Despite its darkness, Deadwood is one of the most optimistic shows on television.

Plus, oddly hilarious.

So hilarious! And there are so many moments of quiet grace and beauty. And celebrations of unlikely friendships, especially this season.

However, faint of heart take note that it can be hellaciously violent on occasion. The street fight between Dan and the Capt. has been much discussed already as extraordinarily painful to watch, even before the coup de grace moment(s).

I agree with both the above statements, and love how the show juxtaposes the sublime with the profane. In fact, in trying to finish an article for the High Hat on Deadwood, I mention one of the greatest "moments of quiet grace and beauty": the image in S2 where Al and his closest confidantes collapse on the bed after the passage of the gleets. The arrangement is so beautiful that it belies the grotesque scene just preceding, like how birth is so astonishing and beautiful that it beautifies the accompanying blood and struggle.

X-post! I agree with Frank, too, though.

"The Cursing Costs Extra"?

Good thing the nudity is included.

Also, could the theatre people just go away already? We don't have that much time left and they're wasting what little we have.

Yes. Really. I only care a little about Brian Cox and the rest of them not at all. I suppose they are there to provide a further illustration of family and community, but it's like adding the Potentials in Buffy Season 7 - they just take up screen time I'd rather spend with the other characters.

The Corner gets better, babe. Some surprising real-life redemptions. Honest. And how much like Simon's groupie do I sound right now...too much. I voted for this? Yeah. Viva Hamsterdam! And, something else cool that I know...DeAndre's little brother DeRodd works as a film-editing apprentice on "The Wire". I understand it can seem that way, Tom. But you're making me wonder if something might be wrong with me that Homicide was one of the first shows I related to, POV wise.The first time Munch bitched about Christmas carols I was like "Where have you been my whole life?" Because most network people are so uniform, right? You know that all the married couples will stay together...the kids'll stay in college. Which is not all bad and is why people watch, say, "King of Queens" or something like that(which I've watched, so I'm not picking it to rank on it.) I like cable, though, when I feel like being surprised.

Holy fucking shit. They killed Ellsworth. And that was just the start of this fantastic episode. It's absolutely right to talk about Al's about-face: the man murdered Alma's husband and Sophia's family, but has become (somewhat uncomfortably for his self-image) the leading citizen in town. Charlie Utter's bonding with the Gem boys was absolutely wonderful, too. And damn historicity, I wanna see Hearst take a few more bullets.

I agree that the theater troupe is a drag, but have to assume that Milch intended for them to play a large part in the 4th season, which we'll unfortunately never see. All these episodes were shot before those spineless moneychanging pigfuckers cancelled our show.

Charlie Utter's bonding with the Gem boys was absolutely wonderful, too.

Oh yeah - a wonderful moment that I forgot to mention in the whole OMGWTFELLSWORTH of the rest of the episode.

Just seeing Trixie in the first couple of episodes compared to how she is now is an astonishing transition. Can't wait to see how it happens as it happens.

What the hell was Cy so upset about? Is there some connection between him and Ellsworth I've not encountered yet?

I agree that the theater troupe is a drag, but have to assume that Milch intended for them to play a large part in the 4th season, which we'll unfortunately never see.

Sadly, there's no way I can know how I'd feel about them if the show was continuing. They'd still seem pretty pointless, I fear, aside from Brian Cox possibly. However, even with his character (who's name I'm never going to spell right), there's been a little too much tell rather than show. That is, we know Al is fond of him (but haven't really been told or seen why), and he's played by Brian Cox, who's almost always a compelling actor to watch, but I haven't seen much to indicate why the viewer should be interested in him.

I wanna see Hearst take a few more bullets.

Bears repeating. I'd like that, or at least a nice solid beating.