I don’t get HBO so I rented the 1st 10 episodes (up to Mr. Wu) of Deadwood and watched them over the weekend. Wow!! What a show! So much rich detail and the writing and acting is (generally) superb. I’ve never seen *anyone * embody menace like Ian McShane playing Swearengen.
Are the rest as good? Does the second season deliver?
Delivers in spades. Al Swearingen delivers episode after episode. Calamity Jane returns and she’s a riot. I’d best not say much beyond that, I don’t want to spoil anything inadvertently. Queue them up in Netflix and enjoy!
[Swearengen voice]&%^&)(^(%))^)* Yeah![/Swearengen voice]
Abso-f#%@ing-lutely!
The final episode of the 2nd season is on permanent rotation in my TiVo. Ian McShane deserved the Emmy last night. He really shines in season two.
Al Swearengen maight be the best character on episodic telivision right now.
Season 2 is just as strong as the first. We see a little more humanity in Swearengen and a few more flaws in Bullock. Seth’s wife shows up and so does another new character who…well…I won’t spoil it.
The whole season runs a gamut from brutal violence, to chilling horror, to hilariously ribald comedy to deep tragedy, sometimes within the space of the same episode. And the dialogue, of course, is as good as gets. Those cocksuckers who write this show are brilliant.
I think season 1 is the greatest season of any television show of any time. I think it is brillant beyond words. I honestly can say it changed my life.
Season 2 is decent… but is nowhere near as strong as season 1.
I look forward to season 3 with baited breath.
Season 2 is great, although not as great as S1. But still – great.
I read somewhere that the dialogue is written in iambic pentameter. No wonder is sounds so like cocksucking poetry.
–Cliffy
I still get weekly anonymous morning voice-mails at work from a friend portraying Swearengen or Calamity Jane… it is great fun, you should all try it!
I always tell people to think of it as obscenity-laden Shakespeare. Hell, half the episodes have honest-to-goodnes soliloquies in them!
Hard to beat E.B.'s soliloquy as he’s cleaning blood off the floors. The coolest thing about it is that it’s so E.B. If Al had been inclined to explain his behavior, the words would have been totally different.
You have been tested, Al Swearengen.
And your deepest purposes proved, there’s gold on the woman’s claim.
You might as well have shouted it from the rooftops.
That’s why I’m jumpin’ through hoops to get it back.
Thorough as I fleeced the fool she married, I will fleece his widow, too. Using loyal associates like Eustace Bailey Farnum as my go-betweens and dupes.
To explain why I want her bought out, I’ll make a pretext of my fear of the Pinkertons.
I’ll throw Farnum a token – thief, why should I reward E.B., with some small fractional, participation in the claim? Or let him even lay by a little security and source of continuing income, for his declining years.
What’s he ever done for me?
Except let me terrify him every goddamned day of his life ‘til the idea of bowel regularity is a forlorn f***in’ hope.
Not to mention orderin’ a man killed in one of E.B.’s rooms.
So every f***in’ free moment of his life E.B. has to spend scrubbin’ the bloodstains off the goddamned floor!
To keep from havin’ to lower his rates.
Didn’t mean to kill this thread. 
Anyone care to speculate about Season 3? All I’ve heard is that it picks up six weeks after Season 2, partly because Milch wanted to show us Deadwood in the wintertime.
I can think of one logical event. Winter = cold = fires. Poor Charlie.
Anyone care to share favorite scenes, favorite characters, favorite lines?
I’m partial to Kim Dickens (Joanie Stubbs). I think her work is overlooked in favor of Jane, Alma, and Trixie.
Damn, I miss these people.
I think you forget his (anachronistic) MOTHER FUCKER! at the end.
For favorite characters or scenes:
I like Young Silas Adams. I like that he’s the only smart ass sarcastic guy in Deadwood and he makes enemies because of it.
The confrontation between Al and Seth in the first episode of season 2.
“You moon faced cocksucker.” (or is it pie faced? I can’t remember)
“Bullock, the word abounds with snatch of all kinds. Even hers.”
The look on Seth’s face makes it so clear to Al that he’s crossed a line that there’s this glimmer of fear in Al’s eyes.
Trixie’s line of “I wish I was a fucking tree!” is just marvelous.
check out the number of “fucks” per minute analysis… you gotta love the Inter-fuckin-net!
I think it was pie-faced.
I felt guilty for laughing at the Bummer Dan - Slippery Dan mix-up.
My favorite line from the first ep is Dan, when he was trying to get Al calmed down about the telegraph lines. Al wasn’t having it, and Dan says “You’ve given it more thought than me.”
That’s a useful response, when someone’s ranting. Calmed Al right down.
My favorite line was when Bullock was manhandling some lowlife in the street while pissed off about something else, and at one point, yells “I WILL MOTHER FUCK YOU!” as a warning. Love it.
Here’s an interesting factoid re the costumes, apparently Cy Tolliver’s black silk waistcoat is the real thing and is over 130 years old.
As Al said, ‘Welcome to fucking Deadwood!’
I watched all 24 ep’s over 24 days. It was one of the best TV experiences of my life. The show is quite stunning. People who have only heard of it talk about the swearing and that’s all. The writing is superb. Incredibly clever and beautiful sometimes, harsh and to the point at others.
It genuinely moved me constantly and I almost felt like an invisible town member. The actors have created characters that live. They are real complete people to me. McShane and Brad Dourif are my favourites but everyone is great in this show.
They take risks with stories and characters.
Season two is well worth it and adds to every characters development. The development of Al is brilliantly well handled. He is IMO one of the greatest characters ever created.
Deadwood is a diamond amongst rocks. I can’t wait for Season three and in years to come senility so I can watch them anew 
So, what you aimin’ to catch with that there breath? 
As did some other posters here, I watched all of Season One of Deadwood in the space of a few days.
The word that best describes my experience is ‘mesmerizing.’ I started watching regularly with Season Two.
We have TiVo at our house. We use it a lot, and store up all kinds of stuff to watch ‘later.’ But never Deadwood. There is no ‘watch it later’ when it comes to Deadwood. It’s the only show that my husband and I always watch live, because we can’t stand to miss a single moment.