I read an article that mentioned the cursing was historically more like Gosh darn than God dammit. But the show creator thought it would be too comical and made the cursing more modern to get the impact he wanted.

As another person mentioned, the show is all about language. It really is like watching a Shakespearean play. Long soliloquies and lots of "flowery" words. Once I stopped worrying about the overuse of cocksucker and thinking these rubes were trying to use words above their intelligence, I realized this is just how these characters spoke. I've been converted. I'm really enjoying Season 2 now. By the time I finish the entire series, I'm going to come back to this thread and write a final post in a Deadwood style. I don't know if I'll be able to pull off anything close to the pancake guy though.

This should definitely NOT be a deterrent to watching the show.

The show even poked fun at its own language usage:

I made it to the middle of the third season. One of these years I will finish watching the series.

I got a big kick out that exchange.

I finished season two last night. I liked it a lot better than season one. Going to get started on season three right now. I've done a 180 on this show and now think it's awesome.

I'm with you Heat ... I don't think I finished the last season. Knowing that there was nothing afterwards kind of took away the thunder.

Just FINISHED watching Deadwood. Season 1 didn't really thrill me. Season 2 was awesome. Season 3 was good, but the ending was a big letdown. Mr. Hearst was a truly evil man.

I thought the actors' storyline to be so out of place. Didn't know why it was there. But, I'll try to search on here for some insight. Cy's character started off like a bad-ass, but fizzled out over the rest of the series. Swearengen turned out to be a totally different character than I anticipated. He really had a lot of levels to him other than just a thug. I think I liked Trixie the best out of all the characters in the show. She had the most growth as a person I believe.

I've been rewatching the series again and am almost through S2. The writing on that show is so hard to understand WTF the characters are saying (even with cc) let alone what it all means. It's almost Shakespearean, but without the eloquence I suppose. My favorite character has to go to E.B. Farnum. Such a worm. Then I'd say Steve the drunk racist (which doesn't exactly narrow it down.

...so that's where I've seen John Hawkes (Winter's Bone, The Sessions) before. I just put that together.

He's also in Rush Hour as the guy selling Star Maps.