I like westerns. I was wondering if the series Deadwood was good and worth renting?
Thumbs up or down? Any other westerns you might recommend.
Most definitely. Bestest western ever, better than Lonesome Dove, simply fuckin’ amazin’. Anyone says otherwise is a cocksucker, and I will motherfuck them.
BTW, if my first paragraph offended you, don’t rent it.
What Rube said. 
Except that it’s worth owning, not just renting.
“Well, join the fucking club of the rest of us.” --Calamity Jane
Seriously, there are some great performances on the show, unpredictable storylines, and, oh yeah, lots and lots and lots of swearing–but for perfectly legitimate reasons.
“Cocksuckers!” - Calamity Jane, upon coming to on her horse as a stage passes by.
I like westerns. When Deadwood is on, I make a point to watch it. The acting is superb. The characters (real and fictional) are great. The dialog, which some have described as Shakespearean, is accurate – at least, judging from written records from the era. It’s an outstanding series that I think is very well worth renting.
Would I own it? Probably not. But yeah, it’s definitely worth renting.
It’s not really a “western”, in the traditional sense.
Hell, maybe it’s not a western in any sense.
It’s historical drama set in Dakota Territory in the 1870’s, but there’s nary a cowboy or a steer or a gunfighter or a wild Indian in sight (except for those two early on, and one of them was only a head).
It has more in common with The Sopranos than with Shane or The Searchers.
Not always: the only slang I’ve looked up from the show, “blow job,” first saw recorded use in the sixties, and before that referred to a type of airplane.
Still, great fuckin show.
Daniel
I was referring to the syntax and general vocabulary, rather than the slang.
(Google ads are keying to “Vote John Kerry”–is it the blowjobs or the cocksuckers?)
Fair enough. That kinda irked me, given everything else that they try to make accurate, that they hadn’t bothered fixing up the slang.
I can’t wait till the second season comes out on DVD: that’s the only way I can watch it.
Daniel
Here are transcripts from both seasons.
I can hardly wait for season three. I thought we were going to have some winter scenes, but apparently the story picks up just six weeks later, so it’ll still be spring/early summer.
There’s something about which I wonder. Did people really talk like that? My knowledge of the syntax is from letters read in Ken Burns’s The Civil War, plus books written around that time (e.g. Company Aitch by Confederate soldier Sam Watson, and Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians by Fanny Kelly, ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody’s autobiography, etc.). Being written accounts, the authors may have been ‘on their best behaviour’, as it were. That is, they may have written in the manner that was customary at the time instead of writing as they actually spoke.
I haven’t studied it, but my gut feeling is that educated people really did speak with the eloquence depicted in Deadwood, and that the less-educated ones did their best. And I saw an historian on The History Channel (take that for what it’s worth) who said that profanity was frequently used in mining towns. So it seems that the dialog and diction is accurate except for a few anomalies, as you pointed out.
That would be a fucking understatement.
If you’re offended by the “F” word, don’t get it. Do not let the kiddies watch it.
But, yeah, it’s a good show. I only watched the first season (we dumped HBO), so I need to rent it to catch up.
Best show currently in production on television IMHO. Almost completely avoided a sophmore slump and both seasons so far are sterling. Lacking a DVR, I am eagerly awaiting both season three on TV and season two on DVD so I can enjoy watching the episodes all over again.
However for many people it does take a few episodes to get into - it certainly did for me. Even if you find the oddly fancy elocution, nonstop obscenities and overall feel slightly off-putting at first, try sticking with it for at least a few episodes.
- Tamerlane
Damn you, Tamerlane. That’s exactly what I was going to post.
Al Swearengin is arguably the best character currently on television.
I’m just checking in to see if anybody would actually say no.
It’s a great show – one of the best currently airing. The profanity’s not as bad as some suggest, it’s just a bit jarring at first in the context of a Western/historical drama (they cussed back then?!?).
HBO’s been rerunning the second season. I’ve avoided watching because I want to do a marathon when the DVD comes out.
But I watched last night’s repeat, and even though I’d seen it several times, I still caught bits of dialogue and plot that didn’t fully register before.
“Come on in Jane, it’s chilly on my twat.” 
All I can add to the apparent universal praise by those bothering to post is that if you loved, not just liked, Eastwood’s Unforgiven, the Lonesome Dove mini-series (already mentioned above), or even the Ken Burns PBS series The Civil War, you’ll find elements in common with Deadwood.
Other than that, Deadwood is almost unique. Historical drama is a better term than Western, as AuntiePam has said.
But you better have your cussing ears on. Somebody even had a joke blog (I think it was) that was a count of “fuck” on Deadwood by episode. It beat out The Sopranos handily, and that takes some doing!
Season 1 just arrived day before yesterday (yay eBay) and I’ll be planted in front of the TV later this afternoon. A great series!