HBO is airing the show again, from the beginning. First episode is tonight (Saturday) on HBO2 and HBOW.
If you missed it first time around, you missed some great television.
And if you have trouble with the dialogue, complete transcripts are here.
Thank you, AuntiePam! Season pass is set. It’ll help fill some of the emptiness with the passing of The Sopranos. Hopefully HBO will get the cast and crew back together for a reunion movie or two. I thought Keith Carradine was excellent as Wild Bill and an glad to have the chance to re-watch everything from the beginning.
You’re welcome! I wouldn’t mind discussing the episodes again, if anyone’s interested.
The way the characters evolved – just amazing.
In the season three commentaries, Greg Feinberg (sp?) talks about Al and Seth, each trying to subdue a part of their nature. Seth trying to control his baser impulses, and Al doing just the opposite, not wanting to show anyone that he even had a good side.
The Deadwood pilot is the best pilot I’ve ever seen.
If I remember correctly, the pilot gave us the immortal line: “Fuck us all for the limber-dicked cocksuckers that we are.”
That was satisfying.
I wonder how much time passed between filming the pilot and the second episode. Al’s hair was quite a bit shorter in the pilot. E.B. was cleaner and better-dressed. I think I read somewhere that the clothes E.B. wore in the pilot were lost, but to go from spiffy to tattered in a day was kinda weird.
One thing I’ve never understood is Ellsworth’s comment about Al’s “limey accent”. Did you ever notice Al with an accent?
I don’t hear an accent in Al’s voice.
The other fan-dork thing I noticed is that the set up of Al’s office is different from what they finally went with. I always liked the scene where the dope fiend (drawing a blank on his name) tells Al about the massacre and Al belts Johnny in the jaw.
And Jane’s line is classic also: “It’s only Wild Bill Hickok you’re holding up here! Ignorant fucking cunts.”
I always wondered about that too. Ian McShane is from England, but I’ll be dipt if I ever heard an English accent in Al Swearengen’s voice.
I’m recording it tonight. As I remember it, the pilot was friggin’ awesome and it went uphill from there. But in all the John From Cincinnati threads people keep saying how Deadwood started off slow and took several episodes to get good, so they’ll give JFC several episodes before giving up.
Not going into how much JFC sucks balls, am I crazy for thinking that the Deadwood pilot rocked the house?
On rewatch it is pretty strong. But I remember being slightly put off by what seemed to be the gratuitously over the top use of profanity and a couple of other minor issues I no longer recall clearly ( Clench’s perpetual clench might have been one of them 
). All of which grew on me with time. By the time the future Veronica Mars and her dopey brother put in an appearance I was pretty well hooked.
- Tamerlane
Ah, I really need to rewatch this show. Well, at least the first 2 seasons. It started to go downhill when my favorite character died (Wild Bill), and I just couldn’t ever get into season 3. It was like all the action just plain stopped and was replaced by 100% speeches.
Jimmy. Poor Jimmy. “Ball of dope” – I remember wondering what the hell is a ball of dope.
Rewatching this pilot gives me hope for John from Cincinnati. It was all there in the Deadwood pilot, being set up for what came later. I don’t recall ever being surprised by something anyone did, or thinking someone was acting out of character.
Rev. Smith talking about the solace of friends always breaks my heart.
Jim Beaver said this week on the HBO board that Milch had a long meeting with the crew and actors (in JFC) before shooting started on the last episode of John. He explained his vision for the show, and Jim said he was in tears when Milch finished speaking. He promises a big payoff – if it works. 
WTF? They’re showing the episodes out of order? the program guide on my cable lists next week’s episode as “Childish Things.” “Woolcott reports his gold-claims acquisitions to his employer, George Hearst, and Nuttall shows off his new bicycle.” I sincerely fucking hope this is a misprint. Fuck me flatter than hammered shit! Those limber-dicked cocksuckers!
It must be a misprint. I just checked the on-screen guide and it has Deep Water for June 30.
Are we ever going to see any movies or future episodes, or is this really it?
Who knows? HBO is still paying rent and storage on the costumes. Milch has said he’s “been working” on scripts, but “working on” might be the same as “thinking about” to him. The actors haven’t been signed, but either Jim or Earl said on the HBO board that this is because contracts require dates, and nobody’s ready to specify any dates. I’ve heard that the Deadwood sets were dismantled; then I heard the dismantling stopped.
I don’t think anybody wants two “movies”. We want another season. Wrap up the story, finish what Milch was doing with the theater troupe, and then burn the place down. Can’t do that in four hours.
I’m afraid that “we’re ending the series but may produce a movie later on” is largely a dodge employed to prevent fan protests from upstaging the series finale.
Has there been a movie created with the same cast / production crew from a cancelled show that had run for several seasons? I can’t’ think of one.
Star Trek
It really is a shame, for me at least, as this is the best show I have ever seen. I love The Sopranos and The Shield, but never have I seen a series where something about it didn’t make me roll my eyes at least a little with a few parts here and there. With Deadwood, I can taste the velvety, uneven texture of each of the characters and smell the fetor of the mud bustle of the thoroughfare. Each character is potrayed by actors that seem to completely lose themselves in their collective parts. Save for Timothy Olyphant**, the actors are truly world class.
I will truly miss this show.
** He seems only to have two gears, pissed and deeply pissed.
Call me crazy, but we could send cans of peaches (with cinnamon ) to HBO. Hey, people sent nuts to CBS and got Jericho put back on.
The first movie came ten years after the original series found new popularity in syndication; I was trying to think of a critically acclaimed and popular TV show that was canceled due to financial considerations (as opposed to The Sopranos, which had run its course creatively) but was attractive enough as a movie project to get greenlighted. X-Files and Firefly / Serenity come closest, but X-Files was released while the series was still a going concern and I believe that much of the footage in Serenity had already been shot for episodes that had never aired.