What is Deadwood about?
I have great appreciation for HBO, and not because of Deadwood — like the title implies I’m not sure about what to make of it yet. The thing I admire about HBO is that they appear to be truly committed to making drama and willing to suffer the consequences. They succeed some and fail some, as in any artistic endeavor, but they don’t let up. The rest of the television world has given up on drama for the sake of reality, and in doing so, has given up any pretense, however flimsy, of being an artistic medium. For the most part, TV has become to drama what tabloids are to literature. This was not always the case. While TV was always way more tripe than not, episodes within certain series, and occasionally a series itself, were an artistic achievement. But that time has passed and is unlikely to return any time soon. HBO is all that is left. I suspect Deadwood is HBO’s first attempt to turn The Sopranos into a formula. Take a genre mythology, toss in grey-shaded, three-dimensional character
