Deadwood Season One: ‘Deadwood’ and ‘Deep Water’

There is a lot of rough language in this little frontier town. And a lot of that rough language struck this viewer as pretty anachronistic. Did panhandlers and saloonkeepers and even the whores really say “%@&” or “#@&” or “&%@&#” or “$%@&#!@&er” quite so much? I’m not asking if they said it at all, at least some of those words, but did they use them so much? Actually, did they use “$%@&#!@&er” at all? Maybe they did. I wasn’t alive then, so I can’t say that they didn’t, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t use “$%@&#!@&er” in nearly every other sentence, as they do here. I don’t mean to sound like a prig either; I’ve let loose a “#&%!” here and there. Even a %$#@&! when I really got away from myself. Not that a 19th century card shark or cowboy has to sound like a 21st century blogger, but they shouldn’t sound like 21st century teamsters or scriptwriters either. I just want to establish the fact that I’m not usually put off by a few swear words, and that there is some serious swearing going on in Deadwood. And that it detracted somewhat from whatever verisimilitude had otherwise been established in the story.

Okay, I’m done with all that. Plot wise, the story begins with a horse thief in a jail asking his jailer (Bullock) about the rumour that ‘there ain’t no law in Deadwood’. Bullock ends up hanging the poor guy, hands over his badge, and then with his partner Sol Star moves to Deadwood to start up a hardware store. A Limey named Swearengen (played with frightening conviction by Ian McShane) has already set up a saloon called “The Gem,” and appears to be setting up all sorts of nefarious activity, as evidenced by the way he helps fleece the token ‘Mick’ and beats up the working girls whenever they get a little out of line (by, say, shooting one of their johns). A ‘Doc’ tends to the prostitutes as well as he can, but it’s a big job. Quite a bit of static showed up on my versimilometer here as well, but I’m going to let that go for now. A greenhorn named Garret (accompanied by his Laudanum-addicted wife Alma) is thoroughly cheated as well, and Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and their retinue show up in Deadwood at about the same time. A family of Norwegians is shown on their way back to Minnesota, but later a guy in scruffy-looking top hat shows up reporting that they’ve all been scalped on the trail by Injuns. Bullock and Wild Bill go out in search of survivors, find a young girl, and report back to Deadwood by sunrise. Bullock and Wild Bill mete out a little frontier justice, while Swearengen is shown getting pretty upset about the fact that a young survivor has been found. He goes to check out the girl, and scares the Sam Hill out of Calamity Jane (who has been tending to the girl with Doc). In short, it’s established that Swearengen is a Very Bad Man indeed, but that even the guy you want to like, Bullock, may be pushing his own moral righteousness a little too hard. All in all it’s a good start.