Deadwood

Its been a couple of weeks since HBO's Deadwood has had its season finale, but still every now again it just comes back to me and I sit there thinking about it. The finale itself was the pinnacle of its achievement in my opinion so its generally the one I tend to reflect back on. The show is just so insanely good. The only reason I'm writing about it now is that its on and its the premiere so I guess they are starting the sequence over again. I highly recommend it to everyone that likes really good TV.. You should check it out.

Some time to gush please... The show is incredibly well acted, shot, written, edited... The lighting, the color, the music, everything is spectacular. The imagery in the opening credits alone is absolutely gorgeous. And its entirely character driven which I think is fantastic.

One of the most interesting things to me was that there was a pretty steady rotation of characters. There were a couple of people that stayed throughout the whole season, and I imagine could be considered the main cast, but there were others who came and went. They never felt like supporting roles at all though. They were all evenly weighted in story telling that was at times beautifully woven together... I know it sounds all flowery and cliche but you really have to watch it to see what I mean. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if those that are left might just have larger arcs than the rest and will transition out in the next season. You never know.

It really took me by surprise the first time a character left, but while they were there they had really interesting and really full character arcs. I did initially wonder if the show would still be good after that, but it definitely was and, to me, the idea of changing the cast consistently made the show really interesting as it makes this town feel very fluid and real.

Now, I will admit that it took me a bit to get into it at the very beginning but man it was worth it. I don't think that's a bad thing at all though. I really think what it meant was this... There are plotlines and they are detailed so you need to pay attention... And I think my brain was just used to all the bad, stupid TV out there, that doesn't require you to think, that it took me a bit to orient myself.

Anyway... Sorry to have gone on so long. Its just really really good... and I have a major hardon in general for HBO as a whole.. which i'm positive you will read from time to time. :-)