shame considering how much screen time it received. I imagine that their presence was all a setup for the never-produced Season Four, but as it stands, the arc (if you can even call it that) was worthless; I checked out during many of those scenes and was no worse for the wear.
With such critical acclaim surrounding the series and a general understanding that the show never got the ending it deserved, HBO released Deadwood: The Movie on May 31, 2019. It was set ten years after the events of Season Three, and it was a little sad to watch just how much older all of the actors had become. In some ways, the film's conclusion felt just as disappointing as that of the full series, though that owes in part to the need to maintain historical accuracy in some respects. However, it did succeed in showing that the rough, often uncivilized mining camp had developed into a prospering, much more respectable town. As Deadwood (similar to The Wire) utilizes a large ensemble cast and aims for the town itself to be the "star" of the show, that's probably the most important ending of all.
Series Grade: A-
Film Grade: B
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