Deadwood Season 2 (spoilers)

[balut]

Very quick to the action kicking off Season 2. Fantastic showdown between Swearengen and Bullock; a bit off-putting seeing how easily Bullock's crew could've been taken out permanently in that fight.

Pretty funny that Calamity Jane's first (only?) line in this episode is "Cocksuckers".

I wonder what kind of potential future retribution Tolliver will take against the new whorehouse?

I'm only vaguely interested in the strange relationship between Bullock and his brother's/his wife and son. I'm not sure what kind of plotlines will develop out of this that would really interest me.

[Rightbug]

Did anyone else find the house a little odd? In season one Bullock talks about buying a piece of property up in the hills overlooking the camp from Hostetler. At the end of the season we hear that he's bought the property and is anxious to start building. But when he walks his wife and son to the house, they cross an oddly fake looking stream at one end of town and then stand around on the porch of a house that looks like an interior set piece rather than an actual house.

In fact, all of the interiors felt slightly off to me as well. The interior of the gem and the hardware store, plus the room where Joanie and Tolliver have their confrontation. Was this just me or did others feel like this episode had a different visual feel from season one?

Aside from that, I was happy to see that the pace does not seem to have slackened from season one. 'Sad to see that Eddie Sawyer made his exit off screen though. He was excellent last season and I was really looking forward to a confrontation between him and Tolliver.

[VegasRobb]

The scenes with Cy ran from entertaining (if I'm lucky ... I never was that lucky) to disturbing (every other scene with a woman present). He wins the award for "Character most different from Season One".

Was there some symbolism to him throwing the packages around?

I thought Bullock's friend was dead from the first looks at that shot to the chest. Glad it turned out to be a shoulder. Leave it to Swearengen to toss out the "wave a penny under his nose" line.

Towards the end of season one, it seemed like Swearengen and his crew were losing power and moving towards more of an existing within the town sance. That's not the case right now.

I was curious to see how the love triangle was going to go, right up until the last scene of the episode. I found it weird but appropriate how everyone knows what those two are doing.

[Sidd_Budd]

The coolest part of the premiere, for me, was the realization that during the middle third of the episode, most of the characters were speaking in Shakespearean-constructed sentences (if Shakespeare had made more liberal use of the term "cocksucker"). E.B., the innkeeper/mayor, talks like this all of the time, but all of Swearengen's crew, as well as Bullock, did so for a while.

Maybe some English majors can help; were they speaking in iambic pentameter? Something about the dialogue style is striking.

Brilliant, brilliant show. I think Carnivale is well-done, but Deadwood simply blows it out of the water in terms of writing and acting.

[balut]

And Ian McShane was robbed by those Hollywood awards cocksuckers.

[DrCrypt]

Very quick to the action kicking off Season 2. Fantastic showdown between Swearengen and Bullock; a bit off-putting seeing how easily Bullock's crew could've been taken out permanently in that fight.

Yeah - Bullock is going to have to wise the hell up if he's ever going to go head to head with Swearengen. Bullock can take Al in a fist or a gun fight, but that's just not enough. I'm hoping the point of that scene was to make Bullock realize that he's going to have to play it smarter and more strategic against Swearengen from now on. He technically won the fight, but all it was gonna result in was getting him and his friends killed. Bullock's really going to need to think before throwing punches around from now on.

Towards the end of season one, it seemed like Swearengen and his crew were losing power and moving towards more of an existing within the town sance. That's not the case right now.

That wasn't what was going on in Season One. What was going on was that Swearengen realized he could not longer sustain his position just in being a brutal thug and was making a play towards a more political sort of legitmacy through the tool of being a brutal thug. He was puppet mastering the entire thing, putting easily controlled men in public positions to take outside focus away from himself. Deadwood couldn't stay a lawless outpost forever.

The premiere re-emphasizes all that. Swearengen's fight against Bullock isn't a power play or a contradiction of previous positions- he's just drunkenly lashing out. He seems to keep on realizing that he's alienating a man he needs then can't resist needling him again about Alma Garrett. I assume everyone noticed Swearengen had syphillis. Looks like the stress of his position and some other factors are getting to him.

The scenes with Cy ran from entertaining (if I'm lucky ... I never was that lucky) to disturbing (every other scene with a woman present). He wins the award for "Character most different from Season One".

Why do you say that? I didn't see anything remarkably different about him - he's still the same dangerous villain he's always been. The only thing that this episode made abundantly clear was that he was hopelessly in love with Joanie and only knew how to demonstrate that love violently. Otherwise, he's totally unchanged - anything about him in the premiere episode simply elaborated on aspects of his character from Season One.

[Sidd_Budd]

Why do you say that? I didn't see anything remarkably different about [Cy] - he's still the same dangerous villain he's always been...[H]e's totally unchanged - anything about him in the premiere episode simply elaborated on aspects of his character from Season One.

I think there is a difference in Cy; he was always sadistic & brutal behind closed doors (remember the scenes with the teenage would-be swindlers from last season), but was smiling and pleasant with groups. He's a good illustration of a sociopath.

His venom was leaking out in public in this episode -- anyone looking at the balcony would have seen him agitated. Being unable to restrain his temper was uncharacteristic, but not the presence of it. As you note, it speaks to how much Joanie really means to him.

I think that was an undercurrent to the episode -- all the major players are depicted as so stressed out that their typical ways of coping are failing them.

[Bub, Andrew]

It did feel odd. I mean, consider the finale again. Alma's dad gets beaten halfway to death, Alma and Bullock tenderly consumate, Bullock becomes Sheriff, Doc Cochran is "as nimble as a forest creature" when dancing with the Gimp, and Trixie gives Al a soul shattering half smile... all is harsh, but fundamentally right in Deadwood. Things are looking good for everyone.

Season 2 gives us Seth and Alma well beyond tender and far into "raunchy", more spectacular violence (the Al and Seth showdown we were expecting), two main characters shot but alive, several interesting new characters, Deadwood growing up, Cy scaring the crap out of my wife, and Bullock fraying dangerously at every edge. Bullock is like Cy and Al, he's a misanthrope. But one with honor - and honor might get him killed if Alma can't redeem him. With Milch though, redemption can't be counted on.

Best of all, there's a moral to the whole episode. Be careful who you piss on.

PS: I'm kinda sad to see Eddie (Rickie Jay) gone like that. He was too cool to be written out. Makes me wonder if there was a salary dispute or something.

SPOILER: Also, anyone look at the Making Of Season 2? The Cunt-Eyed fuck is back and playing the ancestor of William Randolph Hearst. Same actor - almost unrecognizable. They must like him.

[Mike O'Malley]

I read that Bullock/Swearengen fight totally differently. Al was pissed off, out of control, but his primary reasoning for calling Bullock out was sound. Bullock had lost sight of his civic responsibility- if the right people don't do their jobs, Deadwood will never survive as a town and hence never be annexed.

As this is a priority for Al, he was, as Dan pointed out, calling Bullock back to the fold by pointing out that what he's getting from the widow Garrett he can get anywhere. Al told him it's time to get out of bed and get stuff done.

It looked to me like Bullock recognized this, he just didn't want to admit it- hence his whole calmness about the fight. The situation is further complicated by the timely arrival of his family.

Al was trying to do the right thing and help Bullock out, just in an Al way.


edit: calling Bullock OUT

[Bub, Andrew]

Deadwood has already been annexed, but I think you're fundamentally right about Al's motives. Looks like he's got a kidney stone problem too and he's sort of like that other Saloon owner (not Cy, the other guy) in that Al now feels like the town is leaving him behind. Since he backed Bullock specifically because he figured he could use him as an asset, he lost control and lashed out. Not the most productive method, but then again, Al's never read "How to Win Friends and Influence People."

[VegasRobb]

Interesting to read the perspectives on Al and they're all valid in some way, shape or form. Same for Bullock.

In the opening scenes, Al pretty much goes back and rededicates himself to the things that got him where he is ... and he does it in front of his trusted lieutenants.

As for Cy, he used to be much much more sly and less overt in his actions and conduct. Seems like most of it took place behind the scenes. Perhaps he has lost control and it's manifesting itself publically (the "baptism scene).

[Bub, Andrew]

Joanie and Cy have always been an interesting counter-point to Trixie and Al. In fact, I wonder if Joanie is really a lesbian (like Cy thinks she is) or if that's done to keep that monster somewhat at bay. He's obviously obsessed with her. Anyway, part of the reason Cy has flipped is because Eddie Sawyer is gone - and he took a lot of cash (and now Cy is pretty clear where that cash went). The sociopath is now a paranoid sociopath.

Al's problem is that he can't do what he wants. Dan offers to slit people's throats and you can see Al get a gleam in his eye. But he can't do it because doing that would mean that the new Governor would probably have him hanged. Adams is interesting, because he's the smartest guy Al's got by far. Remember the scene after the melee? Farnum and Dan are sitting on one end of the bar, Adams is in the middle, Al is getting bandaged. Adams is equal distance between the dumb thugs and the machiavellian Al. I think that kind of staging is intentional. Dan is the type of guy you get rid of once things get civilized. He'll cause more problems soon than he's solving because last night's episode shows that Dan has NO idea how to handle how the town is changing.

Remember when he offered to cut down the telegraph poles?

[Alan Dunkin]

Ricky Jay left because he had creative differences with the creators, basically Milch, from what I read in the Fall.

Wow, what an opener. At the end of the first season, you had the feeling that Al & Seth had mutual respect and that the showdown was going to need a buildup. Instead, just like the in beginning of the first season, they start off early and this time around it boils over, and man was it brutal.

I don't ever think that Al backed Seth because he could use him as an asset, not in that sense of the word - he backed Seth because he knew exactly the type of person he was, what we would do... "you're not a whore" and everything that it means. Of course, knowing how Bullock would react and where he's coming from can be an asset in of itself.

--- Alan

[Alan Dunkin]

Watching it again, the sequence from when Bullock enters the Gem to when they start fighting is pure, fucking magic. Brilliantly filmed, edited, and great music accompanyment.

--- Alan

[Bub, Andrew]

I don't ever think that Al backed Seth because he could use him as an asset, not in that sense of the word - he backed Seth because he knew exactly the type of person he was, what we would do... "you're not a whore" and everything that it means. Of course, knowing how Bullock would react and where he's coming from can be an asset in of itself.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. Asset for the town. Bullock is the respectable face Al thinks Deadwood needs because most of the corrupt folks from Yankton (Yanktown?) can see through Al. Farnum does have an interesting line about Bringing Bullock back into the fold, which shows how little the lackeys of Swearengin understand Bullock and the situation.

[Dean]

Watched this last night, and after spending all fall looking for a decent TV show to watch and settling on Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and 24, it's just so clear that this show blows those out of the water on every level.

I didn't even realize I'd forgotten to watch 24 last night, because I was having so much fun watching last season's closer of Deadwood.

I just think about the script page when Al shouts down to Bullock and it has to say something like, "Bullock gives Al the Stare of Death." I mean, how do you write what Tim Olyphant is doing there?

[Alan Dunkin]

Well Al does say that Bullock would be a helpful resource right before he calls him out, so I guess we were talking about the same thing..

--- Alan

[Bub, Andrew]

Well Al does say that Bullock would be a helpful resource right before he calls him out, so I guess we were talking about the same thing..

True. He says more than that though, it's pretty deep political stuff. I'm wondering exactly what Al means when he says (paraphrased): "I can't cover all the angles here, that's what you're good at." Is he expecting Bullock to advocate for Al with the Governor?

Another important scene is early on, between Adams and Al where Adams talks about how Yankton wants to move on Deadwood but hasn't because they don't fully understand what resources Al has. He goes on to say that slitting the commissioners throats would show them that Al has fewer resources than they fear (that makes sense to me). Given the gold in them thar hills, I think he means that the fat cats would love to swoop in, clear everybody out, and take all the claims but isn't doing that because they fear that Al commands the town. (Which he kind of does, as proven by Al's point that "other operators" won't go after the Garrett gold because they fear Dan's knife.)

There was also some complicated stuff about the Garret family in NY. I don't know if Alma's dad is involved in that but I do know that back then women and widows did NOT automatically get property rights. I think the Garretts are going to move on Alma and Deadwood once the claim shows bonanza.

And finally, did you notice that Alma calls Bullock "Mr. Bullock" and he calls her "Mrs. Garrett"? I can see why Bullock's "wife" calls him Mr. Bullock but it's interesting how they've kept their formality despite threatening the ceiling of Farnum's hotel. ;-)

[Mike O'Malley]

True. He says more than that though, it's pretty deep political stuff. I'm wondering exactly what Al means when he says (paraphrased): "I can't cover all the angles here, that's what you're good at." Is he expecting Bullock to advocate for Al with the Governor?

I thought of that as a more general thing- Al knows he's only welcome on one side of the tracks.

[Rightbug]

Seth's problem is, and always has been, that he has absolutely no control over his temper. Al was in fact trying to help him, essentially saying, "Look man, love's grand and all that but it's clouding your judgement and that's not cool." I think half the reason Seth got so pissed off was that he realized Al was right.

On the season one DVD Milch talks about the blending of flowery, Victorian style language with profanity. I'm not sure if I buy his theory that regular people used all of that high flung Victorian rhetoric because language was all they had or something odd along those lines, but I love it nonetheless. That said, did anyone else find the first episode of season one a little thicker than anything last season? The ornateness of the language in season one was so smooth that, aside from the priest's sermons, there was never really a comprehension issue. I felt like I needed to watch season two episode one a second time to catch what I'd missed the first time around.

[Jon R.]

I had to download the episode and watch it again after seeing it on TV because of that. The dialogue leading up to the fight in particular. Screwing with the writing like that is a novel idea, but it works a lot better when you have the written text infront of you so as to take it apart and figure out what the hell they're saying, instead of having it zip by you.

[Bub, Andrew]

Well yeah, Seth isn't the type of guy who can take an insult. At all. He warned Al to stop but Al isn't the type of guy who can stop.

[VegasRobb]

Ok ... what is wrong with Al? I read two different things in this thread, could it be both?

[Desslock]

prostate

[Toddy]

Just for Bub...

Loved the first episode of season two. Watched it three times in three days last week. But the second ep resurrected the problems I had with part of season one. Aside from that brief explosion of violence at the Gem, the entire hour was taken up with the leads mulling over the events of last week in a pretty non-dramatic way. It was one monologue after another, and as interesting as some of them were, too often we went over the same territory.

I still liked last night's episode -- how could anyone not like an episode featuring a Swearengen blowjob soliloquy? and the preceding thumb-in-the-ass scene was priceless -- but I still find that the plotlines are being drawn out too much. I'm finding the story and characters really compelling, but that Milch is taking 55-60 minutes to tell 15 minutes worth of plot. Condense what took place last night into 15-20 minutes, and you've got incredibly dramatic television.

Oh, and I've really grown to despise Alma. Never liked Molly Parker to begin with, but Alma's bitchiness (that put-down of the teacher in ep one made me realize how irritating her character can be) and general mopey nature has begun to really annoy me. Also, besides there being nothing in Alma except money to attract anyone, there is no chemistry at all between her and Bullock. Oddly, I'm getting more sexual tension from the scenes with Bullock and his wife. He seems like he's going to explode any moment when he's talking to her, and it doesn't seem like it's solely because of frustration over her being the roadblock preventing him from a life with Alma. She's the same way, on edge whenever he's around, as if there's going to be some sort of, ahem, eruption at any moment. Isn't that the sort of tension we should have been seeing with Bullock and Alma?

[Mike O'Malley]

Maybe bundling boards create smouldering sexual tension.

I really found that concept odd. They're married- if they don't want to have sex, they won't. Why barricade yourself in bed? I guess I'm too much a child of the 20th century.

[Alan Dunkin]

At Utter's freight company, Bullock finally decides the time has come for him to retrieve his weapon and badge, whereupon Utter and Calamity Jane scramble to accompany him. As the trio arrives at the Gem, Swearengen is in the midst of a painful prostate massage at the hands of Dolly the whore, who soon moves on to more a more pleasurable Swearengen pursuit, namely fellatio. Bullock confronts Dority at the bar, who has rifles trained on both Jane and Utter. And as Jane is quick to mention, Burns has a bead on Bullock from the kitchen: "Be aware Bullock, some fungus-faced fuck has a rifle on you from this shit-box's version of a kitchen."

Was it me or did I miss that last part in the episode? Description taken from HBO's episode summary.

The episode is interesting; Swearengen essentially saves Bullock from his own self-destruction, lets Bullock continue with his actually family, and gives Alma an out - though a somewhat mistaken one (as far as the child goes, she totally blew it out of proportion I think... also somewhat like the theme of a greek tragedy).

--- Alan

[Desslock]

I wasn't paying attention to this episode closely - can someone tell me who the guy who got beat up in the bar was, and what his relationship was to Al's corrupt friend who drove one of the loser Dan's through some horns?

[Alan Dunkin]

The guy that Dan beat up was an associate of Adams; since Al refused to let him interfere, he decided to take it out on the guy who just pissed him off and "twelve-pointed" him - this was the same guy who got the other guy killed by accident in the No. 10 saloon in the first episode.

--- Alan

[Bub, Andrew]

The guy that Dan beat up was an associate of Adams; since Al refused to let him interfere, he decided to take it out on the guy who just pissed him off and "twelve-pointed" him - this was the same guy who got the other guy killed by accident in the No. 10 saloon in the first episode.

--- Alan

That was a hell of a henchman/second-banana struggle there. I loved the way it brewed.