Deadwood Season Finale
 

Great episode. I especially liked what happened to Alma's dad :)

"Be careful of the felt...!" :)

Now that the season's over, what are your thoughts, etc? I think they had an awesome perfect cast and I'm really looking forward to the next season... Has the next season been announced yet, like if they're doing it?

Does Timothy Olyphant remind anyone else of Bill Paxon in a way?

Incredible episode tonight ..best yet IMO

Season 2 start shooting in a couple weeks ..but we won't see it until next sping I imagine

They have their jobs cut out for them to try & top this season

That was an amazing hour of television...simply flawless. I'm so sad it's over for now though :(

What a perfect junction to start the next season with though....looks like they'll stick to the theme of Deadwood reinventing itself every few months.

Re: Deadwood Season Finale
 

I can see the resemblance and the way both actors carry themselves, but there is NO way Paxton could've handled this role. He doesn't have the chops.

"I guess you'd better swing."
*swing*swing*swing*swing*TOOTH*swing*TOOTH*swing*

No Calamity Jane. :(

Aside from Ian McShane, I hope Brad Dourif is recognized come Emmy time for his portrayal of Doc Cochran. Doc is the moral center of the show.

Re: Re: Deadwood Season Finale
 

They'd both get my vote if I had one, but sadly I do not.

"It was a busy day." No shit, Dan. It was hard keeping up with everything that was going on in this one. Great ending and they didn't have to leave us with any big cliffhanger or a bunch of loose threads. I must've been clenching my jaw through the whole show because I feel like I just woke up from grinding my teeth all night.

Even with everything else going on, this was definitely Doc's episode. The scene with Doc praying for the reverend's death and Al concurrently acting it out couldn't have been better.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for tons of extras on the DVDs and that Jane returns next season. I don't recall seeing her since her last big argument with Charlie Utter.

I think that was the best episode so far. The way almost every character was shown watching/following Bullock as he was heading to confront Alma's father really helped build up that scene. They all knew some **** was about to go down.

I think my VCR cut off a minute or so before the end. The last shot I saw was of Swearingen looking over his bar, after Bullock became sherrif and was looking from Swearingen's balcony to Alma's room. Did I miss anything?

Excellent show, can't wait for next season!

You didn't miss anything. Swearingen was just watching Jewel and the Doc dance. Tricksie smiled at Swearingen; Swearingen continued staring.

I think they saved the best for last. Watching this episode right after the season premiere of Six Feet Under really drove home how much better than anything else on TV Deadwood is. HBO's other shows are all excellent, but Deadwood has a cinematic sweep to it that trumps everything else. There's no other show on TV that juggles so many different story lines simultaneously. There were shots last night that had things going on in the foregroud, the background, and in between the two. Most movies don't have such excellent composition in depth.

I thought it was great. loved it when Al told the reverend to "go to sleep brother"

The finale was definitely the best episode, IMO. It was just a great show to end a great season with. With Sopranos already over, and this just finishing I have nothing to watch anymore. It's sad really, now I might have to go outside or something.

Now that's just crazy talk.

In a show where there ARE NO sub-par characters ... I was especially saddened by the Reverend's passing. Passing? OK, well, Deadwood's idea of assisted suicide maybe? Nah, a mercy killin by a man who's shown very little thus far.

The Reverend's graveside sermons for the highway butcher and the rather notable fella who served him justice were both beautiful and profound.

Not unlike his answer to Doc's insistance that he "Get some goddamn rest." .... Words to the effect of, "Could not the Lord put the tumor in my brain so that I might hear His words more clearly?"

Godspeed, Rev.

I guess I was the only one underwhelmed by the season finale.... I've loved the entire show from the start but.... Maybe I was just expecting more from a season finale... Seemed like they didn't wrap everything up.

I was really expecting Bullock's wife and kid to show up at some point... he sent for them what, 4 or 5 episodes back?

I was also somewhat confused by the whole Swearingen / Magistrate / Young Henry stuff.

Also, Reverend Smith was shot in the back in the woods in real life. Why couldn't they do something with that instead of having Swearingen suffocate him?

They never followed through on the story of Ricky Jay's character stealing from Tolliver's joint, or of the women that worked over there setting up her own place.

Also I don't understand why Timothy Oliphant had to play Bullock as so pissy and angry all the time.. By the end of the show I was wondering why Sol still hung around with him anymore!

I was also confused why Bullock pretty much told Swearengen's guy that it would be good if Alma's dad was killed, but then told the calvary to protect him.

Still a great show, and hopefully next season will be 14 episodes to make up for this one being only 12 :)

Bullock changed his mind. He was regretting beating the snot out of Alma's dad because he couldn't control himself. Especially made him think after Dan told him he was a big enough hypocrite to wear the badge.

Exactly...and most of Ted the Bug's other complaints are baseless really. They didn't end everything neat and tidy, but left it at a critical juncture in the history of Deadwood and season two will pick up when it left off. Really, the brilliance of this show is that so much is going on in the background. Not forcefeeding tidy conclusions to every little plot point is what makes it a great show, although of course there will be those that want such formulaic schlock rather than complexity in their characters. If so, go watch something on network tv - all of which is inferior to Deadwood.

A perfect example of this is in Joanie stubbs saying to Ms. Garrett that her father had pimped her out to friends and then sold her to Cy....that's something they could have easily forced in early on with some contrived dialogue during an argument between the two...but of course it would be unspoken, and they just slowly gave us glimpses of their relationship and left us to wonder what exactly the dynamic was. That's great storytelling. And it's also realistic. Neat and tidy conclusions, however, are not. This is an ongoing saga, not a linear tale to be circumscribed by a desire to have everything spelled out for you.

I would be much more upset to hear that I'd have to wait until 2006 to see the next season of this show than I was about Sopranos, guess that means it is my new favorite show.

The way last night's episode was put together, it could have gone on for 8 hours and I wouldn't have noticed the passage of time - like one of those dreams where an entire day goes by in the dream, but it actually only lasts for minutes.

Amen.

I also really liked the show. The stories are great but the characters are amazing.

I too was a little confused about the whole magistrate/Swearingen story line but maybe I'll figure it out in a rerun or something.

Yep. Watch it twice.

I agree. It showed a side to Al that we don't often see. The man may be a cold, cynical bastard, but deep down, he's just a softy.

By the way, here's what happened to the real Reverend Smith.
http://www.deadwooddiscovered.com/history/preacher.html

There was a warrant out for Al -- he murdered a man in Chicago. Al bribed the magistrate to get rid of the warrant, but the magistrate wants a bigger bribe. He sends his bagman -- Adams -- to get the bribe, but Al hires Adams to kill the magistrate instead. Nobody else knows about the warrant, so with the magistrate dead, Al will be safe again.

This week, the magistrate shows up in town alive. He claims he hasn't run in to Adams yet -- the magistrate had left Yankton before Adams got back. He and Al go back and forth, but the magistrate is sticking to his demand for a bigger bribe and Al is sticking to his refusal to pay. Then Adams shows up and says that by the time he made it to Yankton, the magistrate had already left. This matches the magistrate's story, but Al is still suspicious that the magistrate re-bought Adams.

In the magistrate's final scene, Al confronts him in Al's office. Once the magistrate confirms that he has the warrant on his person, Al gives the OK to Adams, who kills the magistrate. Turns out, Adams was on Al's side -- or at least, he is now, since Dan was holding two guns on him (under the desk). Even if the magistrate had re-bribed Adams, Adams knew that Dan would kill Adams and the magistrate if Adams did not kill the magistrate.

A crooked cop, as I remember.

Did Alma's dad do anything other than threaten to tell the Garret's that she had killed their son. It seemed like there was something creepy like the father molested the squarehead or even Alma when she was younger. Sorry I was tired when I watched it.