Deadwood is back.

June 10, 2006 8:06 PM

Deadwood is back.
posted by JPowers (91 comments total)

Fuckin foulmouthed cocksuckers.
posted by HTuttle at 8:08 PM on June 10, 2006

I am super pleased that this goshdarned good show is coming back, despite the reservations of those nasty nogood poopypants executives at HBO.

Let the feeding of corpses to pigs begin.
posted by palinode at 8:14 PM on June 10, 2006

who cares?
posted by caddis at 8:20 PM on June 10, 2006

I'm not sure if this deserves an FPP, but for the record, my take on Deadwood is that if you subtract all the "cocksucking motherfuckers" from the script, what's left is pure Shakespeare. Seriously, I watch it for the writing, which I think is excellent.
posted by uosuaq at 8:21 PM on June 10, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'll tell you, there are times I regret giving on on TV (primarily due to work - timeshifting wasn't an option due to a wife that refused to alter viewing habits to work with mine)...
posted by Samizdata at 8:28 PM on June 10, 2006

the new season of Entourage starts tomorrow too (right after Deadwood).
posted by pruner at 8:31 PM on June 10, 2006

I just started watching the season 1 dvds a couple nights ago and I am hooked. Hopefully I'll be done with seasons 1 and 2 soon so I can catch up to the present.
posted by mathowie at 8:31 PM on June 10, 2006

Samizdata

Huh?

giving 'up'? Is that what you meant?

If so, I kind of agree, though I'm not really very sorry about it.

I enjoy some of these shows when I happen to catch them but never seem to be able to bother to go out of my way to actually catch one.
posted by HTuttle at 8:33 PM on June 10, 2006

uosuaq -

Wrong. The profanity is much of the poetry - it's akin to profanity-as-punctuation in Mamet, with the same destabilizing rhythmic effect. Milch has talked at length, as well, about the historical importance of profanity on his show, in addition to its dramatic functions. Strip away the swearing and you strip away the basic mode of communication in the storyworld.

caddis: Whatever TV you like, whatever television drama is your favourite, Deadwood is better, period. I care.

On the other hand the Salon article is predictably bad.
posted by waxbanks at 8:34 PM on June 10, 2006

TV is on.
posted by glycolized at 8:37 PM on June 10, 2006

HTuttle -

I meant, ummmm, up.

Long night here at work... Brain VERRRRRRY small tonight.

There's a very few shows I miss. But then there's the Internet.
posted by Samizdata at 8:38 PM on June 10, 2006

If you subtract all the "pure Shakespeare" from the script, what's left is cocksucking motherfuckers.
posted by Tenuki at 8:38 PM on June 10, 2006

It really is such a good show that sometimes it hurts to watch. The writing is really Shakespearian. I can watch an episode, be enthralled with it, and then watch it again, able to pay more attention to the dialog I didn't catch the first time, and be enthralled again at a whole new level. The acting is great. The many levels of moral ambiguity are astoundingly well-constructed. It's just ridiculous how good it is.
posted by bingo at 8:40 PM on June 10, 2006

waxbanks -- I don't mean to disagree. I don't have a problem with the profanity, it's just that I think many people fail to see beyond it to (what I consider) the poetic quality of the dialogue. I think that if I told someone who'd only seen half an episode "I watch it for the language", they'd think I was either nuts or just into curse words. But in fact it's precisely the writing, curse words or no, that impresses me to no end.
posted by uosuaq at 8:41 PM on June 10, 2006

Tenuki: Thank you for that link. Oh, thank you.
posted by JPowers at 8:42 PM on June 10, 2006

btw: thanks, bingo, for confirming my feeling that there's a Shakespearean quality to the show
posted by uosuaq at 8:44 PM on June 10, 2006

who cares?

Ideally, the people who comment in this thread care.

Ideally, the people who do not care do not comment in this thread.
posted by flarbuse at 8:48 PM on June 10, 2006

So Metafilter is reduced to posts about what show is on the boob tube? What's next, Survivor updates? "Hey, guess who got voted off ..."
posted by caddis at 8:51 PM on June 10, 2006

Memorable quotes at IMDB...every one is a gem.

Reverend H.W. Smith: When I read the Scriptures, I do not feel Christ's love as I used to.

Calamity Jane: Aw, is that so? That is too bad! Join the fuckin' club of most of us!

posted by edverb at 8:56 PM on June 10, 2006

"Hey, guess who got voted off ..."

The one with small tits?

(Guessing. Don't watch networks.)
posted by HTuttle at 8:57 PM on June 10, 2006

fucking capital, boss.
Rome eclipsed Deadwood's spot in my esteem, but both fucking show the other cocksucking attempts at television programming why the fuck they don't feel they're worth a cup of piss.
(polly logies to DM)
posted by Busithoth at 9:04 PM on June 10, 2006

if you subtract all the "cocksucking motherfuckers" from the script, what's left is pure Shakespeare.

Sometimes people look at me like I'm crazy when I make similar comments. Glad to know I'm not the only one who feels that rhythm from the dialogue..
posted by Cyrano at 9:05 PM on June 10, 2006

wish i still got cocksuckin' hbo. cocksuckers and their fees.
posted by dopamine at 9:40 PM on June 10, 2006

sorry to continue this derail...

So Metafilter is reduced to posts about what show is on the boob tube?

I've been working on a chunk of early MeFi for cortex's ReFiBlog, and I can attest that there has been no reduction of MeFi in regards to television. TV has long, long been an accepted staple of the front page.

I don't have HBO, nor 80 bones to drop on Deadwood--though I am mightily intrigued by all the hoity dead white guys + a nasty blue streak insinuations--so apologies all around for feeding the snark. carry on!
posted by carsonb at 9:46 PM on June 10, 2006

I just showed the first episode in my college class on the history of the American West. It was perfect. The show captures the grit and random violence of a mining camp better than any other film or show I can think of. And I love the swearing, which is actually very Shakespearean, thou Triple-Turn'd Whore.
posted by LarryC at 9:56 PM on June 10, 2006

Ha. My roommate and I are Netflixing it and just finished Season 2, episode 5 a few minutes ago. We love the heavily constructed language - it's so hilarious and evocative. Too bad I can't check any of the links, though; I don't want to read a fucking thing about future episodes. But everyone I know who's seen it calls it some of the best TV they've ever seen. It's certainly the most fascinating Western movie I've ever seen.

Side note: Deadwood fans might like Altman's underappreciated 1971 film McCabe and Mrs. Miller. I saw it a few months back and there are lots of interesting gritty similarities.
posted by mediareport at 10:08 PM on June 10, 2006

What sucks is that I already knew about the two final episodes in lieu of season 4, so when I read JPower's "Deadwood is Back" link, I actually got my hopes up and thought the show was legitimately re-upped for a full fourth season. Nice phrasing, jerk, way to dash my hopes!
posted by jonson at 10:14 PM on June 10, 2006

What's next, Survivor updates?

How about something completely different?

Go to bed, caddis.
posted by mediareport at 10:16 PM on June 10, 2006

What's next, Survivor updates?

No.

I second McCabe and Mrs. Miller. It's a great film.
posted by homunculus at 10:37 PM on June 10, 2006

Cockspeare. That's how friends of mine and I refer to the language.

Mark me as another that had his hopes raised my the title of the post.

Also, slight derail but it was in the NY Times article: Remember "Carnivàle"?
Yes. And it still hurts. Hoopleheads at HBO don't have a fucking clue when the proper time is to end a show.
posted by The Bishop of Turkey at 10:55 PM on June 10, 2006

I dunno, I gave up on this series about half way into the first season. When you take out the you knows, it seemed like one step removed from a prison drama. Maybe I'll give it one more try this summer. With this mildly disappointing Sopranos season, Haych-beyo could be running out of steam after a pretty good run.
posted by SeeAych4 at 11:09 PM on June 10, 2006

The Carnivàle finally is in my top 5 worst series endings. I’ve really begun to dread cliffhangers.
posted by Tenuki at 11:13 PM on June 10, 2006

Is this limberdicked cocksucker something I'd need a fucking television to know about?

No, seriously, give ten minutes to the first ep, and you'll see this ain't ordinary TV. This is good.

RE the swears: Milch has explained how he wanted language reflecting hard people with very little formal education but who had probably read a few Victorian novels. Hence the flowery language laced with salty talk.
posted by merlinmann at 11:21 PM on June 10, 2006

I just showed the first episode in my college class on the history of the American West. It was perfect. The show captures the grit and random violence of a mining camp better than any other film or show I can think of. And I love the swearing, which is actually very Shakespearean, thou Triple-Turn'd Whore.

Sounds like you might like The Proposition, as well. Very gritty western in small release right now. Definitely see it if a theatre near you is showing it.
posted by Mikey-San at 11:54 PM on June 10, 2006

Thanks for the posty, JPowers. Time for the annual "Call the Dish Network and order HBO again, just in time for the first show of the season."

(There's a $5 penalty for this sort of selective subscription behavior, but it's worth it ... and when Deadwood ends, goodbye HBO again!)
posted by kenlayne at 12:32 AM on June 11, 2006

I tried to watch Deadwood a couple of times.

Each time about 5 minutes in, I started cringing everytime someone opened their mouth.
The profanity seemed so gratuitous and the language artificial, though judging by some of the comments above, that seems to be the point.
posted by madajb at 12:42 AM on June 11, 2006

I gotta chime in: Deadwood is kick ass and I can't wait to see the new season. I have the complete first season at home, and have seen most of the second season. Personally, I reserve television for sports and animation. Deadwood is well written, while the language might seem brash for some, it's silly to let "words" interfere with the intrigue that is Deadwood.
posted by AllesKlar at 12:50 AM on June 11, 2006

MeFi flashback: Did they really talk like that?:

Cocksucker dates to the 1860s, according to the principal editor of the the North American unit of the OED, and so could have easily been a part of salty speech in the period covered by Deadwood.
posted by dgaicun at 1:13 AM on June 11, 2006

Caddis=hooplehead
posted by maryh at 1:38 AM on June 11, 2006

My favourite character in the series is Mr. Wu, the boss of the 'chinks'.

Wu's dialogue throughout both seasons consisted of just two words: Swi-gen and cocksucker.

And for those who can't afford HBO, rent the cocksucking DVDs.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:52 AM on June 11, 2006

exaggerating the fucking effect of language in the show, EB (the mayor) proves to be a fine example. His flowery, torturous constructions and meandering sentences can make all wince. He swears little (comparatively), but says nothing. Great show, too expensive to produce to last.
posted by Busithoth at 5:20 AM on June 11, 2006

My take on the profanity in Deadwood is that it is used as a weapon and a defense, but most of all as a posture. If you watch a bit more carefully you'll note the moments it is turned off. They can be as telling as silence, as gentle as a kiss or as deadly as a knife in the back.

The show is brilliantly written.
posted by verveonica at 6:22 AM on June 11, 2006

Wu's dialogue throughout both seasons consisted of just two words: Swi-gen and cocksucker.

Don't forget "San Francisco". Wu used that as an adjective for cocksucker.
posted by Arch_Stanton at 6:59 AM on June 11, 2006

Hmm, well that is an anachronism; San Francisco's gay identity is post-WWII.
posted by dgaicun at 7:09 AM on June 11, 2006

Once again, ridiculous pop-culture hype - and nothing else- drives the ratings of another HBO program.

A western like every other western-- except everyone curses. So inevitable. So predictable.
posted by wfc123 at 7:46 AM on June 11, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Yes, Deadwood is like every other Western.

...


How many Westerns have you seen, by the way?
posted by Atreides at 8:04 AM on June 11, 2006

A western like every other western

Aside from parts of McCabe and Mrs. Miller, can you point me to other westerns that track the development of a town, its highly varied inhabitants and its government over time in an intelligent way? I'd appreciate that, honest.
posted by mediareport at 8:08 AM on June 11, 2006

Just nosed around and found McCabe and Mr. Milch. Of course the similarities aren't accidental.
posted by mediareport at 8:21 AM on June 11, 2006

Deadwood is brilliant. Incidentally, the creator of the series was a literature professor at Yale (IIRC).

Most of TV is crap. Most films are crap. That doesn't mean that all TV and all films are necessarily crap. Some are good, some are very good, and some are great art.

This post disappointed me hugely. On reading it, I hoped it meant that HBO had changed their minds and decided to renew Deadwood for a fourth season. Sure, a new season starts today. It's also the last. And the story arc was conceived and written to be four seasons long.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:26 AM on June 11, 2006

With this mildly disappointing Sopranos season

Wow. You have way lower expectations than I do. The Sopranos absolutely blew this season. Pure shite with no redeeming qualities.

What's next, Survivor updates? "Hey, guess who got voted off ..."

Next? Dude, you're a bit late for the reality tv updates post.
posted by dobbs at 8:36 AM on June 11, 2006

Aside from parts of McCabe and Mrs. Miller, can you point me to other westerns that track the development of a town, its highly varied inhabitants and its government over time in an intelligent way?

Warlock by Oakley Hall. If you like Deadwood, read this book. Set in a town that is modeled on Deadwood, it has a very similar feel to the series (and predates it by almost 50 years).
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:47 AM on June 11, 2006

Ah, this brings back memories! I love me some Deadwood. Put me in the motherfucking shakespeare camp. I'm just in awe of the level of detail and research those guys do.
posted by absalom at 9:05 AM on June 11, 2006

And here's an excellent article on Milch from a good while back.
posted by dobbs at 9:07 AM on June 11, 2006

One of the best examples, in my opinion, of the very high quality and Shakespearean nature of Deadwood is EB's soliquoy in the fourth (or thereabouts) episode as he is scrubbing the bloodstains from the floor of one of his rooms. That scene just blew me away, the writing as awe-inspiring.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:15 AM on June 11, 2006

Tom Nuttall: My bicycle masters boardwalk and quagmire with aplomb. Those that doubt me... suck cock by choice.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:32 AM on June 11, 2006

OK, you folk who are throwing "Shakespearean" around like you actually read Shakespeare: let's see a transcript of this second coming of Shakespeare. Show me the lines that are as good as Shakespeare's good lines. Which ones will students be memorizing in school?
posted by pracowity at 11:54 AM on June 11, 2006

Ethereal Bligh: "One of the best examples, in my opinion, of the very high quality and Shakespearean nature of Deadwood is EB's soli[lo]quoy in the fourth …

Well, you would think that.
posted by kenko at 12:17 PM on June 11, 2006

other westerns that track the development of a town, its highly varied inhabitants and its government over time in an intelligent way? I'd appreciate that, honest.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? Not a very large time scale, but similar idea.
posted by kenko at 12:21 PM on June 11, 2006

Pracowity, am I to understand that you consider a familiarity—even a scholarly expertise—with Shakespeare to be a rare commodity on MetaFilter?

Fucking twit.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 12:22 PM on June 11, 2006

OK, you folk who are throwing "Shakespearean" around like you actually read Shakespeare: let's see a transcript of this second coming of Shakespeare.

You can read the scripts here.
posted by aburd at 12:23 PM on June 11, 2006

am I to understand that you consider a familiarity—even a scholarly expertise—with Shakespeare to be a rare commodity on MetaFilter?

No. In a group of people this large, there are experts on everything, including many people who think they are experts on everything. But I was suggesting that the people who make "Shakespearean" claims for Deadwood and the people who are familiar with Shakespeare on more than a superficial level might not the same people.
posted by pracowity at 12:40 PM on June 11, 2006

Aburd,

Thanks. Deadwood isn't shown here, and the DVDs haven't been released for this region, so no rental option either, so I'll read through a bit of season one and see if it's worth yarring.
posted by Bugbread at 12:40 PM on June 11, 2006

I'm one of those people, and you're wrong.

Here's the soliloquy I mentioned:

EB:

[scrubbing the floor]

You have been tested, Al Swearingen.
And your deepest purposes proved:

"There's gold on the woman's claim."

You might as well have shouted it from
the rooftops.

[EB speaks what he thinks are Al's thoughts...]

That's why I'm jumping 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 dukes.

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 fee. Why should I
reward EB with some small, fractional
participation in the claim?

Or let him even lay by
a little security
or source of continuing income for
his declining years?

What's he ever done for me?

Except let me terrify him
every god-damn day of his life
'till the idea of bowel regularity
is a forlone fucking hope?

Not to mention ordering
a man killed in one of
EB's rooms.

So every fucking, free moment
of his life, EB has to spend
scrubbing the blood stains
off the god-damn floor.

...to keep him
from having
to lower
his rates.

GODDAMN!
Motherfucker.

posted by Ethereal Bligh at 12:58 PM on June 11, 2006

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous cocksuckers
posted by dgaicun at 1:24 PM on June 11, 2006

bugbread, there are complete season torrents out there. I don't have HBO but have seen every episode.

Which ones will students be memorizing in school?

Personally, I'm fond of "Wrestle the future to the fucking ground." It's my motto for 2006.
posted by dobbs at 1:26 PM on June 11, 2006

EB, to be fair, that final "goddamn motherfucker" was added by Sanderson and not in the script. I think it was the first time I thought, "not buying it..." as that particular slur wasn't around then. I wish Milch would have cut it out and he's on record as saying he should have but liked the performance.
posted by dobbs at 1:29 PM on June 11, 2006

dobbs : "bugbread, there are complete season torrents out there."

Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant by deciding based on the script whether I would "yarr" it or not (as in, pirates say "yarr", so "yarring" is doing as a pirate does).
posted by Bugbread at 1:40 PM on June 11, 2006

DVD region free is a great option also, if you're on PC, BB.
I get HBO, downloaded them anyway (don't have HBO on demand), but the DVDs have Milch's commentary, which is pretty awesome (the portions I've heard, anyway)
posted by Busithoth at 1:59 PM on June 11, 2006

dobbs, there was an interview someplace where Milch stated that being accurate would make all the characters sound like the Looney Tunes Yosemite Sam. Apparently instead of the scatological slurs we use now most were based on religious irreverence. To get the same effect he had to switch.
posted by geoff. at 2:37 PM on June 11, 2006

But I was suggesting that the people who make "Shakespearean" claims for Deadwood and the people who are familiar with Shakespeare on more than a superficial level might not the same people.

Agreed. I love the show, it is well-written and -acted with a beautiful set, and I am one of its many fans who wrote to HBO to sign a fourth season — but Shakespeare dealt with the gamut of human drama, comedy and tragedy with much deeper, colorful and multilayered dialog than Deadwood, no offense to Milch.
posted by Mr. Six at 2:42 PM on June 11, 2006

I like the show, but I've got to say that the more I watched it, the more all the "Shakespearean" bits that people are praising started to bug the hell out of me, especially in the last season. EB's soliloquy, quoted above, just seemed like the very height of pretentious wankery to me -- all he was missing was a middle-school Yorick skull and a cardboard tombstone. Overall I felt like the interminable monologues really got in the way of the action throughout last season.
posted by whir at 3:38 PM on June 11, 2006

The whole "cocksucking" show is nothing more than pretentious wankery. Ughhh.
posted by caddis at 4:00 PM on June 11, 2006

the only monologues that broke my suspension of disbelief was Swearengen's while fellated. how his concentration could hold so fucking long is beyond my powers of comprehension.
posted by Busithoth at 4:17 PM on June 11, 2006

I think Milch knows that for some, the soliloquies are too much. For him, and a vast majority of his audience, they're not, in fact, they're brilliant. He and HBO are willing to sacrifice those in the minority.
posted by JPowers at 4:34 PM on June 11, 2006

But I was suggesting that the people who make "Shakespearean" claims for Deadwood and the people who are familiar with Shakespeare on more than a superficial level might not the same people.

I read quite a lot of it in pursuit of my English degree. And Shakespeare could be dirty as hell if you read all the footnotes (also, my 10th grade English teacher used to delight in making me read all the naughty parts out loud because I was in a hardcore phase. I think she liked how I'd look at her all wide-eyed after I understood what I just read was really saying.)

"By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh / And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,"

Yeah, he's pretty much talking about pussy right there.

Anyway, no one is claiming that Deadwood is a prime example of iambic pentameter, it's just that some of us get a similar feel from it.
posted by Cyrano at 5:50 PM on June 11, 2006

It's not just how Milch uses language. It's also in some of his characterisations, particularly EB's. Milch plays with archetypes in a very deliberate (IMO) Shakespearian manner. The dialogue is often very stagey in a self-aware way. It's not so much that any of us are saying that Deadwood is in artistic quality comparable to Shakespeare, it's that there's a palpable Shakespearean or classical dramatic influence on the writing. One key quality that I cannot articulate very well is a certain kind of combination of realism with dramatic idealism in the characterisation that shouldn't be successful and effective, but is.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 6:25 PM on June 11, 2006

well, the opening to Season 3 just ended, and I forgot to mention that one of the reasons this show rocks my fucking world is that I laugh more at the comic relief in this show than any other show I can think of.

and if you like to nitpick the differences between Milch's writing and Shakespeare's, congrats. You've picked a great fight you're highly likely to win. That doesn't change the fact that Shakespeare wrote to entertain. And in that realm, you better fucking believe this show delivers.
posted by Busithoth at 7:05 PM on June 11, 2006

Ethereal Bligh: Sure, a new season starts today. It's also the last. And the story arc was conceived and written to be four seasons long.

They announced not too long ago that they were going to be concluding the show not in a shortened fourth season, which was the alternative and something that Milch wasn't comfortable with, but in a two-part four-hour series finale. It's not going to please everybody, I'm sure, but it's better than what happened to Carnivàle
posted by ibidem at 7:52 PM on June 11, 2006

So, ibidem, you basically resposted the information in the FPP in a comment without realizing it? Is that a sign the thread has gone on too long?
posted by Justinian at 8:00 PM on June 11, 2006

It's a good tv show, that is well written and entertaining, it takes on big juicy themes and is well acted. There are Shakespearian notes, there is violence and creative swearing and jumping lively dialog and great sets and costumes. Some people will find fault with anything, especially anything that others enjoy in earnest(personally I loathe unflavored oatmeal and brow furrowing). I solemly encourage those people to be fucked.

The rest of us are going to enjoy the TV show. We are cretins to be sure, but we are cretins who just enjoyed a good hour of entertainment, I suspect no one enjoys an hour of complaining quite as much, but I supose I'll never know.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:52 PM on June 11, 2006

Is that a sign the thread has gone on too long?

Nah, it's just a sign ibidem doesn't read threads very closely. Ah, roommate's back from work. Next episode cued and ready to go...
posted by mediareport at 8:56 PM on June 11, 2006

"Nah, it's just a sign ibidem doesn't read threads very closely."

No, it's a sign that I didn't read the post carefully and he was clueing me in. I followed the first and third links, not the crucial second.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:26 PM on June 11, 2006

Yes, that would be the more gracious way to look at it. My apologies to ibidem.
posted by mediareport at 10:51 PM on June 11, 2006

As a person who hasn't seen the show, I have to applaud that it's going to conclude as planned. That is, the problem I have with most American TV dramas is that they are designed on the "show it till the ratings drop" plan, and therefore usually lack a lot of cohesiveness. If you have to keep making stuff up as you go along, instead of knowing where you're going and when you're going to get there, then you end up with much lower quality, as opposed to, for example, movies. It's one of the things I like about Japanese TV. The dramas may not be that great, but they only last 14 episodes or so, and at least they tell A Story.

This "run out of steam" model is what keeps me, for example, from liking Lost as much as I could: I don't hold out hope of threads tying up and arcs being completed, since I know that they'll keep stretching things out and dropping in new stuff until the show is in the shitter. And it's one of the things I like about 24: while the show does "stretch out", it does it far more on the Japanese model: you can watch a season, and it's an entity as a whole. It seems to me that, regardless of the merits of the actual show, it's the ideal method of having complete stories while maintaining the "drag it out" model.

So the fact that they're going to conclude Deadwood as was initially planned means that I can watch it with a bit more expectation and less trepidation.
posted by Bugbread at 4:54 AM on June 12, 2006

the fact that they're going to conclude Deadwood as was initially planned

Um, not quite. Again, from the crucial second link:

In mid-May...word leaked that HBO was going to forgo a fourth season, after it had promised Mr. Milch only six episodes (the usual is 12) and Mr. Milch passed...Last weekend, Mr. Milch rushed to New York and proposed a final idea. By the end of the meeting they struck a deal: two two-hour final episodes to run next year.

So we're actually getting two fewer hours than the truncated six HBO proposed. It's not clear why Milch didn't get the 6, actually. Perhaps HBO was playing hardball and refused to make the offer again after Milch rejected it the first time. But I'm being ungracious again.
posted by mediareport at 6:46 AM on June 12, 2006

Ah. Well, then, I'll have to kick down expectations a notch (abruptly ended shows are still better generally than eternally open ended, but worse generally than completed-purely-as-expected shows)
posted by Bugbread at 6:48 AM on June 12, 2006

More importantly, when will Rome return?
posted by boo_radley at 1:47 PM on June 12, 2006

I believe it's due in March 2007, thought the DVDs for Season 1 are available 8/15/2006.

once these two shows are off HBO, so's my subscription.
posted by Busithoth at 2:11 PM on June 12, 2006

that'd be 'though'
posted by Busithoth at 2:11 PM on June 12, 2006

There's some interesting deadwood blogging at The House Next Door.
posted by mammary16 at 3:06 PM on June 12, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

But I was suggesting that the people who make "Shakespearean" claims for Deadwood and the people who are familiar with Shakespeare on more than a superficial level might not the same people.

Another English major here (my studies included a graduate-level Shakespeare seminar), and I've read every Shakespeare play. I've also read numerous published papers and books about Shakespeare. Please go hit yourself in the face with something heavy.
posted by bingo at 8:27 AM on June 25, 2006