“This Town Is A Sanctuary”: ‘Deadwood’ Is Finally Back, Motherf*ckers!
A TV movie, offering the end to an arc started over 13 years ago, is heading our way.
Like most diehard fans of the show, I would trade 95% of the history of recorded television for one more episode of Deadwood.
David Milch’s groundbreaking HBO series, cancelled prematurely after three seasons, follows the ups and downs of a pioneer town and its filthy — both physically and morally — residents. It’s a soap opera, basically, one full of sex and murder and rapid fire back-and-forths (not to mention lots and lots of swears), as the characters work out various long and complicated ways to swindle each other.
But imagine if it was a Deadwood prequel that solemnly included a moment where the young Al is introduced to the concept of cock sucking with all the reverence of Han getting his second name
— Valondar (@VK_HM) March 21, 2019
But it’s a soap opera about the foundations of civilisation itself — a breathlessly intelligent poem about what capitalism does and what it means, and how human beings are crushed under the wheel of societal progress. If you haven’t watched it, call in sick for the next six days, load up on an IV drip and a catheter so you don’t need to leave the couch, and settle in for one of the greatest achievements in narrative storytelling.
Oh, and if you do it now, you’ll avoid the agonising wait that Deadwood fans have been forced to endure for over a decade. Yup, some 13 years after it was cancelled, Deadwood is back, in the form of a ‘television event’ (which is apparently what we are now calling a TV movie.)
The first taste of the show is pretty scant on details, as one might expect for a project as hyped as this one. You’ve got Al Swearengen (Ian McShane of American Gods fame), the show’s cut-throat anti-hero, deeply intoning that the town is a sanctuary. You’ve got hangings, new characters, old faces, and a lot of gunfire. Basically, it looks like classic Deadwood — crackling with the distinct life and energy that made that show the three-series masterpiece that it’s long been. Thank Christ.
Deadwood: The Movie drops on May 31.