How utterly strange and compelling. I don’t think there’s that much cursing on any two gangsta rap CD’s. Probably more sex, but not as much cursing.
It’s like listening to Eugene O’Neil and Lil’ Kim talking at the same time – very jarring, but the scenario, characters are compelling. The production is top notch.
I guess I’m going to rend the 1st season.
“Do you dye your hair?”
rent – I guess I’m going to RENT the first season.
I was out and about yesterday and bought the 2nd season of Chappelle’s Show from Media Play. They were giving away the first episode of Deadwood on a promo DVD with the purchase of any TV DVD set. I’m going to give it a shot this weekend.
I watched the first ten episodes on DVD. Good stories and characters, great locations and photography. Oh, and a lot of cussin’: fing and csucking, every other sentence. It actually crept into my daily vocab for a while. 
I’ve only seen the one episode and got reaaally frustrated that I wasn’t there for a scene; Wild Bill beats some guy at poker and then goes into a tirade about the guy talking too much, it’s all about how the guy’s face looks like a cunt, how his words all come out of his cunt mouth, he’s got cunt eyes, etc, etc.
I knew he wasn’t going to do it but I SO wanted that guy to then say “so, not a fan of the ladies then, Bill?”
You caught Al in one of his tender moments. 
I think that was the next-to-last (penultimate?) episode of the second season.
I’m glad you liked it. Everyone I know who likes it has watched from the beginning, and I’ve wondered how the show would appeal to someone who came to it in the middle, without familiarity with the background.
Hubby’s Father’s Day gift this year as a tee-shirt – Wu’s Discount Pork. I want him to wear it golfing, see how many people ask him about the new meat market.
It’s like obscenity-laden Shakespeare. Really.
Heh. Haven’t watched the show yet myself, but my roommate watched the first couple episodes. All I remember hearing was an endless stream of the above mentioned obscenities.
What’s so great about this show? The swearing seems to be an important aspect of the show, but just doesn’t impress me all that much.
Is it actually obscenity-laden Shakespeare?
Yep.
It actually does take a couple of episodes to get into the flow of things. I was a bit leery of all the swearing at first as well ( it seemed gimmicky), but now it seems natural ( in the context of the show of course 
). But once you get past that initial point it becomes obvious that it is a masterfully written and superbly performed ( by a truly top-notch ensemble cast ) drama on the human condition.
As for Shakespeare, even aside from the similarity in exploring humanity in a nuanced yet approacheable way, the verbal gymnastics of the dialogue is at times something to behold ( err…or hear ). It’s true on occasion it can seem a little forced, but the remarkable thing is how often it doesn’t ( thanks to the consistent writing and acting ) and how wonderfully rich it sounds when it all comes together.
- Tamerlane
No, it is like obsenity laden O’neil. Pick an O’neil play and then add obsenities and whores into it along with the comensurate sex and I think you’ve just about got Deadwood. It is oddly compelling. The obsenities actually are a put off for me, but the rest of it–really interesting.
The rhythm of the dialogue itself is quite beautiful and when the brutal language is tossed in so casually, it makes for a really strange ride.
And that’s not even getting into the bizarre movement of the story.
I haven’t been watching. This is what I’ve picked up just walking through the room while my husband watches.
I’m going to have to start at the very beginning and rent Season 1.
It probably says something about me that I honestly don’t notice much of the swearing. It just seems like the way rough people in a rough frontier town would talk, but then I’m used to Ireland, where creative and liberal swearing is an art-form.
It helps that not everyone swears – only if it fits the character. When Merrick (newspaperman) and Sol (hardware store owner and banker) cussed for the first time this season, it was well-placed, believable, and effective.
Alma’s “shit or get off the chamber pot” worked well too.
The best thing about it is the evolution of the characters and their relationships. Everyone is growing, and it all seems natural, a logical result of the changing times.
I already cuss like a drunken sailor, but “All those that don’t agree, suck c*ck by choice” was a new one for me.
The ease in which that phrase entered my daily vocabulary was oddly disturbing.
The only scene that was almost too much for me was the one where Sy Tolliver (sp?) had his men beat the crap out of the two young thieves and then he smacked them around some more before killing them. They’d been hit in the head so many times that they could hardly focus or move properly, and this was shown briefly from their point of view.
Man, I nearly heaved.
That was intense, wasn’t it? You commented about the focus – I wonder if the scene was so strong because of that – we were in Flora’s place for a few seconds. I felt bad for her brother (if he was really her brother), but not so much for Flora. She was evil.
Swimming against the tide here, but I tried watching this series and the language was really off putting, enough to make me quit after about three episodes. I may be wrong, but to me it felt and sounded like “Hey, we’re on cable, let’s cuss a lot just because we can!”
Shakespeare it wasn’t.